Farrukh Zokirov

Farrukh Karimovich Zokirov (Zakirov) was born in Tashkent on 16 April 1946 and grew up in a family of musicians. His father, Karim Zokirov, was a baritone at the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre and held the title of People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR; his mother, Shohista Saidova, sang folk songs at the Muqimiy Musical Theatre. Most of their six children — Botir, Luiza, Naufal, Farrukh, Jamshid and Ravshan — went on the stage, which is why the Zokirovs are spoken of as a musical dynasty: his elder brother Botir Zokirov was one of the founders of Uzbek pop music, his sister Luiza became a pop singer, and his younger brother Jamshid a stage and film actor.

In 1969 Farrukh graduated in choral conducting from the Tashkent State Conservatory. Around that time students of the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute had put together an amateur vocal and instrumental group, which from 1970 performed as Yalla. Farrukh joined it together with his younger brother Ravshan and by the early 1970s had become its permanent lead singer. The band paired electric guitars and an electric organ with the rubab and the doira, reworked Uzbek folk tunes in a modern style and sang in Uzbek, Russian and English. In 1973 Yalla appeared at the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin and recorded several songs in German for the East German label Amiga.

In 1976 Zokirov became Yalla’s artistic director, a post he still holds. In 1979 the line-up changed almost completely, leaving him as the only member from the earlier years. In 1980 he set Yuri Entin’s lyrics to music as “Uchkuduk” (“Three Wells”); by his own account the tune came to him in about forty minutes while the band was touring the small desert town of Uchkuduk in the Kyzylkum, and it was performed on stage the same evening. The song spread across the Soviet Union and became the band’s signature piece. In 1982 Melodiya released the group’s first long-playing record, “Three Wells”, and between 1981 and 1988 Yalla reached the final of the “Song of the Year” television festival five times.

Zokirov wrote the music for many of the band’s songs, among them “Yalla”, “The Face of My Beloved”, “Homeland”, “The Blue Domes of Samarkand” and “Song of Shahrisabz”, as well as a cycle of songs about the cities of Uzbekistan. In the 1980s the band released the albums “The Face of My Beloved” (1983) and “Musical Teahouse” (1988). He also composed film scores, including those for “The Bride from Vuadil” (1984), “Maysaraning ishi” (1989) and “Temir khotin” (1990), and in 2003 played the lead in the film “Taqdir” (“Fate”).

In 1987 Zokirov was named People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1989 he received the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR. In the summer of 1991 papers nominating him for the title of People’s Artist of the USSR were sent to Moscow, but after the August coup attempt and the break-up of the Union the matter was never completed. In the years that followed he was made a People’s Artist of Karakalpakstan (1993), Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (1995), Tajikistan and Ingushetia (2000), and later of Tatarstan (2023), Bashkortostan and Azerbaijan (2024). In the 1990s the band’s compilations came out on CD in the United States on the Imagina Productions label.

From 2002 to 2004 Zokirov served as deputy minister of culture of Uzbekistan while continuing to lead the band. In the autumn of 2002 Yalla presented its 30th-anniversary programme at the Rossiya concert hall in Moscow. The band has toured widely, from Vietnam and Ceylon to Israel, Turkey, Switzerland and the United States; Zokirov has said that abroad it always sings at least one song in the language of the host country. His Uzbek state awards include the Shuhrat medal (1996) and the orders of Do’stlik (2003) and Fidokorona xizmatlari uchun (2018).

In January 2021 Uzbekistan’s postal service issued a stamp for Yalla’s 50th anniversary. On 1 July 2023, marking the band’s half-century, Zokirov received the order El-yurt hurmati and his bandmates the order Do’stlik. In 2024 the President of Russia awarded him the Order of Friendship. In April 2026, for his 80th birthday, he was awarded the order Buyuk xizmatlari uchun (For Outstanding Merit) and, by decree of the President of Kazakhstan, the Order of Dostyk, 2nd class.