Shovkat Feyzulla qizi Alakbarova ( az, Şövkət Ələkbərova) (20 October 1922 in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

– 7 February 1993 in Baku) was an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

i singer.

Life and career development

Shovkat Alakbarova was born to Azerbaijani parents - Feyzulla and Hokuma Alakbarov, and was the third of the family's four children. Her mother was a professional

tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...

player and her father, a labourer, was a folk music lover. Both parents passed similar interests on to their children.Our Last Conversation
by Rafael Huseynov. ''Azerbaijan International''. Summer 1993. Retrieved 27 August 2006 As a child, Shovkat took up

kamancha The kamancheh (also kamānche or kamāncha) ( fa, کمانچه, az, kamança, hy, Քամանչա, ku, کەمانچە ,kemançe) is an Iranian bowed string instrument used in Persian, Azerbaijani, Armenian, Kurdish, Georgian, Turkmen, a ...

lessons. In 1937, she became one of the finalists at a contest held among amateur singers and judged by prominent Azerbaijani composers and musicians, such as Uzeyir Hajibeyov and

Bulbul The bulbuls are members of a family, Pycnonotidae, of medium-sized passerine songbirds, which also includes greenbuls, brownbuls, leafloves, and bristlebills. The family is distributed across most of Africa and into the Middle East, tropical As ...

. She performed ''Qarabagh shikastasi'' at the

Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre The Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (Azeri: ''Axundov adına Azərbaycan Dövlət Akademik Opera və Balet Teatrı''), formerly known as the Mailov Theatre

in Baku (which was her first stage performance) and was chosen by Hajibeyov to join the newly formed Azerbaijan State Choir, where Alakbarova started her professional career as a singer. As a teenager, she was vocally trained by mugham instructor Aghalar Aliverdibeyov and

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

singer

Huseyngulu Sarabski Huseyngulu Sarabski ( az, Hüseynqulu Sarabski), born Hüseynqulu Malik oğlu Rzayev (20 March 1879 – 16 February 1945), was an Azerbaijani opera singer (tenor), composer, playwright, stage actor, theatre director, and musician (tar). Early life ...

. At the early stage of her career, she mostly performed folk songs. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

while giving concerts to soldiers in hospitals, train stations, military units, Alakbarova first sang patriotic war songs composed by Hajibeyov. She would make up to 50 performances a day, including those in distant places such as

Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. Beginning in 1945, she worked with the

Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society The Muslim Magomayev Azerbaijan State Academic Philharmonic Hall ( az, Müslüm Maqomayev adına Azərbaycan Dövlət Akademik Filarmoniyası), located in Baku, is the main concert hall in Azerbaijan built in 1910. Since 2006 Murad Adigozalzade i ...

. By the 1950s, she was recognized as the most popular Azerbaijani singer of both folk and composed songs. Most of Alakbarova's songs were in

Azeri Azerbaijanis (; az, Azərbaycanlılar, ), Azeris ( az, Azərilər, ), or Azerbaijani Turks ( az, Azərbaycan Türkləri, ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic people living mainly in Azerbaijan (Iran), northwestern Iran and the Azerbaijan, Republi ...

, however she also sang in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

, and

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. She toured over 20 countries in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Three years before her death, in 1990, she went to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

to receive medical treatment and at the same time to perform for the Azeri émigrés.

Family and death

Shovkkat Alakbarova married 2 times. She gave birth to the daughter Natella. After her husband went away to the front as doctor he married again. In 1955 she married film director

Latif Safarov Latif Bashir oglu Safarov ( az, Lətif Səfərov) (30 September 1920, Shusha – 9 December 1963, Baku) was an Azerbaijani actor and movie director. Safarov began his career in acting at a very young age. He starred in a number of children's movi ...

and gave birth to son Bashir. Her husband committed suicide. After that she devoted herself to her children and to her career. In 1992 her daughter Natella died and it affected Alakbarova's health and she died a year after, at the age of 70.

References

External links

To listen to Shovkat Alakbarova, clic
here
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alakbarova, Shovkat 1922 births 1993 deaths 20th-century Azerbaijani women singers People's Artists of Azerbaijan Musicians from Baku Mugham singers Soviet Azerbaijani people Soviet women singers