Presentation of the Otan Ana album
The presentation of the album took place in the Arman cinema center in Almaty. The first part of the show featured pieces by performers on folk instruments, classical musicians, and pop groups from other countries. The real gift was the performance of a band of Batyr’s close friend Daler Nazarov, who showed the audience an amazing symbiosis of national Tajik and modern music. In the second part the duet “Musicola” came on stage, performing a remixed version of the song “Arman Zholdar”. Following the band, Batyr appeared on stage and performed the title song of the album, Otan Ana, along with a large number of songs beloved by the audience.

Work on the album
The work on the title song of the album of the same name was conducted for the whole year, and it was the song that set the tone for the whole album. Batyr was meticulous in his work, taking into account everything, from the arrangements to the pronunciation and sequence of songs. The vocals for Otan Ana were performed by opera singer Maira Mukhamedkyzy, who had just received Kazakhstani citizenship. Kuat Shildebayev wrote only two songs of the album at that period. The rest had been created earlier, but got a new sound in Batyr’s first solo album.

Talking about this album Batyr said,
“Discs are very difficult to sell now, because everything is in the Internet. We didn’t set a commercial goal after all. First - music, then - everything else. The Otan Ana album created jointly with Kuat Shildebayev, is a dedication to the motherland. We wrote it for a year and a half; and we lived through each song. This is not a slogan patriotism; one should speak about it very reverently, without shouting. Children are put to bed with the Otan Ana title song, it sounds like a lullaby. So we managed to convey something very important. When I sang this song, my son was several months old at that moment. I went to the microphone and, of course, I thought only about him, and apparently these feelings filled the song.”

How was the music created?
“In the arrangement, at the very beginning of the song there are dauylpaz – huge drums that make an archaic sound that used to call for warriors to defend their land. How that sound came to me, I can’t say exactly. It was somewhere in my subconscious. Kuat and I searched for the sound of these drums for days, listening to a huge number of sound libraries. We argued for a very long time. When we finally found those drums, as soon as the first “pattern” and the first percussion bars appeared, Kuat started playing the violin part and it was impossible to tear him away from the instrument. We didn’t leave the studio for a week, we were just captured by this powerful flow of energy – and this song emerged. We were helped by a beautiful, wise, unknown energy! This is an important point: how you have to be ready to create; understand what it is for and for whom.”

How the songs were recorded
Recalling the process of recording songs, Batyr said,
“You know, in the process of recording sometimes interesting things happen that are hard to explain. When Kuat and I were working on the Otan Ana album, there were many “gifts” from above. For example, we were recording a song, and suddenly I distinctly see a short episode from my childhood: I see myself as a child and my grandmother is next to me. As if for a moment I was allowed to look into a world that I can’t feel, but which is always there. Finishing recording the song, I go into the studio and Kuat says, “What a take! Let’s keep it.” Or, for example, the recording of “Uyiqta, bopem” when my son Maksut was born. He was about 30 days old at the time, and we’re working on the album. He’s in Riga. I’m here in Almaty. The deadlines are tight. There is a lot of work. And then they bring me the lyrics. I sing, and of course I thought about him at that moment. And from the second take, without correcting anything, we recorded a lullaby. Time passes after the album is released, and a miracle happens! It is to this song that my friends start putting their children to bed. And even without knowing the language, the children perceive this vibe. Isn’t that the meaning of creativity? So Kuat and I have managed to find depth and important meaning…”.

In 2006, Tvoi shagi, Batyr’s second album, was released. The lyrics of the song that gave the album its title were written by the poet and composer Yerkesh Shakeyev, based on a sad event from the past.

About the song Tvoi Shagi:
“Volodya Kovalyov, the author of the music, said that a strange thing happened to him when this tune was born. He said that he was somewhere, maybe it was in the Crimea, and that he was standing under a beautiful starry sky. And so, when this tune was born, he “felt the sky shake”. It was something very powerful, he said, a sign. This song took a long time to be born. I brought the melody to Yerkesh, he listened to it and said to me, “No, probably the song won’t work. It’s too English”. A year and a half passed. He was sitting in the kitchen with his wife, having a leisurely conversation. Suddenly the text came. He only had time to put it down on paper, as he told me later. He corrected maybe one or two words. The lyrics just came down, like a message. That’s how it was with the song “Nelyubimaya” by Yerkesh Shakeyev. Both the melody and the words came just like that all at once.

Leonid Agutin about the song Otpusti:
“I wrote this song a long time ago and sang it myself, at the dawn of the ‘90s. Then Vadim Azarkh sang it, but he went to live in London. The song was left without a singer. To be honest, I just really wanted to offer Batyr something, to work together somehow. The song suited him very well. And Batyr, of course, brought his inimitable handwriting. In general, the author was very pleased!”

In 2006, together with Ilya Khmyz, Batyr released an experimental instrumental album Superficial J, consisting of 8 compositions. The names of the songs and the album were invented by musician and friend of Batyr, Arman Murzagaliyev.

