Ilhama Guliyeva

Starting from 2016, Ilhama Guliyeva had heart failure symptoms. Having full of vigour and enthusiasm, Ilhama Guliyeva died of thromboembolism on 25 February 2016. Despite the fact that ambulance service arrived on time, her health condition had already deteriorated. On 26 February 2016, Ilhama Guliyeva was buried next to her mother Tükazban Ismayılova [az] and stepfather Həbib Bayramov [az] in the Second Alley of Honor in Baku. The reason of the death of Ilhama Guliyeva was investigated and revealed by the Court of Medical Expertise and Pathological Anatomy of Azerbaijan.

In the beginning of the 2000s, Ilhama Guliyeva publicly supports a new candidate for presidency – Ilham Aliyev. She gives concerts in the regions of Azerbaijan, runs her propaganda and makes a worthy contribution to Ilham Aliyev's successful election. Moreover, in 2002, Guliyeva receives the status of "International Cultural Executor" at the World Women's Congress in Beirut, the title of "The Art Queen of the Turkic World" in Turkey and four Humay Awards in Azerbaijan. Since 2003, together with a group of intelligent Azerbaijani women, Ilhama Guliyeva participated in several UN Geneva meetings and defended the rights of Azerbaijani women and children who had been affected by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In 2004, at various conferences, symposiums and protest rallies in Goteborg, Strasbourg, Paris, Istanbul and in front of the building of European Parliament in Brussels, Guliyeva had comprehensive public speeches on Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani internationally recognized territories. As the result of active socio-political participation, Guliyeva was elected as the president of the "Academy of Culture" under the World Congress of Azerbaijanis/Dünya Azərbaycanlıları Konqresi in 2004. In 2007, at the headquarters of the Universal Peace Federation in Washington DC, Guliyeva received the status of Goodwill Ambassador.

Guliyeva was hegemonic, loved glory and honor, as well as demanded respectful attitude from everyone. This made her get into numerous conflicts with many other musical artists of Azerbaijan. Her major disputes were with such Azerbaijani singers as Nazpəri Dostəliyeva, Elza Seyidcahan, Aygün Kazımova and Brilliant Dadashova. Although she had a good and friendly relationship with all her colleagues at the end of her life, the only artist with whom she had not put up since the beginning of her musical career was another People's Artist of Azerbaijan Flora Kerimova. Despite that in 1995, during the joint interview with Kerimova and Guliyeva, they claimed not to be rivals since the genres of music they performed were different, it is not a secret that the issues as "who would go on stage to perform first" or "who would record a song of popular composer before anyone else" were ones of the main causes of their enmity. Since Kerimova went on streets against newly elected Azerbaijani government in 2003, she became unwelcomed and later left her active musical career. However, as TV channels were inviting Kerimova to talk shows, she used to insult Guliyeva, naming her a "disgrace to the musical stage and art, as well as to the Azerbaijani nation". Yet, while Guliyeva in her public and TV speeches held Kerimova in high esteem, Kerimova's attitude towards Guliyeva didn't change throughout time.

After the death of Habib Bayramov [az] in 1994, Tükazban İsmayılova [az] stopped performing and quit the musical stage. This heavily affects Ilhama Guliyeva, and she quits singing for a short period of time. After several years, Guliyeva starts to cooperate with an Azerbaijani composer Faiq Sücəddinov [az] and performs such popular in Azerbaijan lyrical songs as "Neylərsən", "Kaman", "Bilsən necə darıxmışam" etc. In the beginning of the first decade of the 2000s, Guliyeva performed such songs as "Gedirəm", "Unut Məni", "Unuda bilməzsən" and "Yaşın nə fərqi var ki?/Love knows no age" which became appellative and the most popular song of Guliyeva's repertoire. This and other series of lyrical songs of Guliyeva contributed to transformation of Azerbaijani music. Since the beginning of the second decade of the 2000s, Guliyeva became the venerable elderly artist in the field of music in Azerbaijan, and young artists began making cover versions of art songs that she used to sing.

Ilhama Guliyeva created a short-term family life with Faig Mirmohsunov in the 1980s. During this very short marriage period, she adopted the surname of her spouse. However, she ended this marriage shortly and returned to her original last name. Moreover, Guliyeva adopted a child – Orkhan Nadirov, who is claimed to be a grandson of Guliyeva's aunt.

