Azerbaijani folk music

Plucked stringed instruments include the lute-like saz, chang, gopuz, tar and oud, originally barbat, and the dulcimer-like qanún (also sometimes hammered).[9][10] Bowed stringed instruments include the kamancha.[9][10]

Azerbaijani folk musician playing balaban during Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

Woodwind instruments include the double-reed, shawm-like tutek (whistle flute), zurna, ney and balaban.[9][10]

Percussion instruments include the frame drum ghaval, the cylindrical double faced drum nagara (davul), and the gosha nagara (pair of small kettle drums) and daf (frame drum).[10][11]

Apart from percussion instruments, there is also this musical gemstone known as Gaval Dash. It makes a tambourine-like sound when it is hit in different points.[12] Among the stone books there are a big flat stone formed out of 3 supports. Suffice it to touch the object with a small stone, musical sounds come from it.[9] The Gaval Dash have been formed due the combination of unique climate, oil and gas which can be found in the region of Azerbaijan.[13] The Gaval Dash can only be found in Gobustan, Azerbaijan.[9][14]

In Azerbaijan songs about military and naval subjects were a major part of the output of ballad writers from the 18th century onwards, including one of the earliest Azerbaijani ballads ‘The Black Sea was storming’, which deals with the events of the Battle of Sarikamish in 1914. The conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the later 20th and early 19th centuries produced a number of ballads describing events, particularly conflicts like those of the Battle of Aghdam. Output became a flood during the Revolutionary and first Nagorno-Karabakh War, seeing numerous patriotic war songs, like "Cənab Leytenant" (Mister Lieutenant).[20]

Work songs include music sung while conducting a task (often to coordinate timing) or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. The two main types of work song in Azerbaijani are agricultural work songs, usually are rhythmic a cappella songs sung by people working on a physical and often repetitive task, like the 'Tea song' common in Soviet Azerbaijan.[21] The songs were probably intended to increase productivity while reducing feelings of boredom.

Karabakh has been one of the key areas of Azerbaijani folk music and collection. It had retained a strong tradition of mugham and such as Şuşanın dağları başı dumanlı and Sari Gelin became vital part of music revival in Azerbaijan.[22][23]

Despite being the centre of both folk revivals and the jazzy folk movement, the songs of Baku were largely neglected in favour of regional and rural music until relatively recently. Baku, unsurprisingly, was the most common location mentioned in Azerbaijani folk songs, including ‘Bakı Haqqında Mahnı’ (Song about Baku), and the ‘Bakı, Sabahın Xeyr’ (Good Morning Baku) and it was the centre of the broadside publishing industry.

• Shovkat Alakbarova
• Sevda Alakbarzadeh
• Azerin
• Nazakat Mammadova
• Zeynab Khanlarova
• Aygün Kazımova
• Googoosh

• Ogtay Aghayev
• Rashid Behbudov
• Bulbul
• Akif Islamzade
• Islam Rzayev
• Gulagha Mammadov
• Sami Yusuf

Natig Shirinov's performing at Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

• Habil Aliyev
• Ramiz Guliyev
• Avtandil Israfilov
• Elchin Hashimov
• Kamil Jalilov
• Bahram Mansurov
• Gurban Pirimov
• Rəmiş
• Sadigjan
• Alihan Samedov
• Natig Shirinov