J.Lo is bound for Kazakhstan and it’s a signal of Russia’s declining influence in Central Asia. Okay, let’s not plant an American flag just yet – this concert may not be part of a State Department strategy to increase US soft power in the energy-rich region, but rather a last-ditch effort by a somewhat faded pop icon Jennifer Lopez to wring the last dollars from her career.
But did you also hear the Backstreet Boys will be performing in Uzbekistan?
The Westernisation of Central Asia is a notable cultural phenomenon. Music can serve as a powerful instrument for great powers to expand their influence in certain parts of the world. In Central Asia, a region traditionally within Russia’s geopolitical orbit, the United States seems to be slowly winning hearts and minds through pop music – whether by design or by a twist of circumstances.
Russian singers seem to have a hard time balancing their political views with their careers, especially if they aim to perform in what Moscow sees as its near abroad.
American bands and singers performing in the strategically important region is nothing new. Back in 2009, the North Carolina-based Brian Horton Quartet played a series of concerts in Uzbekistan. That same year, another jazz group, the Ari Roland Quartet, toured Central Asia, while in 2019 the rock band Aberdeen performed in Kyrgyzstan. Four years later, Kanye West performed at the wedding of the grandson of then Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Almaty.
But apart from the famous rapper, most American bands that have played in Central Asia over the past 15 years were not globally popular. That will change with the high-profile acts scheduled to play in the region in the coming months.
These performances come as regional states seek to establish deeper political, economic, and even military ties with the West. The fact that Jessica Lynn, a country artist from New York, is set to perform in Turkmenistan – one of the most closed nations in the world – perfectly illustrates that even Ashgabat has begun to gradually follow other former Soviet republics in developing closer relations with the United States and European powers.
Russia’s declining influence in the region accelerated when its nominal allies started turning their backs on Moscow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the region’s Soviet past has undoubtedly left a deep mark on its culture. Although Hollywood movies and American pop music dominate globally, local artists and Russian stars still maintain a strong presence in Central Asia. That is why, more than three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian musicians remain very popular in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
But while some Russian singers and bands freely perform in Central Asia, attracting thousands to their concerts, musicians who openly supported the Kremlin’s actions in Ukraine have been banned from playing there. Russia’s oldest still-active rock band, Mashina Vremeni, received threats ahead of its concerts in Kyrgyzstan in 2023, because its founder, Andrey Makarevich, while condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine, expressed support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
His fellow performer Morgenstern also found himself in a difficult position. Recognised as a foreign agent at home, where he faces up to two years in prison, he was labelled a “bad influence” on young people in Kyrgyzstan, which is why he had to cancel his concerts in the landlocked Central Asian state. Russian singers, therefore, seem to have a hard time balancing their political views with their careers, especially if they aim to perform in what Moscow sees as its near abroad.
American musicians, on the other hand, do not seem to face such challenges. Their growing presence in Central Asia resembles socialist Yugoslavia’s opening toward the West, following the country’s 1948 split from the Soviet sphere of influence. Nowhere was that break more visible than in the field of pop culture.
In the mid-1950s, American jazz performers such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Dave Brubeck, among others, played in Yugoslavia, which contributed to the growing popularity of jazz music – and later, rock ‘n’ roll – in the country. It was, therefore, no surprise that in 1974, amid the Cold War, Tina Turner performed in Belgrade, marking the beginning of a trend that saw popular American musicians regularly tour the Balkan nation throughout the 1980s and up to its breakup in 1991.
But unlike Central Asian states, Yugoslavia was never part of the Eastern Bloc, let alone the Soviet Union. That is why Soviet cultural influence in the country remained limited, while growing Western presence led to the emergence of the Yugoslav rock ‘n’ roll scene. In Central Asia, the region’s Soviet legacy means that American musicians, for the foreseeable future, are likely to face strong competition from Russian performers.