Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The third International Competition of Vocalists in Memory of Muslim Magomayev will take place on December 1-4 in Truskavets, Ukraine.

The contestants will perform the academic (opera) repertoire and pop song of Muslim Magomayev in two qualifying rounds, Azertag reported.

The young talents, taking part in the contest, should also perform Ukrainian folk song "I Look at the Sky" from the repertoire of Muslim Magomayev.

Talented singers (16-40 years old), including students of music universities and colleges are invited to take part in the international contest.

All participants passed the preliminary blind selection by audio. For the final selection in Truskavets, the performers who scored the most points in the blind selection were invited.

Over the years of its existence, the festival received applications of talented singers from Ukraine, Moldova, the Netherlands, the USA, Uzbekistan, Lithuania and Kazakhstan.

This year there is a very strong professional composition of the participants: due to the quarantine, young opera singers who worked on contracts abroad returned to Ukraine and are taking part in the competition. Also among the fifteen finalists there are famous singers, participants of the " Voice" singing competition.

Due to anti-epidemic requirements, the competition will be held in a mixed format of television shooting: participants, jury members and producers will be present at the qualifying rounds.

Spectators will be able to join the competition virtually.

The qualifying rounds and the gala concert will be shown on the official page of the competition.

The competition is co-organized by Muslim Magomayev Azerbaijan Cultural Center and the Truskavets City Council.

The project is supported by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Ukraine, the State Committee on Work with Diaspora .

For many decades, Muslim Magomayev has been and remains the idol of music lovers around the world.

With his incredible baritone, Muslim Magomayev greatly enriched Azerbaijani musical culture. His life was full of bright events which still excite music lovers around the world.

The legendary singer inherited his passion for music from his family. His grandfather also named Muslim Magomayev (1885–1937), was considered one of the founders of modern Azerbaijani classical music.

His music career started at a very young age. He was only 19 when he first performed at an international youth music festival in Helsinki. His brilliant performance was highly appreciated by a Soviet politician Yekaterina Furtseva and the Minister of Culture of the Soviet Union, who offered him to be a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater. However, Magomayev declined this offer.

A year later, Magomayev performed at the Days of Azerbaijani Culture in Moscow. He sang an aria from Gounod’s Faust, and the song "Do the Russians Want War?" at a gala concert at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

A year later, he gave his first solo concert in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Concert Hall to a full house and became a soloist of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.

In 1964 and 1965, Muslim was a visiting artist at La Scala in Milan, but turned down the invitation to sing in the Moscow Bolshoi Theater upon his return. Instead, the singer turned to popular music, becoming a pop idol for several generations of music lovers in the Soviet Union.

Muslim Magomayev became a cult figure all across the Soviet Union. He performed three concerts a day filling huge arenas.

In 1969, he received the MIDEM Gold Disc Award in Cannes for album sales of over 4.5 million units. At the age of 31, Muslim was awarded the Soviet Union's highest artistic title: People's Artist of the USSR.

Magomayev moved to Moscow in the early 1970s. He worked as an art director of the Azerbaijan State Bandstand-Symphonic Orchestra.

The singer successfully toured many countries, including France, Bulgaria, Finland, Canada, etc.

Magomayev was also known as a composer, writing several film soundtracks and songs. He also acted in films and hosted television and radio broadcasts.

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