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

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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."

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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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