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Old 12-11-2013, 21:50   #8
Argos Argos is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Linz, Austria
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,197

The first single of the new assembled group is out - Peremirie, and for me they look much better live than on this video. Anyway, catchy song with excellent vocals.

Some personal notes about the show (okay, a lot of...):
I expected more fun and less quality and professionality, but obviously producer Konstantin Meladze was really looking for something special, and so you can see performances, at least in the second half of the series, which go far beyond the usual quality of Russian and Ukrainian girlgroups. So, if you are interested in the whole show, here are the links for all episodes:
Episode 1 - Casting in Ukraine
Episode 2 - Casting in Russia
Episode 3 - Casting in Kazakhstan and Belarus
Episode 4 - Second Round
Episode 5 - Fight For A Coach
Episode 6 - Semifinal
Episode 7 - Final
Episode 8 - Grande Finale at Crocus City Hall

Episodes 1-3 were the castings of the girls in the four countries, and episode 4 was another pre-selection with a dancing test and a performance in trios with free choice of song, style and choreography. The weakest girls were then sorted out. From the remaining 24 girls eight trios were formed by Meladze.
In episode 5 the eight groups had to perform a song of their choice (well, not always!) and convince one of the six present ex-VIA Gra members (Santa, Meseda, Albina, Anna, Alyona and Nadya) to be their coach for the rest of the competition. For the teams without a coach the show is already finished. In episodes 6 (semifinal) and 7 (final) the teams got specific perfomance tasks and in each round the worst one (by the judgement of Meladze) had to leave until just the winner is left over.

It's always a joy to see how people manipulate a show, and what they are doing when things happen which they have not planned. Misha from the winner team lives under one roof with the producer and director of the show, clipmaker Alan Badoev, and Zelenskij, the presenter and co-producer is close friends to the parents of Nastya, and of course he didn't know their daughter! To remove all doubts that he is not deciding unbiased, Meladze even 'disqualified' the winner team in the first round for lack of discipline (they didn't like the robe for the performance and cut it to the length they found 'comfortable', that is, very short) and only Nadya's intervention saved them from early retirement.

The teams were carefully put together, so that only two other ones could at least a little bit challenge the winner group. The other trios had no chance, they all had at least one handicap, either one girl was not pretty enough, or too young and unexperienced, or one was just strange. So, clear conditions for the show. Only the candidates didn't behave as expected. The team doomed as the first to be thrown out of the competition, consisting of a Belorussian go-go dancer, an always bad-mooded and battlesome Russian and an 18 year old Kazakh girl showed probably the best performance of the day - Malo tebya, making the best Russian girlgroup Serebro look like talentless amateurs (ok, perhaps they are!). Then Miss Georgia from one of the two proposed challenger groups leaves for the chance to win the Miss Universe crown, and the other group almost never could reach their potential thanks to very bad coaching from Anna. But another, a youngster team, which certainly was not on Meladze's plans, consisting of the Vice-Miss Ukraina Masha, the 18 year old Diana, and the strange redhead foto model Katya, who was taking part at the competition out of curiosity and not really to become a VIA Gra girl, emerged as a far more fierce contender trio than anybody could have imagined. Managed by Alyona they most of the time found ways to steal the show from the winner team.

Let's compare Team Alyona with Team Nadya through all the rounds:
Round 1 - finding a coach:
Ya soshla s uma vs. Pesnya No.1
Round 2 - together with their trainer:
Popytka No.5 vs. Sumasshedshij
Round 3 - international hit: pure energy vs. vocal mastery
Spice Up Your Life vs. Hurt
Round 4 - a song from a male singer: Alyona's team reduced to a duet - Katya was brought to the hospital, suspected appendicitis, but what a performance of one of the golden songs of Russian rock!
A ne spet' li mne pesnyu o lyubvi vs. Ya tebe ne veryu
Round 5 - together with a male singer: Potap vs. Valerij Meladze
Chumachechaya vesna vs. Tekila lyubov'
Round 6 -the all deciding final round, a romantic song, accompanied by the master himself on the piano: Katya was meanwhile replaced by Yuliya from the third placed team. Alyona's team did great, but Nadya's was simply amazing.
Ne ostavlyaj menya, lyubimyj vs. Opyat' metel'
In the end Meladze did NOT decide who was the winner and postponed the decision to the hastily organized show in the Crocus City Hall and let the people vote by SMS. During repetitions Vera Brezhneva fell almost three meters down from a not correctly secured staircase, with the head on the concrete floor and was brought partly unconscious to the hospital. Luckily she could go back to the set a few hours later.

During the show the two trios presented two new songs from Meladze,
Ya veryu v lyubov', quite tame compared to their other performances without the new girl Yuliya.
Peremirie, the new single of VIA Gra, the clip was shot right after the winner was presented in the final show.
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