On Monday, according to their producer, Ksenia Rubtsova, the Buranovskiye Babushki, a sextet of Russian grannies who won the national Eurovision-2012 selection contest, started rehearsals in their home village of Buranovo. Rubtsova said, “It’s easier, better, and more convenient for the grannies to rehearse at home. The group spent ten days in Moscow and its participants miss their relatives and homes. Of course, there’ll be rehearsals in Moscow, but the Buranovskiye Babushki will sing at home for the moment”. On Tuesday, a crew from the state Rossiya TV channel will arrive in Buranovo, which is in the Republic of Udmurtia in the Urals, to stage their show for Eurovision. The sextet of babushkas faced a tough competition in the final selection from 24 other Russian contenders, including 2008 Eurovision winner Dima Bilan, but in the end, they won the hearts of jurors and TV viewers by performing “Party for Everybody” in the Udmurt language. The colourful grannies, some of them over 70 years old, don’t speak English and their folk-style performance includes their own songs and covers of many international music hits. They mostly sing in Russian and Udmurt. The group first tried for the Eurovision contest in 2010, but lost in the selection round.
Late on Wednesday night, the six babas of the Buranovskiye Babushki won the Russian national contest to have the honour of representing Russia at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan on 22-26 May. The sextet of babushkas faced a tough competition in the final selection from 24 more Russian contenders, including 2008 Eurovision winner Dima Bilan, but in the end, they won the hearts of jurors and TV viewers by performing Party for Everybody in the Udmurt language. The colourful grannies, some of them over 70 years old of age, don’t speak English and their folk style performance includes their own songs and covers of many international music hits. They mostly sing in Russian and Udmurt.
The Buranovskiye Babushki come from the village of Buranovo in the Urals, in the Republic of Udmurtia. They first tried for the Eurovision contest in 2010, but lost in the selection round. The Russian grannies won’t be lonely among the traditionally young European contenders at the Eurovision, as Britain earlier announced that it decided to send the famous Engelbert Humperdinck to Azerbaijan, who turns 76 in May, and whose latest hit was almost 40 years ago. 42 countries will participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in the Azeri capital of Baku.
The programmes of the Year of France in Russia and the Year of Russia in France shall be presented in Paris later today. Under an agreement between the leaders of the two countries, large-scale cultural events shall be staged simultaneously in 2010. An exhibition entitled Holy Russia in Paris shall be the culmination of the event. A tour of the Comédie-Française theatre troupe in Russia is one of the French offerings.
A Still Life with Fruits by the early-20th-century artist Natalia Goncharova fetched a record price of 2.28 million pounds (105.71 million roubles. 2.881 million euros. 4.446 million USD) at yesterday’s Russian art auction at Sotheby’s. The Winter Landscape by Ivan Aivazovsky went for 555,000 pounds (25.742 million roubles. 702,329 euros. 1.082 million USD), seven times that of the start-up price. Zinaida Serebryakova’s Nude was sold for more than a million pounds (46.383 million roubles. 1.265 million euros. 1.95 million USD), about five times higher than expected. The auction’s organisers say it pushed a plank for Russian art sales further up.
The charitable foundation that funded the recent restoration of the Konstantin Palace near St Petersburg bought a world-famous collection of Russian art, namely the collection of Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky. The collection is the second world-famous collection of Russian artworks that’s due to be put on display at the Konstantin Palace. Last year, the Palace obtained the collection of Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya.
Not exactly from this festival… a funny beer ad, though.
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The 10th International Beer Festival is due in Moscow from the 14th to the 22nd of this month. Guests to the event are welcome to taste up to 130 sorts of beer by more than 20 breweries. The visitors will be likewise welcome to a retrospective exhibition of beer and to a beer museum featuring a great number of exhibits. Another highlight of the event is a firework festival, a highlight that’ll be around every day until the beer festival is over.
The Moscow city government said that the city is prepared to play host to next year’s Eurovision international music contest, if Moscow is chosen as the venue for the event. Russia qualified for the right to host the competition following Russian singer Dima Bilan’s recent victory in Belgrade. Dima performed the song Believe Me accompanied by dancing by the world-famous Olympic champion figure-skater, Yevgeny Plyushchenko, and the playing of Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton, who played a Stradivarius, ensured him a record 272 points. So far, the venue for Eurovision-2009 hasn’t yet been determined. The likely candidates are Moscow, St Petersburg, and Sochi.
At the beginning of 2010, Moscow’s Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts shall treat art lovers in Tokyo to an exhibition of pictures by the Russian avant-garde painter, graphic artist and photographer Aleksandr Rodchenko. The Tokyo newspaper Asahiis expected to offer its sponsorship for the project at talks in Moscow next month. This was confirmed by the chief curator of the Pushkin Museum, Dr Irina Antonova.
International band festival in St Petersburg dedicated to Russia Day
Golubiye Bereti (The Blue Berets), A Russian Army rock band
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An international brass band festival in St Petersburg is dedicated to Russia Day. The combined orchestra will march in a grand procession along the Nevsky Prospekt to lend a festive atmosphere to the city on Thursday, 12 June. Last on the holiday agenda are several extravaganza concerts at sports complexes and concert halls. Also on Thursday, the Palace Square in front of the Winter Palace shall host a gala concert of Russian pop stars to the accompaniment of military bands.
More than 50 well-known jazz bands from different countries shall perform at an open-air jazz festival that kicked off at the Arkhangelskoye estate and museum near Moscow today. The program covers all genres, swing, lounge, funk, ethno-jazz, fusion, and even jazz-rock. Russia is represented by Igor and Oleg Butman, Aleksei Kozlov with his Arsenal band, and the Billy’s Band group. There will be a competition of young jazzmen. Jazz lovers are in for a real treat, an exclusive concert by a legendary American jazz ensemble, the Charlie Hunter Trio.
Noah’s Ark International Film Festival opens in Chechen capital
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The Noah’s Ark International Film Festival opens in the Chechen capital of Grozny later today. It is aimed at bringing closer people of various nationalities, faiths, and culture. Among the guests of the festival are Hollywood stars Mark Dacascos and Armand Assante. The jury has selected 44 films from 21 countries. The organisers hope to stage the festival annually.
After two days of picketing by City Hall deputies and Cossacks, a memorial to Tsaritsa Yekaterina Velikaya was unveiled in Sevastopol on Sunday. City Hall initiated the move despite Kiev’s unhappiness with the installation, which was initially expected on Saturday. Sevastopol was founded as the main base for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which recently marked its 225th anniversary.
Russian writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya grabbed one of the most prestigious European literary prizes, the Grinzane Cavour Prize, for her novel Sincerely Yours, Shurik. The awards ceremony was held on Saturday in a medieval castle located on the outskirts of the Italian city of Torino. Previously, Ulitskaya’s other works were also much admired by the reading public in Italy, whose youth jury jointly with students from MGU and St Petersburg State University awarded Ulitskaya the prize.
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