Roya is a slut. I don’t like her.” So says a dark-haired Azerbaijani girl nestled on a barstool of the Universal Bar in downtown Baku, a spot where foreign oil workers can meet eligible young women for the right price.

Roya, a provocative young singing sexpot, is a tornado in Azerbaijan, a country of eight million mostly Shia Muslims who live in a thoroughly secular system.

Now freed of Soviet tanks, Azerbaijan stands at the crossroads; in one direction western materialism (they enjoy solid ties with the US and Israel), in the other a return to Muslim Shia orthodoxy, encouraged by neighbouring Iran.

Roya’s face stares down from the billboards (those not taken by images of President Aliev), her confidence and sensuality in stark contrast with the grey-eyed souls walking the streets. With her sultry looks and sizzling antics, she may be the perfect embodiment of a new Azerbaijan, long known as the Land of Fire because of the blazes that have burst from the soil since pre-history, leading fire-worshippers to create Zoroastrianism.

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Yet in the same celebrity magazines that refuse to offend Muslim sensibilities by discussing unmarried relationships, Roya is routinely pictured topless, or kissing a variety of young men and women. She swears on TV and appears semi-nude in her videos.

Recently one Sinatra-style old-time Azerbaijan crooner was asked what he thought of Roya and the flesh- baring generation of singers she inspires. “They should be shot,” he said, apparently speaking for many.

He might not like it, but there’s no denying Roya is leading a massive young Azeri demographic revolting against stifling tradition and seeking a more exciting future. In other words, Roya’s a sexy Azeri punk.

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/2602,features,roya-top-of-the-azerbaijani-pops