Participant in the Baikal and Friendship performances, singer Ragda Khanieva spoke about preparations for the gala show

Singer Ragda Khanieva, a participant in the Baikal and Friendship performances, shared her impressions of the gala show at the international Sky Grace-2023 tournament in Beijing.

"My feelings are simply incredible, because you see how two different cultures are coming  together. This is just unreal beauty. I, like a child, walk around with eyes wide open, admiring them and I can’t stop admiring them. When I first entered the arena and saw the site, I had so many emotions. And I didn’t really believe that I would perform here, that I was also part of this beautiful, large-scale event.Today I am participating in two performances.The first is the Baikal performance. This is a dance to a Chinese song written by a Chinese composer, who was inspired by the beauty of Lake Baikal, the beauty of our homeland. Today we sing it in two languages: first in Chinese, then in Russian. It is a beautiful symbol of the connection of two different cultures, but very close to each other. Our second performance is a flash mob. We translated the song from the 1980 Olympics into Chinese and into English. This is our final, closing performance, where everyone comes out together, dances, and we sing to this iconic song that's familiar to many. Singing in Chinese in China is a double responsibility. Yes, this is always a responsibility, because in the Chinese language it is very important to clearly pronounce each syllable so that the viewer understands. The language is quite capricious in this regard. And therefore you need to very clearly monitor your pronunciation, the emotions that you convey to the listener. We are trying, we are doing everything so that our Chinese viewers and our Russian viewers, and viewers around the world are very satisfied and admire our performances," the singer said.

The Sky Grace-2023 tournament was held December 15-17 in Beijing.