First tour of “ENUvision 2018” casting was held in the Eurasian National University, February 15th. Dozens of students came to the casting with a goal to test their strength and demonstrate their voice. There were a lot of participants and everybody wanted to win the main prize which is 150.000 tg.
You could see boys and girls, students of different courses, different specialties, different voices and appearances, but desire to win unites them all.
According to the regulations, participants had to sing two songs acapella. Curiously, juri of the competition decided to make a process more interesting. After planned performance a participant needed to improvise. Some of them panicked, but the others immediately found a way out of the situation and sang one more song.
History of ENUvision started from 2013. Organisators of this vocal project are from Student’s self management of ENU and producer center “E-studio”. The project consists of three stages: first tour, second tour and final.
The finalist of “ENUvision 2013”, Lyazzat Koshkunbayeva, shared with us her experience, opinion on “ENUvision 2018” and useful tips in the interview below:
I: Good afternoon, Lyazzat! Can you tell us about yourself? Where do you study? What specialty?
L: Hello. For the sixth year I have been studying at ENU, I have completed my bachelor’s degree and continue to study at the master level here. I study at the Faculty of Social Sciences, on the specialty – pedagogy and psychology. In general, I’m a psychologist. Regarding this competition, I am an “old man” of the competition, because in 2013 we were finalists and have since remained in the “E-studio”, sometimes as a jury.
I: How did you decide to participate in this contest?
L: I was on my first year. The contest was held in April. Then there was more advertising. About the contest spoke in advance, a few weeks before, there were also posters. The current contestants find out the day before or the morning before the casting. And then all the friends rivaled with each other telling me to go and try.
I: Do you have a special musical education?
L: No, I started singing only at the university.
I: What songs did you perform then?
L: I mostly sing songs in Russian and English. On the first round I sang “Infinity” by Makpal Isabekova and “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera.
I: What can you say about the current casting? Did someone remember the performance? L: For now, frankly, I remember only a few participants, and I do not remember their names. I often perform and act with those songs that usually sing in karaoke, or those who did not practice vocals professionally and sing popular songs. For example, “Tugan zher” by KeshYou, “Altyn besik” by Indigo, “Lullaby” by Polina Gagarina. I would like to see the contestants have more creativity and more of themselves. They are trying to copy someone else. Once I was sitting on the casting and heard the girl trying to sing Shakira. Both songs were performed in the manner of Shakira, but not in the manner of the girl. Again, this year came a boy who sang in the style of Frank Sinatra, not in his voice. Plus, when I made a comment, he replied that it should be so. Creativity means that a person express himself, he need to reveal himself. If this is not an excellent copy, then all the rest be in vain.
I: But, as such, did not you see or hear the individuals in the casting?
L: To be honest, I can not name anyone. This already says a lot.
I: Lyazzat, thank you very much for the useful information!
Remind you, the first tour was held on February 15th and the second tour will be expected on February 19th.
Anzhela Kaliyeva
