Rashid Behbudov is one of the founders of pop music in Azerbaijan. Even, to this day, his incredible songs grab people with astonishing force. His beautiful voice let him sing songs of any genre including popular hits, folk songs and classical music. His musical life is one the richest periods of the Azerbaijan art.  On 18 March of this year, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Rashid Behbudov. The anniversary events widely take place at a high level throughout the country.

Rashid Behbudov was born in Tiflis, Georgia on December 14, 1915. His father, Majid Behbudoglu originally from Shusha, was a singer as well. He was a lovely student at school; everybody loved folk songs that he sang. He finished the secondary school in 1933 and entered the Railway College. Since that year he had taken part in concerts. He created students' amateur orchestra "Big band".  It was an innovation in art life of Georgia. He gave concerts at concert halls and at various cultural events. At that period he got acquainted with David Anguladze, People Artist of the USSR, founder of the Georgian vocal school. This was great event for him. The young musician started taking part in D. Anguladze's trainings. He studied the subtleties  of opera art from him. Along with it, he worked as a chorus soloist at the Georgian Opera and Ballet Theatre. Since 1935, he had started to work as a soloist-singer at the military orchestra of Tiflis Garrison.  

In 1945 he moved to Baku. In the same year, he was assigned the main role of Asgar in the film "Arshin Mal Alan" (The Cloth Peddler), based on a play by Uzeyir Hajibeyov. His role in this film combined with his vocal skills brought him fame throughout Azerbaijan. With this role a new epoch was opened in his cultural life. The following year he was awarded the USSR State Laureate for his performance. The film turned out to be so successful that it was shown in more than 25 countries. It should be stated that maestro Niyazi and composer Tofig Guliyev with efforts could persuade him to play the role of Asgar in this film.

After "Arshin Mal Alan", Rashid was invited to act in many musical films. He featured in the films such as "Bakhtiyar" (1955) and "1001st Tour" (1975). The songs performed by Rashid in the film "Bakhtiyar" brought success to the film.  The songs usch as "A song about Baku", "Zubeyda" and "My Lover" with tango rhythm brought success to the singer.

It was Rashid's dream to create a place in Azerbaijan specifically designated as a Song Theatre. R. Behbudov was already an established musician when he decided to undertake this project. He was very proud of it and spent a great deal of energy, anxiety and time on the Song Theatre. Simultaneously, he worked on creating a professional music group that would be associated with the theatre. The Song Theatre was opened in 1968. He said about this holy art place: "I wished to create such a musical team where our folk music, Mughams, ancient dances, modern choreography, composers' instrumental music and songs, pop, jazz and national instruments could combine in one at a concert. Let the audience have an opportunity to know the Azerbaijan culture at a concert."

As a singer, he toured with concert performances in several countries of the world, including Argentina, Bulgaria, Belgium, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Italy, China, India, Egypt, Japan, Turkey and many other countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Lala AZERI