Golden Autumn-69 (Azerbaijani-Cyrillic. Гызыл пајыз-69) — a musical week held on October 23–29, 1969 in the Palace of Hand Games of Baku in pop, mugham and jazz genres. The festival was held by the All-Union Communist Youth Union of Lenin and the Culture Department of the Baku City Executive Committee.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, various song and rock competitions were held in Baku. "Golden Autumn-69" was the first of the "Golden Autumn" festivals and included the previous Baku music festivals. It was considered more successful than its predecessors, both in terms of the number of viewers and the level of professionalism of the performers. Thus, more than 400 members of the artistic self-activity association participated in the festival, most of them were professional musicians. The number of spectators was tens of thousands.
The program of the concert week included contests on popular music genres of that time in Azerbaijan — pop song, mugham and jazz music performers' contests. They were called "Estrada-69", "Mugam-69" and "Jazz-69", respectively, and lasted two days each. The winners of each competition were named "festival laureate" and awarded with first, second and third class diplomas.
In preparation for the next "Golden Autumn-71" festival, in 1970, inter-university competitions "AZI-1970", "AQU-51" were held in Baku.
Estrada-69
The III Baku festival of pop songs "Estrada-69" was held on October 23 and 24, 1969. About thirty singers from thirteen collectives of Baku city fought to win this festival. The jury of the competition included Rauf Atakishiyev, Jabir Novruz, Ogtay Kazimov, Leonid Weinstein, Vagif Mustafazadeh, Rafig Babayev and others, with the chairman of the Azerbaijan SSR honored artist, composer Zakir Bagirov.
"Express-118", "3+2", "Melody", "Minor", "Цвет" (), "Gamma", "Mashal", "Odlar", "Sun", "Black Rocks", "Ritm" and other groups had participated in the festival. Most of the vocalists were participating in the show for the first time. Compositions composed by Soviet, Azerbaijani and foreign composers were performed here in Azerbaijani, Russian, English and Persian.
On the first day of the festival, only new songs by Azerbaijani composers were performed. In addition to the songs of Tofig Babayev and Khayyam Mirzazade, as well as the songs of previous festival winners Eldar Behbudzade and Javanshir Zeynalli, many songs were presented by amateur authors and a total of 25 new songs were performed at the competition.
On that day, composer Ogtay Kazimov wrote to the words of poet Jabir Novruz "O life, what are you strange?!" The song was performed by the international vocal ensemble - Yen Ruda and Pris Kote, students of the GDR studying in Baku, Radi Fernandes from Cuba and Sedim Melum Eldaim from Algeria. Vagif Huseynov, who came from Leningrad, played a song dedicated to Baku with his guitar. Later, the "Odlar" instrumental ensemble performed the Azerbaijani folk song "Evlari var khana-khana".
In the continuation of the concert, "Gunesh" of repair and mechanical plant named after 26 Baku Commissioners, "Gamma" of Ilyich oilmen's culture palace, "Melody" of Baku city veterans' home and other collectives performed. Singer Emin Babayev, a student of the Azerbaijan State Conservatory, and young composers Eldar Rustamov (Said Rustamov's son), Eldar Behbudov, Eldar Bagirov, and Tunzale Kahramanova were among the pop singers. Guests from the regions of Azerbaijan and neighboring countries also participated in the event.
Also at the festival were the performances of the vocal-instrumental ensemble "Цвет" () of the Designing Institute of Azerbaijan State Oil Enterprises, the symphonic jazz of the Azerbaijan State Institute of National Economy named after D. Bunyadzade, the "Mashal" ensemble, singers Bijan Alizade, Ismayil Abdullahi and others. Bijan Alizadeh, the soloist of Mashal group, performed his song.
The first day of the third Baku Pop Song Festival, included in the program of the "Golden Autumn" music week at the Palace of Hand Games, ended late at night. The entire grandstand here was completely full. 17 bands from Baku performed on the first day of the festival. This festival was considered more successful than its predecessors both in terms of the number of spectators and the level of professionalism of the performer.