Xava Tashaeva

Who is Xava Tashaeva?

Xava Tashaeva is a popular young Chechen pop singer. She has a wide fan base, but appeals mainly to teenagers and young adults. She is the daughter of the Chechen singer-bardess Marem Taşaeva.

She is also friends with many other Chechen pop singers, including Makka Sagaipova, Ilyas Ayubov, and Milana Balaeva.

Xava Tashaeva is especially notable for her experimentation with various genres. In her song Bezam, she incorporates dance-pop beats with Chechen folk elements. In Beralla, she basically puts Chechen lyrics to American jazz music. Eng, another one of her songs, was based around Western pop ballads, and even contained an English verse. Homenig also seems to have incorporated Western pop music elements. Järzha Bjagash, another one of her songs, incorporated elements from hip hop and funk. What is interesting and very commendable about her adoption of Western music is that she does not merely copy Western styles, but rather, she takes them, incorporates, but also makes them Chechen, by combining them with Chechen beats, music styles and/or instruments. This resembles, among other things, the adoption of Western music by various Japanese artists decades before her, where the introduction of Western music, rather than replacing indigenous styles, strengthens them by combining with them.