Kazakh superstar Dimash on his genre-defying music, heritage and the World Nomad Games

euronews (in English)

In an exclusive interview with Euronews, Dimash discusses his unique fusion of classical, Kazakh and contemporary music, and his mission to spread his "country’s culture, songs, and traditional music to the world."

Transcript

00:00Now you were classically trained and offered a position at the Astana Opera but declined

00:20that and chose to pursue a career in contemporary music mixed with classic and traditional Kazakh

00:27music. Why is that?

00:29I remember that time when Astana Opera's director invited me to work with them together

00:37but I preferred to perform in all genres of music so because of this I have a choice.

00:45Just a couple of months ago my dream became true when I got an invitation from Maestro

00:52Placido Domingo in Europe we did a performance together. He told me you have only two days

00:59if you can please let's prepare this music, this aria for our fans. I said I can't say

01:16no. When I was five years old at my home I had a VHC with Placido Domingo's concert,

01:29with Pavarotti's concert and that person made me a singer and I told him about it. I said

01:38I become a singer from five years old because of your concerts because I want to be like

01:44you and I think for him it's normal.

01:49So how would you describe your style?

01:52Five years ago I described just like neoclassic style but right now I think of course still

02:02neoclassic style but I love to sing in all kinds of music. I want to show my pop vocalist

02:13skills and sometimes rock vocalist skills and sometimes I'm doing rap on the stage.

02:20I want to try to sing in all kinds of styles.

02:24Why is culture and music so integral to the Kazakhstan identity?

02:31I think because in our traditional musics you can learn all our history and when I was

02:45four or five years old my grandfather he teach me how to play dombra. Dombra is our national

02:54traditional instrument and if you are truly Kazakh you must need to learn dombra.

03:05I'm proud to be Kazakh because right now I have a big mission. I become an international

03:16singer not because I want to earn money, not because of that kind of commercial things,

03:22only because I want to introduce our country's culture, our songs, our traditional music

03:29for all worldwide audience.

03:32The World Nomad Games will end with a solo concert from you, so what can we expect?

03:38When our governments told me about they want to invite me to opening ceremony I'm not think

03:46too much I said yes because I know how it's important for our country, how it's important

03:52for our culture. I'm so excited and a little bit nervous of course because when I'm doing

03:57concert in other countries it's more easy but when I'm doing concert in Kazakhstan it's

04:07more difficult for me because your teachers coming, your vocal coach is coming so it's

04:14very, very, very how to say, little bit difficult.

04:22World Nomad Games

04:25World Nomad Games

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