Muslim Magomayev was born on 17 August 1942 in the city of Baku. He first performed at the age of 14, at a sailors' club. At 19 he began gaining fame through successful performances at the Helsinki youth festival, and in 1963, at the Days of Azerbaijani Culture held in Moscow. In the 1960s he was a soloist of the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre, and he trained at La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy. With Enrico Piazza he prepared the part of Figaro from the opera The Barber of Seville and Scarpia from the opera Tosca. In 1966 he gave his first concert at the Olympia concert hall in Paris. In 1968 he graduated from the Azerbaijan State Conservatory. In 1969 he won his first prize at the International Song Festival held in Sopot, Poland. In 1975 he was appointed artistic director of the Azerbaijan State Pop Symphony Orchestra. With this orchestra he gave concerts in a number of cities across the Soviet Union as well as in France, Bulgaria, Poland, Finland, Canada and Iran. From the 1970s he dedicated his life to popular music and achieved unprecedented popularity. He performed throughout the former USSR, gave concerts in stadiums, was given extensive television coverage, and his records were released in huge print runs. His repertoire was comprehensive and extremely wide-ranging. Alongside popular songs he skilfully performed world hits, classical works, and songs written for films. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan and was awarded a number of orders and medals.
