Yalla

Yalla is a vocal-instrumental ensemble (VIA) founded in Tashkent in 1970. It began as an amateur group of students at the Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute and first performed as “VIA TTKhI”. Its founders are named as the students Sergey Avanesov and Bakhodir Juraev, with German Rozhkov as the first artistic director and the composer Yevgeny Shiryaev as the first musical director. The name comes from the refrain of the Uzbek folk song “Qiz bola”; “yalla” is also the name of a type of Uzbek folk dance.

In 1971 the group became a diploma winner in the Moscow final of the all-Union television contest “Allo, we are looking for talents!” and recorded its first records for Melodiya. The brothers Ravshan and Farrukh Zokirov joined in those years; Farrukh Zokirov has been artistic director since 1976 and the ensemble’s constant leader. The musicians combined electric guitars and electric organ with the rubab and doira, reworked Uzbek folk melodies in a modern style and sang in Uzbek, Russian and English. In 1973 Yalla performed at the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin and recorded songs in German for Amiga in East Germany.

In 1979 the lineup was largely renewed: Farrukh Zokirov and the bassist and musical director Rustam Ilyasov rebuilt the group. Ilyasov stayed about fifteen years and left for the United States in 1994; Abbos Aliyev, Javlon Tokhtayev and Alisher Tulyaganov joined in 1979 and have played in the ensemble for many years. Around 1980 Zokirov wrote “Uchkuduk” (“Three Wells”) to words by Yuri Entin; it spread across the Soviet Union and became the group’s signature song. Melodiya released the first long-playing record, “Tri kolodtsa” (1981–1982), and the ensemble was a diploma winner at the “Song of the Year” television festival in 1981, 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1988.

The albums “Litso vozlyublennoy moyey” (1983), “Muzykalnaya chaykhana” (1988) and “Falakning fe'l-af'oli” (1991) followed; in the 1990s compilations of the ensemble came out on CD in the United States on Imagina Productions. The group toured many Soviet cities and also Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Switzerland, the United States, Germany and Kazakhstan. In the autumn of 2002 Yalla gave a programme for its 30th anniversary at the Rossiya concert hall in Moscow, and in 2005 gala concerts marked the 35th.

Over the years the ensemble’s performers have included Botir Zokirov (a singer credited with a role in creating the group), Eson Kandov, Nargis Baykhanova, Natalya Nurmukhamedova, Larisa Kandalova, German Rozhkov, Yevgeny Shiryaev, Aliaskar Fatkhullin, Shakhboz Nizamutdinov, Dmitry Tsirin, Boris Gershkovich and others. The current lineup is Farrukh Zokirov, Abbos Aliyev, Javlon Tokhtayev, Timur Khalikov, the group’s director Igor Khalikov and Alisher Tulyaganov.

In 2021 Uzbekistan Post issued a stamp sheet for the ensemble’s 50th anniversary. In 2023 the ensemble marked its 50th anniversary in Tashkent; by decree of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Farrukh Zokirov received the Order of El-Yurt Hurmati, and Abbos Aliyev, Javlon Tokhtayev, Timur Khalikov and Igor Khalikov the Order of Dustlik. Its best-known songs are “Uchkuduk”, “Yalla”, “Shakhrisabz”, “Majnuntol”, “Zvezda Vostoka” (“Siyay, Tashkent”), “Posledniaya poema” (“Eto lyubov”) and “Chinuri” (“Jinouni”).