Jony (Russian singer)

Jahid Afrail oglu Huseynli (Cahid Əfrail oğlu Hüseynli; Джахид Афраил оглы Гусейнли; born 29 February 1996), known professionally as JONY, is an Azerbaijani singer, songwriter, and rapper. He is the winner of the second season of the Russian reality singing show The Masked Singer (2021) on NTV.

Early life and education
Jahid was born on February 29, 1996, in Baku to Azerbaijani parents. At the age of 4, he moved with his family to Moscow. At the age of 6, he went to the 1925th gymnasium in Novokosino. In the first grade, he began to sing in the school choir and impressed his teachers with his vocals. In ninth grade, he realized that he wanted to seriously pursue music.

However, Jony's father did not support his decision, as he wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a businessman. After graduating from school, Jony entered State University of Management at the Faculty of International Business without much enthusiasm.

After completing his Master's degree, Jony realized that he wanted to play music professionally and asked his father to give him a chance to try his hand at it. "I was 22 years old when I asked my father to give me a chance to try my hand at something I love. Working for my father, who is the director of the company, is the easiest way, but he did not suit me and did not satisfy my ambitions.

I only added at the same time that if something doesn’t work out for me, I will return and admit that I am a fool. But in the depths of my soul I knew that I could not come to my father with my head bowed and admit my defeat - what kind of man am I after that?".

Career
While studying at university, Jony began recording various cover-versions of popular songs and publishing them on his Instagram profile. He was noticed by Elman Zeynalov (El'man), who invited Jony to his RAAVA Music team.

Jony began working on his own songs and released five singles: "Empty Glass", "Friend Zone", "Star", "Alley" and "I'm Not Me Without You" (together with HammAli & Navai). The video filmed for the song "Alley" received more than 100 million views on YouTube.

In September 2019, Jony released the song "Comet", which soon topped the Apple Music chart and became the singer's signature song.

In 2020, the album "Heavenly Roses" was released.

In 2021, he left RAAVA Music and decided to pursue a solo career.

Artist nickname
As a child, Jahid liked the cartoon Johnny Bravo, so his mother jokingly began to call him Jony. Later, the singer began to introduce himself this way at school, when classmates could not remember his name. "'I got used to the name 'Jony', even my mother calls me that since I was three years old. Only my grandparents in Azerbaijan call me by my first name. But parents and friends - almost never. Most often 'Jony', 'Jo'.'"