Today is the birthday of Shovket Alekperova

Today is the birthday of Azerbaijani singer, People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR Shovket Alekperova.

She was born on October 20, 1922, in Baku. Sh. Alekperova was the third child in a family of six children. Her father was a great music enthusiast, and her mother was a professional tar player. The children subsequently also received musical education.

At an early age, Alekperova played the kamancha. In 1937, she won a singing competition where her talent was assessed by composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli and singer Bülbül.

After her brilliant performance of the composition "Karabakh Shikestesi," Hajibeyli admitted Alekperova to the newly created Azerbaijan State Choir, where she began her professional singing career. Her mentors were folklorist and pedagogue Agalar Aliverdibeyov and opera singer Huseyngulu Sarabsky.

During the Great Patriotic War, Alekperova went on concert tours to the front, performing patriotic songs and often giving up to 50 performances a day.

From 1945, she worked at the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic. By the 1950s, Alekperova was recognized as the most popular performer of Azerbaijani folk and popular songs. Throughout her creative career, Alekperova toured more than 20 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. She performed successfully in France, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, India, Egypt, Algeria, Turkey, and Poland. Her repertoire included the mugams Segah, Gatar, Shahnaz, as well as songs by Azerbaijani composers and peoples of Central Asia.

Her most famous songs are Axşam, Ayrılıq, Gəl səhərim, Bir könül sındırmışam, Dərələr, Sən mənim, mən sənin, Sənsən ürəyim, Tez gəl.

Shovket Alekperova was married twice. A daughter, Natella, was born from her first marriage. After Alekperova's husband, a military doctor, went to the front and started a new family, they divorced.

In 1955, the 33-year-old Alekperova married 35-year-old director Latif Safarov. From this marriage, Alekperova had a son, Bashir.

After the suicide of her second husband in 1963, the singer never remarried and devoted her entire life to her children and musical career.

The sudden death of her daughter Natella in 1992 had a negative impact on Alekperova's declining health, and she survived her daughter by only one year.

In May 2014, near Istanbul, at a shipyard in the city of Yalova, the tanker "Shovket Alekperova" was launched.