The international song contest ‘New Wave 2016’ is starting in Sochi, in Krasnodar Territory. The opening ceremony of the 15th anniversary contest with the participation of Russian pop stars is taking place in the New Wave hall at the moment. The festive program is being opened by Filipp Kirkorov, Sergei Lazarev and many other Russian pop stars.
In accordance with tradition, a toss-up determining the order of the singers’ performances on the first day of the competition will be held at the opening ceremony. Today the main participants of New Wave, the contestants, will appear on the stage. The viewers will see the flag ceremony of the participating countries, the dynamic toss-up, the professional representation of the jury members, and, of course, performances of Russian and foreign stars in a grand gala concert.
The program will be attended by Philip Kirkorov, the IOWA band, Irina Dubcova, Lubov Uspenskaya, Polina Gagarina, the Degrees band, the Band'eros band, Joseph Kobzon, Natasha Koroleva, Dominique Shutnik, Sergey Lazarev, Ani Lorak, Julianna Karaulova, Jasmine, Elena Temnikova, Valery Meladze and Konstantin Meladze, Larisa Dolina, Taisiya Povaliy, Zara, the Jukebox, the Children's Choir of the Igor Krutoy Academy of Popular Music ‘New Wave’, Angelika Varum, the Ukrainian singer Alexeev and Alexei Vorobyov.
The contestants this year comprise 16 artists from 12 countries. They are representatives of Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, Ukraine, Croatia and Estonia. Russia at New Wave-2016 will be represented by three participants at once: the N.E.V.A band from the city of Yekaterinburg, the singer, saxophonist and member of the show ‘The Voice’ Denis Sokolov from Novosibirsk, and the singer Yaseniya.
In total more than 10 thousand people applied to participate in the festival. The vocal abilities of the contestants will be assessed by a qualified jury chaired by People's Artist of Russia, producer and composer, Igor Krutoy. The jury consists of Leonid Agutin, Valery Meladze, Philip Kirkorov, Igor Nikolaev and other well-known artists and musicians.
The headliners of the festival this year will be Ricky Martin, who will open the competition, and Sting, who will perform at the closing ceremony on September 9th. The first day of the contest, September 4th, will be devoted to cinema. The contestants together with the stars will perform songs from popular movies.
Lara Fabian, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Anna Netrebko and Yuri Bashmet are expected to appear on the stage of New Wave.
On September 8th the participants will present to the jury and spectators premieres of their own songs, and stars of Russian show business will perform their hits. New Wave will close with a grand gala concert, the press service of the administration of Sochi reports.
