 Folk singer Bulbuljan, among others, spent 30 years of his life living and performing in Tiflis.Tiflis was also the hometown and academic locale for some of the most prominent Azerbaijani singers, such as Rashid Behbudov and the first Azerbaijani female opera singer Shovkat Mammadova, as well as to the first professional Azerbaijani female painter Geysar Kashiyeva, and the first female pianist Khadija Gayibova.Plays by Azeri writers were staged in Tbilisi already in 1872.