{"id":67985,"date":"2026-09-28T14:34:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/?p=67985"},"modified":"2026-09-28T14:37:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T13:37:41","slug":"ay-yola-how-to-remain-yourself-when-the-whole-world-has-heard-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncult.co.uk\/en\/ay-yola-how-to-remain-yourself-when-the-whole-world-has-heard-you\/","title":{"rendered":"AY YOLA: How to Remain Yourself When the Whole World Has Heard You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo: Ilya Mamedov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo: Ilya Mamedov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

AY YOLA, the trio from Bashkortostan whose name translates as \u201cthe laws of the universe\u201d, were ambassadors for the Games and performed at the closing ceremony in Cholpon-Ata, on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. Watching everything from the inside, I found myself returning to one thought: tradition remains alive only for as long as it can speak to the people of its own time in a language they understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That, in many ways, is what AY YOLA is built upon. In just a year and a half, the group has travelled from a project rooted in the Bashkir epic Ural Batyr<\/em> to a musical story now resonating across continents. And the wider their geography becomes, the more interesting the group is to observe. Instead of moving away from their roots in pursuit of universality, they seem to be digging deeper into them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their latest work develops that idea further: an epic does not truly belong to one people alone. In the song AMANAT<\/em>, heroes and traditions from different cultures meet – Ural, Manas, Olonkho, Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata<\/em>, Koroglu, Jangar and Alpamysh. The accompanying video gives this idea a visual language of its own, turning cultural difference into an image of shared human memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the journey back from the Games, I had the chance to speak with the band. At ten thousand metres, conversation has a way of becoming more honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Ilya Mamedov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the past year, your lives have changed almost completely. What inside you has remained unchanged?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our relationship with what we do. Music is still not a way for us to become more visible; it is work, and it carries a great deal of responsibility. Everything around us has changed \u2014 the schedule, the geography, the audience, the size of the stages. But the inner feeling that we simply have to keep doing our work has never disappeared. Success has undoubtedly opened more doors, but it has never given us a reason to think of ourselves as different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can usually tell when artists have come not simply to occupy a space, but to bring something into it. There is a strong sense of that with you. But let\u2019s begin simply: when someone encounters AY YOLA for the first time, what do you want them to feel within the first thirty seconds?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That they have stepped into a story – into a space where an ancient meaning is speaking in a contemporary language. We want them to recognise something real about life and about the choices we make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Ilya Mamedov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For you, Ural Batyr<\/em> is not merely an inspiration. It is the foundation. Why this particular story?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it is one of the oldest epic texts of Eurasia, our native Bashkir epic, and at the same time it is profoundly human. It speaks about very simple principles on which the world rests: respect your elders, protect the weak, love the land you belong to. We created this project with one purpose – to bring the epic to as wide an audience as possible, not as a museum artefact, but as a living story expressed through the language of contemporary music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many artists wear tradition on stage like a beautiful costume. How do you make sure you are not simply using your heritage, but actually entering into a dialogue with it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us, tradition is a system of coordinates. We have an internal filter. If an idea looks impressive but does not correspond with our principles, it does not make it through. We constantly return to the source – to the imagery, the spirit of the story, its intonations. And we spend a great deal of time thinking about how all of this will sound to someone who grew up within an entirely different culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At what point did you realise that AY YOLA was no longer simply a project, but something closer to a mission?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people started writing to us not about the song, but about themselves. About their mothers. About childhood. About tears. About suddenly feeling a connection to their own roots – even when those roots belonged to a completely different country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Ilya Mamedov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The numbers surrounding the project are enormous \u2014 hundreds of millions of views and streams, hundreds of thousands of followers. This is clearly no longer a local story. When that much attention suddenly falls on you, how do you avoid becoming prisoners of the noise?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hold on to routine and to meaning. And to the people close to us. Fame is a peculiar thing. It can become a mirror you start staring into. We try instead to look beyond popularity – towards the music, the show, the team, the story we are telling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tell me about the live performance. What you create feels less like a conventional concert and more like a staged experience suspended somewhere between storytelling and contemporary spectacle. How does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every song is accompanied by a video installation that builds the atmosphere of the epic. The audience does not simply hear the music; they see the legend come alive. There are live instruments, live vocals, and production that binds everything together into a single cinematic arc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the stylistic range of your music, the voices of Rinat and Adel still seem to remain at its centre. What does the human voice mean within this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a genuine bridge between centuries \u2014 something that connects ritual and modernity. Rinat\u2019s throat singing seems to draw us back into the past, while Adel\u2019s voice carries us towards the future. The electronic world created by Ruslan Shaikhitdinov provides the energy that allows both to exist in the present. But the human voice is always truth. And when it sounds alongside the kurai or the kubyz, you begin to sense that time is not necessarily linear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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