Aziza (singer)

Aziza Abdurakhimovna Mukhamedova (Uzbek: Aziza Abdurahimovna Muhamedova, Азиза Абдураҳимовна Муҳамедова; Russian: Азиза Абдурахимовна Мухамедова; born 10 April 1964), known mononymously as Aziza, is an Uzbek–Russian singer-songwriter.

Aziza Mukhamedova was born on 10 April 1964 in Tashkent, the capital of the Uzbek SSR, in a family of professional musicians. Her father, Abdurakhim Mukhamedov (1923–1980), composer, Honored Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1975), veteran of the Great Patriotic War, half Uzbek and half Uyghur, came from a family of hereditary bakers. He died when Aziza was sixteen years old. Her mother, Rafika Akhmetshevna Mukhamedova (Haidarova; 1924–2015), was Tatar and originally from the village of Staraya Kulatka, Ulyanovsk Oblast, she was a soloist of the State Academic Choral Chapel of the Uzbek SSR, taught at a music school, worked as a conductor. Aziza is the youngest of three sisters.

At the age of sixteen, Aziza began performing as a soloist in the Tashkent vocal and instrumental ensemble Sado.

In 1988, after graduating from the Tashkent Conservatory, the singer was sent to the third All-Union television competition of young performers of Soviet pop songs in Jūrmala (Latvian SSR), at which she did not take the prize, but was awarded the audience award.

In 1989, Aziza moved from Tashkent to Moscow, where her solo career began. Popularity comes to her thanks to her song "Tvoya ulybka", which immediately became a hit. In the same year Aziza releases her debut album Aziza.

In 1991, at a concert in St. Petersburg, Aziza's guard Igor Malakhov fought with Igor Talkov's guards, as a result of which Talkov was killed under unclear circumstances. After that, Aziza dropped out of the musical life. The harassment of the singer began, TV channels announced a boycott of her, stopped inviting her to shoot, people from show business shunned, were not invited to events. Only Joseph Kobzon, Alla Pugacheva, Ilya Reznik and Irina Ponarovskaya supported the artist.

In 1993, with the song "Za svoyu lyubov", she reached the final of the Russian television festival "Song of the Year". In 1995 she returned to the stage with new songs, and in 1997 her new album Vsyo ili nichego was released. In 1999, the singer began a collaboration with Stas Namin. As a result, pop-rock songs with the influence of oriental music appeared in her repertoire.

In 2006, she performed the song "Etot mir" together with Igor Talkov Jr. In 2007, Aziza took part in the television music contest You are a superstar! on the NTV channel and became the absolute winner in all nominations, and in 2008 she released the album Razmyshleniye, most of the songs for which she wrote herself. The album was produced by Viacheslav Voron.