Yulduz Usmonova is an Uzbek singer who has been beloved in Uzbekistan and surrounding countries for several decades. She sings mainly in Uzbek, but her repertoire includes songs in Russian, English, Uighur, Turkish, Kazakh, and Tatar. Her genre is considered pop, but her songs also include traditional Uzbek instruments and are not typical pop tunes. […]
Tamila (real name Esmeralda Rahmatova) is an Uzbek pop singer who has most recently been best known for a series of scandals that resulted in her losing her performance license in Uzbekistan. Tamila was born in 1988 in Qarshi, in the southwest of Uzbekistan. She began performing in 2011 and had a good few years […]
Rayhon G’aniyeva is an Uzbek pop singer who usually goes by her first name alone. She sings mainly in Uzbek, though occasionally also in Russian. She is considered one of the most influential contemporary Uzbek pop artists. Rayhon was born in 1978 in Tashkent to an artistic family: both her parents, Tamara Shokirova and Otabek […]
Lola Yo’ldosheva (or Лола Юлдашева; and she often uses the Roman transliteration of this name, Lola Yuldasheva, rather than the Uzbek spelling) is an Uzbek pop singer, actress, and songwriter. She usually goes by her stage name, simply Lola. She sings most often in Uzbek, but sometimes in Russian as well. Lola was born in […]
Urmat Usenov (Урмат Усенов) is a Kyrgyz pop singer. These days he sings mainly in Kyrgyz, though he has recorded several songs in Russian and even occasionally sings in Turkish. Usenov grew up in Talas, a Kyrgyz village, but his parents sent him to Bishkek when he was 11 because they believed he had a […]
Tulpan (Тюльпан) is an award-winning 2008 comedy-drama by Kazakh director Sergey Dvortsevoy (Сергей Дворцевой). The film was Kazakhstan’s official submission to the 2009 Academy Awards’ Foreign Language Film category. It also won Best Film at the second annual Asia Pacific Screen Awards that same year, as well as a Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 […]
Bishkek, I Love You (Бишкек, я люблю тебя) is a 2011 Kyrgyz comedy/drama film. The film’s tagline was “The first film about your favorite city” (“Первый фильм про твой любимый город”), highlighting how its goal was not only to tell a good story but specifically to give Bishkek the film treatment it deserves. Ruslan Akun […]
Salaam, New York (Салам, Нью-Йорк) is a 2013 Kyrgyz film by director Ruslan Akun (Руслан Акун), who also directed and wrote 2011’s Bishkek, I Love You (Бишкек, я люблю тебя). Akun also wrote the film, along with Gulzhan Toktogulova (Гульжан Токтогулова). It was based on true events—Akun’s time studying at a visual arts school in […]