Brilliant Dadashova


Brilliant Suleyman qizi Dadashova is an Azerbaijani pop singer.

Life

Brilliant Dadashova was born into a family of five children. Her older sisters also pursued careers in music.
She first appeared on stage in 1985 with the songs by Azerbaijani composer Eldar Mansurov. In 1986, she participated in the annual International Youth Festival in Moscow. Two years later, she won the prestigious All-Union Pop Singers Contest, a singing competition among representatives of the republics of the Soviet Union. In 1990, she graduated from the Azerbaijan National Culture and Arts Institute. She is one of the few pop singers native to Azerbaijan to have played outside of their home country. Dadashova's concert venues included the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Russia, and Turkey.
In 1995, her song Züleyha hit the top 10 in Russian charts. In 1997, Dadashova was among the musicians who participated in the recording of the album Landet vi kommer fra, which included Azeri folk songs sung in Azeri and Norwegian by the Azerbaijani soloists and the Norwegian choir SKRUK. In 1999, Brilliant Dadashova was elected to the Baku City Council. From 2001 to 2006 she hosted her own prime time talk-show Gözəllik dünyanı xilas edəcək on Azerbaijan's Space TV.
In 2004, her song Vokaliz became an issue of controversy after allegedly having been performed by the Armenian singer Varduhi Vardanyan, who was accused of violating copyright. Vardanyan vehemently denied the accusations and claimed that the song is a traditional Armenian folk song. Since September 2006, Brilliant Dadashova has been actively involved in the Akademiya TV-project aimed at professional musical training of talented youths and preparing them for the big stage. During her career, Brilliant released seven albums. Her last one called Saninlayam, was released in September 2002, and was dedicated to the memory of composer Rafig Babayev. She released another studio album, titled Masal Dunyam, in Azerbaijan and Turkey in August 2008.
Brilliant Dadashova is married to stage actor Adalat Hajiyev and has a son. In March 2011, she announced that she had filed for divorce due to a long-term complicated relationship.