AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1962

AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1962
Dates
Final	16th of May 1962
Host
Venue	Gorodskoy Teatr, City of Pyalivostok
Presenter(s)	Nathaniel Kalyoshnikovich
Musical director	Madaliyev Karkov (Filarmonicheskiy orkestr Pyalivostok)
Directed by	Aqqadaruddin Hadid
Executive supervisor	Muhammad Afiqqa
Executive producer	Pyotr Seminovich
Host broadcaster	Radio Pyalivostok
Participants
Number of entries	12
Vote
Voting system	Each region sends 20 people in a jury group, each voting for their own favorite
Winning song	"كم هو جميل بالنسبة لي أن أحب نفسي" by Maryam Isnoora

AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1962 is the fifth edition of the annual AleziRadio Festival of Songs. It was held on 16th of May 1962, which was held and organized by Radio Pyalivostok. The competition was won by Maryam Isnoora with the song "كم هو جميل بالنسبة لي أن أحب نفسي" representing Zafizamarrah. Her victory marks Zafizamarrah's first victory at the song festival.

1962 proved to be a redemption year for Pyalivostok after given the right to host after Pyalivostok's victory the year before. The year proved to be a massive increase of quality in songs where two previous winners even participating as composers, which are Helen Kakovanova who won last year and Nathaniel Swayne, a recurring character since his victory in 1959, which incidentally was also held in Pyalivostok.

The competition was held in the recently completed (at that time) Gorodskoy Teatr, with 5000 seats and quality sound and camera equipment, the venue was one of the best in North Alezia and also one of the most grandeur and advanced one for that decade. This year also fixed the problem of heating and the fact that it's just too cold to hold an event in Pyalivostok. Due to this, weeks before the competition, the City of Pyalivostok was under a massive traffic jam that lasted for three hours, a record until 1972 where it lasted for five hours and fifty two minutes.

This contest is also the first time the original voting system got updated, where in order to raise competitiveness, the jury members that each region sent got reduced from thirty people to just twenty people.

This contest was also well known for it being the first to use moving stages, where the background for each act involves the logo of the AleziRadio Festival of Songs turned into a massive ball swinging left and right like a pendulum. And then the ball swings slowly when the winner reprise was sung.

And this contest was also the first time that the orchestra was prepared from the host broadcaster, and not borrowed from AleziRadio itself.

This is also the first time that a region successfully puts both of its entries on the top 3, where all of Aramna's entries earned 2nd and 3rd place.

Incidents

Even with the positive applaud and praise, this year was also a year with controversy. However, this incident was not related to the hosting by Pyalivostok, so with that incident, the year was still praised as one of the classics even in the modern day.

Tel Hadivian 1st Entry

This year, one of the entrants for Tel Hadiv was Ma'av Ra'uda with the song "מתי אהיה חופשי?" which means "When Will I Be Free?". The song contains the lyrics which translated to "A group of people watched me from my house, stared at me with those evil eyes, I prayed to the one above, holding on to my heart I stayed true, I prayed "God, when will I be free?" ".

The Iliya Family who were the family dynasty that ruled North Alezia back then suspected that the song contained political messages supporting the Democratization movement which was gaining traction even back in the 1960's. The entry quickly gained sensation and divided the Alezian public so much that the premier back then (Amina Iliya) refused to attend the event personally which is an anomaly because she would attend the competition every single year and hand over the trophy together with the previous winner to the new winner.

The Iliya Family even tried to force Radio Tel Hadiv to change either the lyrics to the song, or change the song entirely, and turn over Ma'av Ra'uda to the High Court of Alezia saying that it's too "offensive" and "might create treason". However, AleziRadio (in its rebellious nature) refused to comply. The family tried harder by sabotaging the event and cancel it, however, the people stood around the venue protecting the procession of the event from preparation to rehearsals to the final day. No violent action was taken, and the competition continued as usual. However, it was rumoured that the family has tried to assasinate Ma'av Ra'uda themselves through poisoning Ma'av's drink.

However, at the event, there was still noticeable boos from the public after Ma'av completed his song. However, Ma'av was also met with massive applause as well.

