Result of international work

 

Author: VK

 

European countries began active preparations for the Eurovision Song Contest, which this year will take place in May in the city of Malmo. Sweden gote baton from Baku, which hosted the contest last year. In Malmö Farid Mammadov - soloist of Baku "Byulbyullyar" ("Nightingale") - will represent Azerbaijan, and Russia will be represented by the winner of the show "The Voice" Dina Garipova. At the end of last week, she presented the debut video for the first track in her career "What If", which will go to Sweden.

 

“According to the Eurovision rules, the song should be presented in two ways - sound and image”, Yuri Aksyuta, Musical Director of First Channel, says. “So we chose a simple, banal way - we made a concert videoclip. This is required by the competition. We put it on the internet. It will be published in a special selection of videos of previews of all the shows or, rather, songs. The work on the show only starts now. I know that in Estonia teh national selection started only two weeks ago, they also hardly have time to create a show. Some countries, like Sweden and Norway, do it simpler: they already have videos at the national competitions, that are sometimes more popular than Eurovision itself. We are preparing the show part, but we can clearly say that Dina will not dance and there will be no dancers. This I can say for sure. As for the rest, we have the possibilities of the stage, and we will decide what to do”.

 

According to Alexandr Gradsky, tutor of Dina Garipova at “The Voice”, “she was morally prepared even before the "Voice" competition because of her upbringing, she is morally ready for everything, even for Eurovision. I did very little, also because Eurovision in my opinion does not really need my influence. As for Dina, I think she is ready for any level of career, we are communicating as people. The word "tutor" is ridiculous, there were tutors in the "Voice" project, and there I had some influence, but also minimal.

 

Many points that are mandatory for the Eurovision participants seem strange to me. For instance, 40 new songs a year. Taking into account that there are about 5000-6000 songs written every year in various countries,  and all those who write songs have listened to Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, Chopin and other classical authors, taken part in various contests, listened to each other over the last 100 years. Eurovision is strange for me as a musician, because it purports to be a contest of songs, but the singer wins because what makes people vote is the singer”.

 

“I just do what I want - I sing”, Dina Garipova says. “Naturally, like anyone, I am nervous before an important step. It can appear in different ways. I am trying to hide it but sometimes I just go to my mum and say that I am scared, I won't go anywhere. But it will pass. I am trying to get used to the idea, I need to sing well.  And I am trying to work more on the song. I think that then the result will be positive. I do not always have time to listen to the songs of the other countries, but what I heard makes me think that this Eurovision will be very strong, the songs are very bright, the voices are good. I hope that the audience will get a lot of positive emotions. I did not have the impression that my song sounded like something, I immediately fitted, I did not have any doubt that I will sing it. Even if there are some references, I do not think that it is criminal. It is beautiful, bright, it may sound good, it can be presented beautifully, I will try to do everything for it”.

 

“Sometimes a song might be interesting, but it does not suit the singer”, Leonid Gudkin, musician, one of the authors of the song "What If", says. “On the other hand, a song can sound unexciting, but then somebody sings it and breathes life into it. I hope that we have both – the song is successful and that it suits Dina. When it was decided that this song was going to the contest, we made an arrangement with a backing orchestra and Dina sang it. Then my colleague from Sweden, Gariel Lars, he was impressed by that session. What you hear is the result of international work.

 

Well, some similarities are unavoidable with the amount of music that is created in the world. There are some harmonic sequences that are used more frequently than others. The same goes for classical music. The same in rock-n-roll or in blues, where not only the three cords are similar but the melodies as well. But, as far as I know, rock-n-roll authors do not accuse each other”.