Opening Ceremony of European Games honored two Emmy awards
By Amina Nazarli
The grand Opening Ceremony of Baku 2015 European Games, solemnly held last summer in Azerbaijan, has been honored Emmy awards.
The 43rd annual Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, honoring
excellence in all fields of daytime programming, took place in Los
Angeles on April 29.
Samaya Mammadova, spokesperson of the Azerbaijani Youth and Sport
Ministry, said that the impressive ceremony was successful in two
awards out of claimed six categories.
The event received awards in “Sound mixing” and “Outstanding
lighting direction” categories.
Artistic director of the opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games, was the world-famous professional Dimitris Papaioannou, who created several groundbreaking shows that have been performed all over the world to a combined audience of hundreds of thousands.
"My appointment as the official in charge to create the Baku
2015 Opening Ceremony is both an honor and a challenge," he
commented his participation in the project last summer. "My aim is
to tell a universal human story using elemental Azerbaijani
ingredients in a way that is contemporary, inventive and playful,
but always respectful of the culture's enormous richness and
depth."
The opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games on June 12,
which astonished all of Europe with its Azerbaijani culture-themed
production, was a spectacular and memorable kick off to a momentous
sporting event.
A team of world-renowned artistic and production team provided audiences around the world with breathtaking performances of traditional Azerbaijani folk and classical music, poems from famed national poet Nizami Ganjavi, and showcased the national symbols of Azerbaijan like carpets and the pomegranate.
One of the most exciting moments of the opening ceremony for the 1st European Games was undoubtedly the performance of world renowned-pop singer Lady Gaga, who performed an astounding rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”
As many as 68,000 people in Baku’s Olympic stadium along with millions around the world tuning in watched the opening ceremony of the long-awaited Baku 2015, welcoming 6,000 athletes from 50 European nations in 20 sports between June 12 and 28.
--
Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz