Brilliant Dadashova

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Brilliant Dadashova
Brilliant Dadashova
Background information
Born	15 September 1959 (1959-09-15) (age 48) Baku, Azerbaijan
Genre(s)	Pop Folk
Years active	1985 –
Website	www.dadashova.com

Brilliant Suleyman qizi Dadashova, also spelled Dadasheva (Azeri: Brilliant Dadaşova) (born 15 September 1959, Baku) is an Azerbaijani pop singer.

[edit] Life

Brilliant Dadashova was born into a family of six children. Her mother Gizkhanim Dadashova was a famous accordion player who died in a car accident in 1964. Brilliant Dadashova's older sisters also pursued careers in music. Dadashova first appeared on stage in 1985, when she participated in the annual International Youth Festival in Moscow. Two years later, she won the prestigious All-Union Pop Singers Contest, a singing competition among representatives of the republics of the Soviet Union. In 1990, she graduated from the Azerbaijan National Culture and Arts Institute and became one of Azerbaijan's most successful female singers. She is one of the few pop singers in Azerbaijan, who has given numerous concerts outside of her home country. Dadashova's concert venues included the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Russia, and Turkey. In 1995, her song Züleyha hit the top 10 in Russian charts.^[1] In 1997, Dadashova was among the musicians who participated in the recording of the album Landet vi kommer fra ("The Land We Came From"; released by Kirkelig Kulturverksted in Norway), which included Azeri folk songs sung in Azeri and Norwegian by the Azerbaijani soloists and the Norwegian choir SKRUK.^[2] In 1999, Brilliant Dadashova was elected to the Baku City Council. From 2001 to 2006 she hosted her own prime time talk-show Gözəllik dünyanı xilas edəcək ("Beauty will save the world") on Azerbaijan's Space TV. In 2004, her song Vokaliz (a 2001 vocal improvisation of the Azeri folk dance tunes Meydan and Baki, as well as Vagif Garayzadeh's Novruzu musical composition) became an issue of controversy after allegedly having been performed by the Armenian singer Varduhi Vardanyan (†2006) who was accused of violating copyright.^[3] Vardanyan vehemently denied the accusations and claimed that the song is a traditional Armenian folk song.^[4]Since September 2006, Brilliant Dadashova has been actively involved in the Akademiya TV-project (the Azerbaijani version of Star Academy) aimed at professional musical training of talented youths and preparing them for the big stage. During her career, Brilliant released 7 albums. Her last one called Saninlayam ("I'm with You"), was released in September 2002, and was dedicated to the memory of composer Rafig Babayev.