Countries: Afghanistan, an ABU member country.

Afghanistan is a country located in the southern part of Central Asia, bordering with Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan and China. It has got a population of 22 million citcens and two official languages are spoken, Pashto and Dari (Persian dialect). This country is known for the music fans for having taken part in the ABU TV Song Festival.

National Broadcaster.

The afghan broadcasting entity is the RTA (Radio Television Afghanistan), which was founded in 1925, started its radio broadcasts, which at first, only covered Kabul and the surrounding regions.  Then the coverage of the station covered other important afghan cities such as Kandahar. The television service, was launched in 1964, but it started operating regularly 14 years later. The history of this company has been heavily influenced by the political unstability of the country.

Entertainment Industry.

Afghanistan had before the end of the 1970's decade a booming entertainment scene. During that time, thanks to the promotion of the pop music by the national television, music stars such as Naghma, Parasto and Hangama appeared, but the golden times of the afghan pop music went away due to the civil war that has been devasting the country for decades. The famous singers from the previous era had to leave their country.

Nowadays from the fall of the taleban regime, pop music has returned with some limitations, and the exiled musicians usually return in order to perform in concerts and TV programmes.

From left to right: Some singers that have represented or could represent afghanistan in the ABU TV Song Festival. The country could also participate in the future ABU TV Cup Song Contest, the competitive song festival which is scheduled to premiere in early 2017.

Aryana Sayeed	Mozhdah Jamalzadah	Elaha Soroor
Farhad Darya	Shahzad Adeel	Hamid Shakhizada
Naghma

Afghanistan in the ABU TV Song Festival

Afghanistan has taken part four times in the ABU TV Song Festival, but in the third edition, the national broadcaster decided to withraw.
The country returned to the ABU TV Song Festival in 2015 thanks to Saba TV, a private broadcaster which is also member of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union. This time, Mozhdah Jamalzadah, represented her country turning into the very first feemale singer to represent Afghanistan in the ATSF. One year later Seeta Qasimi represented her country.
It's still unknown if RTA will participate in the ABU TV Cup Song Contest in 2017.

2012: Hamid Shakhizada: Malestani.

2013: Shahzad Adeel: Ma ba tu em.

2015: Mozhdah Jamalzadah: Ghoorore tu shikaste ma.

2016: Seeta Qasimi: Taraneh ishq