How OYU Fest Became a Portrait of Kazakhstan’s New Music Scene

OYU Fest returned to Almaty’s Pervomaysky Ponds for its fifth-anniversary edition, marking another step in its rise as one of Kazakhstan’s leading contemporary music festivals. Since its launch in 2022, OYU has grown from a local initiative into an important platform for Kazakhstan’s music scene, drawing a wider audience across Central Asia. Kazakhstan has welcomed more international performers in recent years, including Jennifer Lopez, the Backstreet Boys, and Enrique Iglesias. OYU has taken a different approach. It has remained a festival without foreign headliners, keeping contemporary Kazakh music at the center of its program. Instead of competing with large international shows, the festival connects local artists with audiences of different generations and reflects the range and confidence of Kazakhstan’s music scene today. The first OYU Fest took place in the summer of 2022, after the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Although the festival has never made political statements, it emerged during a period of growing public interest in Kazakhstan’s cultural identity, national language, and domestic music scene. Artists who 15 to 20 years ago were often seen as niche or local performers now draw audiences of tens of thousands across Kazakhstan, including listeners outside ethnic Kazakh communities. OYU 2026 Brings Glastonbury Weather to Kazakhstan’s Coachella This year, OYU expanded to a two-day format for the first time and welcomed several thousand visitors. The lineup brought together emerging artists, Kazakh-language pop performers, indie musicians, rappers, R&B acts, K-pop groups, and long-established singers known to several generations in Kazakhstan. The range of performers showed how far Kazakhstan’s contemporary music scene has developed, from newcomers to established names. The festival opened with torrential rain, recalling OYU’s first edition. At that first festival, strong winds tore down tents. Performers sang on a soaked stage, and audiences danced through the downpour to songs by Zoloto and hits from Kairat Nurtas, one of Kazakhstan’s best-known pop stars. The weather became part of the festival’s identity. This year, forecasts predicted only light showers. Shortly before the festival began, however, Almaty was hit by what felt like a tropical downpour. Visitors arrived at the festival grounds completely soaked, although organizers distributed free rain ponchos at the entrance. People sheltered beneath temporary canopies and joked that OYU, once dubbed Kazakhstan’s Coachella, had unexpectedly become Kazakhstan’s Glastonbury, where rain and muddy ground are part of the experience. The mostly young audience was undeterred. By evening, the rain had eased, and by the time ARO, the fourth performer on the lineup, took the stage, it had stopped. The festival hosts jokingly called him a “rain whisperer,” noting that showers had ended just as he began performing more than once before. On the first day, audiences saw performances by On Alty, Almás, Zakryty Klub, Sadraddin, Kunzharyq, ALPHA, Yenlik, Berkut & Aisha, and others. The second day featured dosm., Ken Dala, abdr., Dequine, Ringo, Orynkhan Rakhimbekov, Roza Rymbaeva, and the independent music association Qazaq Indie. The lineup showed the range of Kazakhstan’s contemporary music scene. Festivalgoers heard Kazakh-language...

Singer MEREY on Kazakh-Language Music, Tradition, and a New Sound

Singer, poet, and lyricist MEREY is among a younger group of artists bringing a different sensibility to music in Kazakhstan. Her work is rooted in Kazakh-language expression, but it also pushes beyond familiar expectations of how a female singer should sound and present herself. In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, MEREY discusses the influence of poetry on her lyrics, the reaction to experimentation, and what she believes is missing from Kazakhstan’s contemporary music scene. TCA: Tell us a little about yourself. How did you get into music? MEREY: I came to music at 17, that’s when I wrote my first song in English. Before that, for as long as I can remember, I had been writing poetry; it was my first form of self-expression. During my school years, I also studied music more formally. I played in a national orchestra, where I both sang and performed dombra parts. That experience strongly shaped my sense of stage presence and musical language. Today, I position myself as a poet, singer, and lyricist. For me, text and music are inseparable. TCA: Who or what influenced your artistic development the most? MEREY: Since school, I have read the works of Mukaghali Makatayev, a classic of Kazakh poetry known for lyrical verses about love, homeland, and the human experience, and Fariza Ongarsynova, a prominent poet who wrote about emotions, time, and women’s lives. They left a deep mark on me as a poet, and echoes of their style can be found in my lyrics. As a teenager, I listened to Billie Eilish, Lana Del Rey, and The Neighbourhood. Later, Mitski, Zemfira, Valentin Strykalo, and Børns. Now I feel close to what Chappell Roan and Meg Myers are doing. My taste leans toward alternative music with an emphasis on vocals, lyrics, and guitar riffs, with a slightly detached aesthetic. This directly informs my own music. TCA: Your music is often described as a blend of traditional elements and modern electronics. How did this sound take shape? MEREY: I wouldn’t fully agree with the phrasing about electronics, but my sound is in many ways inspired by Darkhan Juzz. He was the first artist from Kazakhstan who truly impressed me with his sound. I come from a Kazakh-speaking background, so my lyrics tend to be more literary rather than conversational, unlike many artists of the new school. That’s thanks to my parents and my education in a Kazakh-language school. The modern side comes from my musical tastes, especially the Western scene. My sound combines a Western sensibility with precise, expressive Kazakh language. It’s a mix of Western thinking and Kazakh tradition and that is exactly what resonates with listeners. TCA: How important is it for you to preserve cultural roots in contemporary music? MEREY: It is fundamentally important. As I grow older, I become more conscious, and even stricter, about the Kazakh language and tradition. I’m glad that today national elements, ornaments, traditional clothing, interest in Tengriism, and the language itself, are once again becoming part of the cultural...