Finalist of The Voice Kids divested of Turkish 'Eurovision'
As Realnoe Vremya found out, Tatar stars also became victims of the blazing Russia-Turkey conflict as well as Yunus Emre's Educational Centre that was closed recently. Tatarstan officially refused to participate in the Turkish analogue of Eurovision called Turkvision that will be held on 13-20 December. The Republic of Tatarstan was to be represented by 'Yamle kyzlar' (Beautiful Girls) in the competition among adults and Saida Mukhametzyanova, a finalist of The Voice Kids, in the contest among younger participants, which will be held for the first time.
A secret ban
The abrogation of contracts with TURKSOY (analogue of the Turkish UNESCO) and the refuse from participation in Turkvision of a number of regions of Russia belonging to the Turkic language family was the reaction to Vladimir Medinsky's statement, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, who insistently recommended to severe links with the International Organization of Turkish Culture.
A telegram was sent to the administration of Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Altai Krai and other regions. It was said that, 'I have to inform you about the position of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation on the necessity of urgent termination of all contacts of the regions of Russia with TURKSOY international organization'.
It should be noted that the contest of Turkvision doesn't have a direct bearing on Turkey. It was created in 2013 by an Azerbaijan channel called TMB TV. In Kazan, the relationships are maintained through Maidan channel that has a contact with the organizers.
Now in a post of one of the pages of Turkvision in Facebook it is stated that 'due to the pressure of Russia' the number of participating countries reduced from 28 to 21. 'After some known events Bashkortostan, Yakutia, Tyva, Altai and Khakasia refused to take part. While the Tatars, Karachay and Balkars, Nogai, Crimean and the region of Moscow didn't specify their status. Due to the refuse of participation of Russia and its dependent regions, there will be only 21 countries… This year the contest will have the least number of participants.' Another consequence of Russia-Turkey conflict was the decision to change the host capital of Turkvision in 2016 from Ufa to Sheki (Azerbaijan).
'I was very upset'
The Republic of Tatarstan was to be represented by 'Yamle kyzlar' quartet (Beautiful Girls) in the competition among adults and Saida Mukhametzynova, a finalist of The Voice Kids, in the junior contest, which will be held for the first time.
As Ildar Karim, Saida's producer, said to 'Realnoe Vremya', he knew Tatarstan was not going to participate on 30 November on the Internet.
'I didn't receive any message from the organizers of 'Turkvision', I just read it in the news. Later the official representatives of the contest in Kazan told us about it. It was an unpleasant surprise for us,' said Karim.
For Saida Mukhametzyanova the Turkish 'Eurovision' was an excellent opportunity to prove herself: a fourteen-year-old singer would take part in the contest of this scale.
'We saw on Maidan that this year there will be a Junior Turkvision. We filed an application and won in the elimination round. It would be the first participation in a contest of this scale. When we knew the news, we were upset. We prepared the song, the arrangement was ordered, everything was paid. Unfortunately, we knew Tatarstan was not going to participate in Turkvision only yesterday,' said Zilya in the interview with 'Realnoe Vremya'.
For the performance, Saida prepared a song called 'Komesh sular' (Silver Waters; music by Renat Kharisov, lyrics by Elmira Nizamova). As the girl's mother said, the song was recommended by Albina Sharipjanova, who took the 4th place in Turkvision-2013. By the way, in 2014, Tatarstan was represented by Aydar Suleymanov who sang a song whose lyrics belong to Elmira Nizamova as well; Aydar took the 2nd place.
According to Saida Mukhametzyanova, she will sing this song in the 'Sozvezdiye-Yoldyzlyk' festival (Constellation) but now she is going to bend her efforts to studies. 'Undoubtedly, I was very upset. There will be many countries in the contest… Nowadays I bend all my efforts to my studies because now I am in the eight grade, the ninth one is ahead (at Russian schools there are Final State Exams for students after the ninth and eleventh grades). For this moment, it is the most important thing. As for contests, I will participate in 'Constellation' with this song.'
'No one forbade us, but the government of Tatarstan advised not to participate'
Gulnaz Battalova, a singer of 'Beautiful Girls', told 'Realnoe Vremya' although they had participated in many big music events, for their quartet the Turkvision would be their first large-scale contest.
'We knew it officially on 3 December. Indubitably, we understood we were not going there during 5 days, but, according to the latest data, all regions refused to participate except Tatarstan, so we hoped that the situation would change. No one forbade us to take part, but the government of Tatarstan recommended not to participate, who knows the consequences. Tatarstan doesn't want problems, first of all, we were going to represent our republic.
As the soloist of the quartet said, in the Turkvision the girls were to sing a song that was written especially for the contest. It is called 'Miras' (Heritage; music by Gulnaz Battalova and Aynur Sharapov, lyrics by Ilgiz Shaikhraziev). Our interlocutor hopes that in future they will be able to perform the composition in 'Turkvision-2016'.
Changed rules of Turkovision for Saida
'Realnoe Vremya' sent a request to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan and organizers of 'Turkvision 2015', but no answer was received before the publication. However, Damir Davletshin, the director of Maidan channel and one of the organizers of the contest from Tatarstan, commented the situation.
'It turned out that the Ministry of Сulture of Yakutia was the first to refuse to participate. It was followed by Bashkiria and other regions then. 'Maidan' organized everything using its own funds, but when we consulted the organizers, we decided it would better to wait in order to avoid problems. We cannot put the republic on the line and assume this responsibility. On Monday, we waited for something to change in Paris but then understood that nothing changed. On Tuesday (1 December) I called Islam Bagirov, the coordinator of the contest. Then it was decided not to take part,' told Damir Davletshin, the director of Maidan TV channel.
According to him, Medinsky's statement it was insistently recommended to refuse to collaborate with TURKSOY, was extremely loud. But it influenced the decision not to participate. In Damir Davletshin's view, the Turkish party reacted to Tatarstan's refuse a bit harshly.
Our interlocutor supposes that, 'The other party reacted a bit harshly, I didn't like it. 'All right' is what they answered. It should probably be said another way. In this respect, our republic is maybe wiser'.
The most interesting thing is that for Saida Mukhametzyanova this contest would be special at least for the reason that initially in the junior contest only singers under 13 years could take part. But, as Davletshin noted, he asked the administration of 'Turkvision' to raise the age till 14 for Saida. The singer from Tatarstan won't be able to participate in the contest next year.
Realnoe Vremya sent requests to the Turkvision via the official page of the portal, but no answer was received by the newspaper before the publication.