Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Prominent Azerbaijani singer Sevda Alakbarzadeh will have a concert tour in Switzerland in mid-July.

The first concert will be held in Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva on July 11. Swiss officials including ministers, as well as people of culture, businesspeople and political figures are expected to watch the concert. Sevda plans to perform with a program including popular hits and new songs.

Alakbarzadeh will represent Azerbaijan at the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival on July 14. The jazz festival will be held in Montreux on July 5-20.

Alakbarzadeh's performance will be held in the open air at Parc Vernex, which has capacity of up to 2,500 people. The half-hour concert will include the most popular ethno-jazz songs, which brought her the title "the magic voice of the Caspian Sea" in Europe.

The world-famous Azerbaijani singer started her musical career as a vocalist in the Rast band in 1993. The band's first album was released in 1996. The same year Rast participated in Radio France International contest and was among its finalists. Rast was awarded the "Grand" prize as the best band of the year in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

In 2001 Sevda left Rast and started her solo-career. Her first album was very successful and its sales exceeded 20,000 copies. In addition to Azerbaijan, the disc was released in Turkey, Germany, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Iran.

In 2006 she released her international album "Shabi Hijran". The album consists of the most famous authorship works of Azerbaijan, as well as folk songs. Sales in Europe reached the mark of 150,000 copies over the first six months. In 2007 the singer received the title of Honorary Artist of Azerbaijan. Her solo concerts featuring "A flower in Bloom" program took place in Austria, Germany, Belgium, France and Turkey in 2008. İn May 2009, her third international album, "World of love", went on sale in the EU countries. 300,000 copies of the album were sold in Europe and about 50,000 more in Turkey.

Founded by Claude Nobs in 1967, over the years the Montreux Jazz Festival has become an unmissable event for music fans in Switzerland and around the world. Its stages have been graced by all of music greats, from Miles Davis to Ray Charles and from David Bowie to Prince.

Whereas jazz constitutes the Festival's historic core, other styles of music were quickly integrated into the Festival, bound together by a common thread of mutual curiosity and enthusiasm.

Having made its reputation with its ambitious programming choices, the Montreux Jazz Festival offers musicians an ideal platform and an intimate setting for the duration of its two weeks.