Long before Q-pop had a name, Kazakhstan was already singing along to Yerbolat. Ерболат Құдайбергенов (Yerbolat Kudaibergenov) writes and sings in Kazakh, and his songs were travelling hand to hand online more than a decade ago: a fan upload of “Lyazzat Alauy” from December 2011 has passed 4.8 million views, and “Men Kazakpyn” (“I Am Kazakh”), uploaded by a fan in 2012, has more than 2.7 million. That was three years before the boy band Ninety One kicked off Q-pop in 2015.
The songs
Yerbolat’s catalogue is built on warm, singable Kazakh love songs and anthems. On his own channel, “Erke qyz” and “Sen sulu” have each passed 1.2 million views, “Lyazzat Alauy” another 1.1 million, and “Zhanarym”, released in August 2026, is already past 700,000. “Boijetken” is close to half a million. A best-of compilation of his songs keeps finding new listeners, and the comment sections read like a family gathering: generations who grew up on these melodies, singing them again.
Live on OYU
The best way in is his OYU Live session, “Bіzdіñ jіgіtter” (“Our guys”), filmed in 2023 for the Central Asian live-music project OYU and produced by QARA Studios. It is credited as written by Yerbolat himself, sung live with a full band, and it shows why his voice has lasted: no gimmicks, just a song a whole room knows by heart. The performance is close to 200,000 views.
On the big stages
Yerbolat’s song “I Am Kazakh” has gone to some of the biggest stages in the country’s music: Dimash Qudaibergen, Kazakhstan’s best-known voice abroad, performed it with Yerbolat and Alashuly at the gala concert for Almaty’s 1000th birthday and at a UNESCO event in Paris.
Today’s Q-pop and Kazakh hip-hop sing in Kazakh with confidence. Yerbolat was doing it first, and his songs are still on everyone’s lips.