Ilhama Guliyeva was a very peculiar musical artist with flamboyant personality. Despite that Guliyeva was respected and loved for her voice and songs, she constantly faced public criticism and dissent towards her personality. Considering the fact that the major segment of Azerbaijani society is conservative with traditional values, this persistent negative attitude towards Guliyeva was due to her liberal behavior with regard to love affairs in the 1980s and 90s. However, nowadays it is an interesting scene to observe when foreign musical artists with no greater decent "ethical" background visit Azerbaijan, the people rush to highly greet and express their deep respect towards them in concert halls and social media. Considering these vestiges as a temporary phenomenon of a developing society, she never took them seriously, continued to actively participate in musical life of the country and became a leading musical artist of so-called show business in Azerbaijan.

From 1970 until 1980, Ilhama Guliyeva performed at various stages as a soloist of the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall. In 1972, "The Evening of Azerbaijani Composers" gets held in the House of the Unions in Moscow where Guliyeva performs several songs. After the concert, a prominent Azerbaijani composer Fikrat Amirov meets with Guliyeva and promises to compose art songs for her. Such songs as "Mən səni araram", "Göy Göl", "Gülür ellər gülür", "Gülərəm gülsən", "Toy mahnısı/Toydur bugün" and "De görüm neyləmişəm" became wonderful musical outputs of their cooperation, which went down in history of Azerbaijani music since then. Each of these songs is accompanied by folk instruments and orchestra, and has its own unique and colorful shades peculiar to Azerbaijani folk music. In the late 1970s, accompanied by the Musical ensemble "Dan Ulduzu", which was headed by Gulala Aliyeva, Ilhama Guliyeva performs many art songs of such outstanding Azerbaijani composers as Oqtay Kazımi [az], Oqtay Rəcəbov [az], Ramiz Mirişli [az], Arif Malikov, Ahmad Bakikhanov etc. Since then, Ilhama Guliyeva goes on tours to foreign countries (England, Spain, Denmark, Turkey, (Germany) etc.) and represents Azerbaijani music on the world stage.

In 1963, with the support of Ziniat Alizadeh, who was in close relations with Guliyeva's family, she starts performing at the university's "Sevinj" pop ensemble. As Guliyeva's parents still oppressed her passion for music, these musical activities were kept in secret from her family. In 1964, a competition of young talents from all over the world was held in Moscow. By the request of Mrs. Zinyat, Ilhama Guliyeva gets permission from her family and flies to Russia. Her family thought she was going to the festival as a spectator. Competing with young singers from many countries, Ilhama Guliyeva performs the songs of Rauf Hajiyev and Tofig Guliyev. As Guliyeva becomes the winner of the competition, she returns to Baku and gets invited to perform at the orchestra of the Azerbaijan State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (AzTV). Starting from 1965 until 1970, Ilhama Gulliyeva starts performing songs composed by Khayyam Mirzazade, Tofig Bakikhanov and Emin Sabitoglu in various genres of pop music, such as slow rock, jazz, R & B, soul and blues, as a soloist of the orchestra, headed by Tofiq Əhmədov [az].

At this early age, she gets enrolled in a 7-year musical school for piano training in Baku. As Guliyeva finishes both musical and high schools, with a great desire she wants to build her profession in the musical field. Nevertheless, young Ilhama faces definitive dissent from her parents. Taking into account the difficulties of music, they try to inspire her to master another art. Therefore, she enters the faculty of philology of the Azerbaijan State University in 1960 and continues non-musical studies in subsequent years. In 1964, Ilhama Guliyeva graduates from the university, but like every talented person with high musical intelligence, young Guliyeva could not get away from music.

Ilhama Mazahir gyzy Guliyeva (Azerbaijani: İlhamə Məzahir qızı Quliyeva; 17 August 1943 – 25 February 2016) was an Azerbaijani celebrity, actress and singer of Azerbaijani folk and classical music. Throughout active musical-stage career, Ilhama Guliyeva gained popular success in her respective genre of music and received such major state-level honors as Honored Artist of Azerbaijani SSR in 1982, People's Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1998 and People's Artist of the Republic of Dagestan in 2007.

Ilhama Guliyeva was born on 17 August 1943 in Kurdakhany, Azerbaijani SSR. Her mother – Tukezban Ismayilova, was a popular Azerbaijani singer and khanende, and father – Mazahir Guliyev, worked as a prosecutor in Lankaran. Due to his job appointment, Ilhama Guliyeva spent her very early years in Shaki city of Azerbaijan. However, when Ilhama reaches the age of six, her parents divorce. Ilhama Guliyeva's mother, moving to Baku, marries a famous Azerbaijani tar player – Həbib Bayramov [az], who later becomes a supportive stepfather that actively engages in growing up and educating Ilhama Guliyeva.