Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan, which has always captivated art-lovers around the world with its abundant culture, has attracted this time the attention of US audience with masterpieces of folk music.
Young Mugham and Meykhana performers have delivered a series of concerts featuring brilliant national compositions across the United States.
The Azerbaijani musicians won the hearts of fans during the performances in about 10 states. They were greeted by jubilant crowds during the concerts taking place in Seatle, New Orleans and other cities.
The masters of Meykhana singing with Tar and Kamancha (national instruments) music in the background first faced the challenge of reaching the foreign audience, but soon succeeded in bringing excitement to the viewers.
The US embassy in Baku supported the tour. Ambassador Anne Derse has met with the musicians to enquire how successful the concerts were.
"We are pleased to have arranged such a program that facilitates furthering cultural relations between our countries," she said, adding that her government would continue to support such visits in the future.
Derse thanked the Azerbaijani musicians for familiarizing American viewers with Mugham and Meykhana music.
The ambassador, who watched the performances by a group of talented musicians, including young performer Bayimkhanim Mirzayeva, renowned artists Elnur Ahmadov and Elchin Hashimov, as well as Meykhana singer Namig Mena, highlighted the abundance of the program they had delivered. Derse showed particular interest in Meykhana compositions.
Meykhana is a kind of traditional Azeri distinctive folk unaccompanied song, usually performed by several people improvising on a particular subject. Meykhana originally meant a kind of drinking house (pub), where alcoholic beverages called mey were served. The contests, carried out in such places, involved two or more poets exchanging verses back and forth in an extemporaneous fashion, sometimes joking and disparaging one another. At the end of the contest, the audience determined which poet had improvised the most elegant and clever verses and declared him the winner.
Meykhana was performed among the youth of Baku settlements in the pre-Revolutionary time; but during the Soviet period meykhana was banned. In the 1990s meykhana was mixed with rap and produced Azeri hip hop.