Several pieces from the album were recorded with the members of the JCS band: pianist Viktor Khomenkov and guitarist Yermek Diyarov.

In 2010 Batyr released his fourth solo album Ostorozhno, milaya devushka. The title was suggested to him by Alla Pugacheva. The first song of the album, “Nemnogo slez i moey lyubvi”, was recorded with the composer and arranger Oleg Tolstov three years before the album was released.

In 2010, Batyr’s fifth solo album, Vse proydet, was also released.

Vse proydet consists of 12 versatile and lyrical compositions, which were worked on together with Batyr by composer Yerkesh Shakeyev, member of the Dynamit band Ilya Zudin and other musicians.

Many songs for this album had been written long before the creation of the previous album, but Batyr wanted to make the album “Ostorozhno, milaya devushka” easy and did not include them in the final list. The song “Cena lyubvi” included in the album became the soundtrack for the domestic TV series “Gorod mechty” (City of Dreams).

In 2013, Batyr’s album Dusha, consisting of 11 compositions, was released.


Guitarist Baglan Sadvakassov, bassist Anton Revnyuk, sound engineer Vladimir Ossinski, and composer Pavel Yessenin, with whom the song “Brat” was recorded, took part in the work on the album.

In 2015, Batyr’s new album Amanat was presented.

The album contains 10 compositions by different composers, including: Kuat Shildebayev, Yerkin Yntykbayev, Rinat Gaisin, Tolegen Mukhamedjanov and Shamshi Kaldayakov. A team of professionals worked on the album, including Batyrkhan’s friends Rinat Gaisin, Kuat Shildebayev, his director Olzhas Baykanov and many others.

Olzhas Baykanov, former director of the Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation:
“This album was supposed to be released by Batyr himself. Some songs have been recorded a long time ago, and others were completed within recent months. This album is a very beautiful, I have not stopped listening to it for several weeks. Some songs you may have already heard somewhere, I hope you like “Amanat”. I want to express my gratitude to everyone who helped to release the album”, says Olzhas Baykanov, a close friend of the singer and director of the Batyrkhan Shukenov Foundation.

“Aldar Kose”
The composition “Aldar Kose” was recorded four years earlier as part of the work on the Kazakh TV series Aldar Kose, the musical producer of which was Batyr.
The series tells a famous story of a good and resourceful poor man who fought injustice and helped the common people.

In 2017 there was a presentation of the music video for the song “Nas iscelyayet lyubov”, timed to coincide with Batyrkhan Shukenov’s Memorial Day. The demo version of the singer’s vocals was recorded back in the fall of 2014. After the singer’s death, the work on the music video was interrupted, but its author, the young composer Alim Zairov, decided to finish the song at all costs.

Alim Zairov:
“For a long time I’ve been creating music for movies. The song “Nas iscelyayet lyubov” was my debut in this genre and my first experience working with such a professional artist. I remember from my childhood how A-Studio and Batyrkhan’s songs were played in our house. I never missed a single concert of my idol, and when I had an opportunity to offer him to write music for him, I didn’t miss it.
I was inspired by his consent, and the song was written literally in one evening. The composition “Tvoi shagi” was a model for me, but I wanted to create something original. Batyrkhan Kamalovich liked it immediately, he only made a couple of corrections. I got a lot of sound advice from him on the musical part. We recorded the vocal part without words, and I asked my classmate, the poetess Yulia Ten, to write the lyrics.”

Poetess Yulia Ten said she wrote the lyrics about hope, love and the cyclical nature of life.
“Originally Batyrkhan wanted to see a text about the sea, but it turned out to be a little bit different song. It talks about the sun rising sooner or later, and after it rains, a rainbow appears, just as life is reborn again after death. It seems to me that in this song the word ‘sun’ represents Batyr himself. It talks about not giving up and being disappointed in life and never saying goodbye”.


Batyrkhan gave the songwriter a lot of advice on arranging the song, but he didn’t have time to finish working on the musical component of the composition.

The album Osen was presented to the public in 2019 as a gift collection of all solo albums. Batyr worked on it during the last year of his life. The songs were recorded together with the Russian composer Pavel Yessenin. The cover for the album was created by the designer Arys Arenov and Batyr’s son Maksut.


Pavel Yessenin, recalling the process of working on the song, said,

“I received several verses and literally in five minutes the first sketches of the melody were born. The song as a whole consists of guitars; it is very lively. Batyr is one of the few performers, and creative people in general, musicians who understand me. I don’t need to explain anything to him. This is the main factor in the positive result of our work together.”

The album Best was included in the gift edition of Batyrkhan Shukenov’s albums, published in 2019.

Batyr kept the idea of creating the album for many years; it reflects the milestones of his solo work: the singer expressed them through a selection of songs, where even the number is not random – 17 when added together gives infinity.