He was born in the village of Horadiz, in the present-day
Fizuli District,
Azerbaijan. He lost his father at a young age and was raised by his aunt Meshadi Khurzad, who was a folk singer. Shushinski received primary education at a religious school in his hometown. Thanks to his musical talent, he joined his first musical ensemble at the age of 15. He made his first public performance in 1908 in
Shusha, which proved to be a great success and brought the 19-year-old singer big fame in the city. At his uncle's insistence, Shushinski completed another 2 years of musical education at
Mir Mohsun Navvab's school and was recognized as a professional khananda. His performance was admired outside the Azeri community. In 1911 he was invited by the Armenian club
Obschestvennoe sobranie to give a concert in
Tiflis (nowadays Tbilisi,
Georgia), first one in a series of remarkable concerts given by Shushinski in this city in the next 8 years. The money made off these concerts was donated to various Azeri publishing houses and spent on training young singers in vocal arts. In 1913 a vinyl record was released in
Kiev containing, among others, several folk pieces by Seyid Shushinski. In 1919 he moved to Baku. ==Career in the Soviet period==