Participating Entries and Results

No.	Region	Singer	Song	Translation	Language	Place	Points
01	Pyalivostok	Erinika Malenkovina	Не смотри на меня у крыльца	Don't See Me By The Porch	Russian	11	4
02	Tel Hadiv	Ma'av Ra'uda	מתי אהיה חופשי?	When Will I Be Free?	Hebrew	6	10
03	Zafizamarrah	Hasyim Razak	خطوات صغيرة	Small Steps	Arabic	8	9
04	Tel Hadiv	Heshama Reshezan and Halashet Re'ov	רוקדים	Dancing	Hebrew	4	11
05	Basna	Muhammad Isma'aruddin	Lagi	Again	Indonesian	11	4
06	Basna	Zamrud Damaruddin	Tempatku Menunggumu	My Place Waiting For You	Indonesian	10	8
07	Aramna	Dorothae Revennais	Houir d'la veraidad mei delais	Running Away From the Truth Hurts Me	Aramnan	3	12
08	Bristol	Robert Charbonneau	Lovers Will Stay Lovers	-none-	English	4	11
09	Bristol	Irene Williams	Kicking Those Sadness Away	-none-	English	6	10
10	Zafizamarrah	Maryam Isnoora	كم هو جميل بالنسبة لي أن أحب نفسي	How Nice It Is For Me To Love Myself	Arabic	1	17
11	Aramna	Merida Navelhavanavais	Commais ben j'ai sais horais	How Happy I Am	Aramnan	2	15
12	Pyalivostok	Niko Halenshikov	Чувство сердца	A Heart's Feeling	Russian	8	9

Results by Region

		Results by region
		Pyalivostok	Tel Hadiv	Zafizamarrah	Basna	Aramna	Bristol	Total
	Не смотри на меня у крыльца	XX	0	0	0	2	2	4
	מתי אהיה חופשי?	0	XX	6	1	3	0	10
	خطوات صغيرة	1	3	XX	0	2	3	9
	רוקדים	3	XX	4	1	1	2	11
	Lagi	1	0	2	XX	1	0	4
	Tempatku Menunggumu	0	4	2	XX	1	1	8
	Houir d'la veraidad mei delais	3	2	0	6	XX	1	12
	Lovers Will Stay Lovers	3	5	2	0	1	XX	11
	Kicking Those Sadness Away	1	2	2	3	2	XX	10
	كم هو جميل بالنسبة لي أن أحب نفسي	3	2	XX	4	4	4	17
	Commais ben j'ai sais horais	5	2	1	2	XX	5	15
	Чувство сердца	XX	0	1	3	3	2	9

Impact

As the capital, Zafizamarrah was one of the regions everyone expected to win as soon as possible, although until 1962, they never earned a win, only earning silver and bronzes which lowered Zafizamarranian motivation to spectate the competition. Maryam Isnoora's victory recreated enthusiasm in the people of Zafizamarrah about the competition. Her victory created waves so massive that Zafizamarrah's streets was jammed with people celebrating Isnoora's victory with fireworks and many things. Isnoora's song was considered as one of the best classics of the festival and back then, it even lasted two years in the Alezian Charts, and returned to the chart in 1977, 1982, 1989, 1999, 2007 and finally returned in 2019 after Imara Syafani covered the song.

It was also noted that Maryam Isnoora was the first hijabi to win the AleziRadio Festival of Songs, where she got on stage wearing a black niqab, which was still a new trend back then. Sadly she was accused of using technology to win because no one can see her mouth moving to the beat, although after a recheck of the footage of the performance, it was proved that Isnoora was indeed singing live and got to keep her title. Her niqab ended up being an icon for Alezian 60s culture.

This year, people noticed a trend where all songs on the top three all has an tropical orchestra upbeat tone, which created a trend of further AleziRadio Festival of Songs to come.

Ma'av Ra'uda who failed to scrape the top three also earned attention due to his rebellious and anti-dictatorship lyrics. Even without the trophy, Ma'av Ra'uda's song become a revolutionary classic and was played at demonstrations around North Alezia, even at the aftermath demonstration in 1988. Ma'av Ra'uda ended up being the Mayor of Tel Hadiv in 1989, a position he served until 1999 after being reelected in 1994.

Things were not great in Pyalivostok after the competition, however. When the results start rolling in, and revealed, all of the songs that Pyalivostok sent ended up in tied 8th and 11th place (joint last with Basna). Two consecutive last places was considered as an embarrassment by Pyalivostokians that Radio Pyalivostok held a meeting a day after the competition.