Tag Archives: culture

Kazakh DJ wins Grammy award

ALMATY/MARCH 14 2021 (The Bulletin) — A 20-year-old DJ from Aksu, near Pavlodar in Kazakhstan, won the country’s first Grammy award, considered to be perhaps the top accolade in music (March 14).

Imanbek Zeikenov won the Best Remixed Recording category for his remix of Saint Jhn’s 2016 song ‘Roses’.

“The best thing for a musician is to get a Grammy, we made it!” Imanbek, as he is known, said.

Kazakh President Kassym Jomart Tokayev sent his congratulations, highlighting the pride that Kazakhs, more used to winning boxing, wrestling and horse riding tournaments than music awards, have taken in the win.

“His work has demonstrated that gifted young people from Kazakhstan can reach great heights,” Mr Tokayev’s spokesman said.

Imanbek released his remix of ‘Roses’ onto Russian social media channels and then watched as it went viral. In March 2020 it rose to the top of the British singles charts.

Spotify, the music streaming app, said that it had been played 1.2b times.

He has since left his job working for Kazakh Railways to concentrate on making music.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Unesco recognises Kyrgyzstan’s kalpak as heritage item

DEC. 17 2019 (The Bulletin) — The tall white and black kalpak hat worn by Kyrgyz elders has been given Unesco heritage status. An AFP reporter in Bishkek reported that the government hopes the Unesco recognition of the kalpak will help boost tourism to Kyrgyzstan.
ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

New action movie targets dictator in ‘Turgistan’

DEC. 13 2019 (The Bulletin) — Netflix released a new action film about the overthrow of a dictator from a fictional country called Turgistan, a fantasy land that appears to be based on Turkmenistan.

In the movie ‘6 Underground’, a US tech billionaire launches a privately-funded mission to overthrow Rovach Alimov, president of Turgistan. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that as well as the name, scenes and language used by people in the film make it appear set in Turkmenistan. Central Asia has already featured a handful of times in spoof television programmes and films.

The 2006 film featuring fictional Kazakh reporter Borat caused Kazakhstan’s government years of grief and in 2013 the made-up state of Tazbekistan was the focus of a BBC comedy called ‘Ambassadors’.

ENDS

— This story was first published in issue 432 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 27 2019

Copyright owned by the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin