Kazakstan: yurts, not russia and polished pop music. 10 SBI giveaway at the end.
KeshYOU formed in 2006 as a Kazakh girl pop group. My favourite KeshYOU lineup is Aidana Medenova (Айдана Меденова), Kamshat Zholdybayeva (Камшат Жолдыбаева), and Zhanar Dugalova (Жанар Дұғалова) because they all had strong solo careers. With some girl/boy bands it can be difficult to tell the voices apart - not so with these three. They have distinct singing voices yet still have great harmony. The first track is Asykpa (Acықпa) "Rush" from 2013. The singers solo in the order they are introduced above. The song, as near as I can tell, is about not rushing in love.
The next track is Rizamin (Рыйзамын) "I'm Glad" from 2013. Zhanar sang a solo version of Rizamin at Turkvision in 2015. She won in Turkvision 2014 with Izin Korem (Iзiн көpeм). Zhanar's Turkvision performance of Rizamin ends with some dolphin-like high notes! But, the most listenable version of Rizamin is the version sung by KeshYou. The song celebrates the strength of the Kazakh people using language that presents the ancestor's strength as everlasting ideas for the people of today. This is unashamed national pride marching in pop sounds and perfect makeup. Their diction is excellent too - with raspy KHs, machine gun rolled Rs, buzzing ZHs and windy SHs. (Lyrics in English). Zhanar in particular really rapid-fires the rolled Rs.
Now, to round it out with some fun: The track Mahabbat (Махаббат) "What is love". The song is from the soundtrack to the movie Ostorozhno Korova (Осторожно Корова) "Careful cow!" - Which looks like a fun romp actually - so let me know if you can help me obtain a version with English subtitles. I don't see it making theatres here since Cow is the nickname of the protagonist. Anyways, the song is a suitably peppy movie ender. And yes, the bridge does have a few lines in English from Haddaway's 1993 Eurodance banger "What is love".
Well, these are songs from the Zhanar Dugalova era of KeshYOU. The lineup does completely change, and everybody goes on to make more fantastic music. I promise to bring some of the best in future posts.
I'm giving away 5 10 SBI (
Hint 1: It's a slow song telling someone to forget them.
More hints if you ask for them in the comments