The Road to Yalta festival opened in the Kremlin

MOSCOW, April 28 The sixth international music festival “Road to Yalta” opened at the State Kremlin Palace, songs about the Great Patriotic War were performed in native languages foreign vocalists-competitors from 15 countries, the correspondent reports.
The festival opened with the festival anthem arranged by composer and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Kai Metov. The hosts were Tatyana Remizova and Ernest Matskevičius.

“This year we are holding the sixth festival. Once again “The Road to Yalta” starts from the Kremlin… We received competitive applications from 55 countries, as a result of a careful selection, 16 musicians from 15 countries flew to Moscow to perform their favorites on the eve of Victory Day, songs about war known to us since childhood in our native languages,” the presenters said, opening the concert.

Such compositions were performed as “Where are you now, fellow soldiers” by V. Bely, Y. Shvedov, “Enemies burned their home” to the words of M. Isakovsky, music by M. Blanter, “Farewell of a Slav” by V. Agapkin, A. Fedotov, V. Lazarev, «Nightingales» and «Holy War» to the words of A. Fatyanov, music by V. Solovyov-Sedoy, «Alyosha» to the poems of K. Vanshenkin, music by E. Kolmanovsky and others.
Representatives from 15 countries reached the finals: Markus Gorstein represented Germany, Ariadna Prokopidou and Inessa Ephremidou came from Greece, Osama Mohammed came from Egypt, Tiro Hilarius Turnip represented Indonesia, Pamela Lacerenza from Italy, Marius Charalambous represented Cyprus, Ji Pengyu came from China, Mussungou Mapaku Tessa Sam is from Congo, Ambinintsu Vululunarimanga from Madagascar, Odmandah Bayaraa came from Mongolia, Ana Cheta represented Portugal, Milan Bujakovic from Serbia, Sasho Gacnik from Slovenia, Ugur Yelmas from Turkey, Francois Modeme from France. They presented solo numbers on the small stage of the Kremlin Palace.
«Our festival is sweeping the planet. I know that there is a huge competition at this festival. I am glad that performers from different countries are fighting for this opportunity. They approach it so creatively that it always brings me to tears,» said a member jury and Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Denis Maidanov.

The festival concert ended with a performance by Maidanov.

In the final gala concert on May 1 in the Great Hall of the Kremlin Palace, foreign performers will perform duets with Russian pop artists: Zara, Ekaterina Guseva, Dmitry Dyuzhev, Anna Bolshova and others.
The winners of the festival will be determined by a jury consisting of the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for international cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy, honored artists of the Russian Federation Denis Maidanov, Kai Metov, Zara and others. The chairman of the jury was People's Artist of the RSFSR Lev Leshchenko.
The festival was first held in 2019 in Yalta. Since 2022 it has been held in Moscow. During the implementation of the project, the organizing committee received more than 900 applications from vocalists from 60 countries. The festival is supported by the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives.