Russian band Ay Yola topped the Ukrainian Apple Music chart with the Bashkir song Homay, which was released in March. It has now been streamed 6 million times on YouTube and searched 571,000 times on Shazam.
Russian band Ay Yola topped the Ukrainian Apple Music chart with the Bashkir song Homay, which was released in March. It has now been streamed 6 million times on YouTube and searched 571,000 times on Shazam.
The founders of the Ay Yola group are Ruslan Shayhitdinov, known in Russia as a radio host, DJ Sever, his daughter Adel, a vocalist, and Bashkir musician Rinat Ramazanov, who plays the national instrument kurai.
The song, which is a mix of folk and electronic music in style, is about Humay, a key character in the Bashkir epic. It is a bird of happiness in Iranian and Arab mythology, as well as in the Arabized mythology of the peoples of Central Asia.
In March, Homay gained momentum, primarily in Russia, as well as in the countries of Central Asia, where the epic and Turkic languages are related — Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. In early April, the track became popular in some European countries, including Ukraine.
First of all, Homay is quickly spreading on Tiktok, becoming one of the trends on this social network. Ukrainian users tried to recreate Adele’s look.
Some Ukrainian TikTokers even call for support for Bakhchivan creativity, because «peoples enslaved by Russia can actually create world hits.»
Rinat Ramazanov, a member of the Bashkir group AY YOLA, expressed support for Russia’s actions in the war against Ukraine. In November 2023, he posted on the social network VKontakte that he was accompanying his brother on a «special military operation» (SMO).
In addition, Ramazanov reposted publications raising funds for the needs of the Russian army.
