Guest Column: Time For Central Asian Music To Go Global?

Sasha Meyer, the pseudonym of a Central Asian regular on the site, offers up the following piece declaring that two Central Asian singers are ready for a breakthrough into the West. Sevara Nazarkhan (pictured left) and Dilnaz Akhmadieva (right) merely need to follow the footpath of the Latin Americans and the Lebanese.

Sevara Nazarkhan, the Uzbek singer whose gorgeous debut album Yol Bolsin met with critical acclaim and broke out of Central Asia to popularity in Europe four years ago, is back. Her new CD is called Sen. It's produced by Russia's Victor Sologub and England's Bruno Ellingham.

Charlie Gillett of the Guardian is among her enthusiasts: "This is Sevara's second international release, and matches the achievements of the first, confirmation that she is one of the world's leading singers seeking effective routes to the ears of those beyond her nation's borders. Treasure and applaud her."

Others, while positive overall, offer up a caution that her use of electronic instruments can overwhelm her beautiful voice. "She's deliberately teetering on the edge between accessibility and bland-out, and just about pulls off the challenge," writes Martin Longley of the BBC.

Sevara is the second Uzbek singer to win Western popularity. Yulduz Usmanova was the first, winning a respectable audience in Europe. But Sevara, many reviewers suggest, has the potential to penetrate further and be a global diva.

Among Kazakhstan performers, perhaps the most intriguing at the moment is Dilnaz Akhmadieva, a Uyghur singer and actress from Almaty, who is known in the West for her role as Hocha in last year's film Nomad.

Akhmadieva is reportedly recording her first international album in Los Angeles. The project seems ambitious: It is supposed be an English-language release, mostly soul and blues. She has the talent to reach a wide audience: She started singing at the age of four and is today very popular in Central Asia and Russia.

These artists can learn from Fairuz of Lebanon (and her very original jazz-tinted work) and Mercedes Sosa of Argentina. These two singers are of vastly different backgrounds and interests and both succeeded in moving beyond purely ethnic music.

And of course there is Tarkan, the only Turkish-language singer to attain fame in Russia, South America and Europe. He also succeeded in the United States, a market notoriously unwelcoming to non-English singers. His songs first became a hit in Mexico, then within the U.S. Hispanic community, and finally broke into the broader American audience.

Then there are mainstream performers such as Shakira and the Buena Vista Social Club that have adopted many features of world music, the term for what previously was known as folk music, and reached a wide audience.

The Central Asian governments should get behind these artists. Their success would enhance Central Asia's image abroad in a greater way than any number of ads in The New York Times and the Financial Times.