The 11th international contest of young performers, New Wave, which was held in Jurmala on July 24 to 29, is over. The young singer Maria, who represented Ukraine this year, came off third best. Costanzo Del Pinto from Italy was awarded second prize, and Russia’s Niloo was the winner.
Maria Yaremchuk, a daughter of the legendary Ukrainian singer Nazarii Yaremchuk, performed the musical composition Spring.
In addition to a 20,000-euro cash prize, she will also bring home the Audience Sympathy Award and a special prize from a contest sponsor.
The Chernivtsi-born Maria Yaremchuk, 19, recently qualified for the finals of the project Voice of the Country: a New History. The girl is now a student at the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Art.
The Ukrainian jazz singer Dzhamala was also supposed to take part in the concert as winner of the 2009 New Wave. However, 30 minutes before the airplane’s departure, the singer received an SMS which said she no longer needed to fly to Jurmala.
On the same day, the singer expressed indignation on her own Facebook page, accusing the organizers of failure to observe professional ethics. She made an official statement later, attaching to it the printout of her SMS correspondence with Anastasia Mukhina, the musical producer of this song contest. The last message, “No, don’t fly,” put the tin lid on her participation in the concert.
“We will only be considering any proposals if the organizers stop spreading downright lies and admit that they were wrong,” the singer’s spokesman Denys Kozlovsky said about Dzhamala’s further cooperation with New Wave organizers.
