AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1968
| AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1968 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | |
| Final | 16th of May 1968 |
| Host | |
| Venue | Hotel Kabeneev Main Hall, Yovonyk |
| Presenter(s) | Mehmet Razakinov |
| Musical director | Edita Markonova |
| Directed by | Aqqadaruddin Hadid |
| Executive supervisor | Isaruddin Nokovich |
| Executive producer | Nevena Rokochelanova |
| Host broadcaster | Radio Pyalivostok |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 18 |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each region sends two juries where each votes 1-5 for the best 5 songs |
| Winning song | " البكاء من أجل شخص آخر" by Muhammad Isbaqurrahim |
AleziRadio Festival of Songs 1968 is the eleventh edition of the annual AleziRadio Festival of Songs. It was held on 16th of May 1968, which was held and organized by Radio Pyalivostok after Harzanov Kalicheev's victory last year. It was the fourth time that Pyalivostok hosted the competition, after doing so in 1959, 1962, and 1965. The competition was won by Muhammad Isbaqurrahim with the song " البكاء من أجل شخص آخر". This marks the fourth time that Zafizamarrah won the competition, after previously winning in 1962, 1965, and 1966. This also marks Zafizamarrah once again tying on the number of victories together with Pyalivostok.
The competition was held in the Main Hall of the Hotel Kabeneev in the town of Yovonyk, Pyalivostok. This marks the second time that the competition is not held in a capital city after 1960.
This edition, Harzanov Kalicheev the winner of last year, returned to try and keep the trophy for Pyalivostok. This also means that he is the first entrant who also presented one of the two interval acts. Santa Liliace also returned representing Aramna for the third time after 1958 and 1959.
Unfortunately, for the first time, two songs had failed to score any points. Those songs are "Everything" by Mark Dashings representing Bristol and "לַיְלָה" by Nesha Lanayeil
Incidents
"Three-Year Coincidences"
Discussion flies around the nation after Pyalivostok's victory the previous year. It concerns about how Pyalivostok would only win and host three years after their previous win and hosting.
Most people just ignore the coincidence and/or joke about it. It even started the classic Alezian joke of "Pyalivostok only has anything good happening to it every three years"/"Want something good out of Pyalivostok? Wait three years later" and a less common one of "Pyalivostok's favorite number is three".
However, some people speculated that there's a reason that Pyalivostok was only to win every three years. Some speculated that the government of the region bribed AleziRadio so that they can host every three years, and many more rumours.
Yovonyk Hosting Controversy
Pyalivostokians (even people who live in Yovonyk itself) were still questioning on the reason on why Radio Pyalivostok picked a town as small as Yovonyk for a national event. At the time of the competition (1968), Yavonyk was considered as a small town of 18,000 people, and the distance between Pyalivostokgrad to Yavonyk was far back then (177 km) as the Southern Pyalivostok Highway hadn't even been planned back then and won't be realized until 1992.
People protested that Yavonyk is in no shape to host any national competition especially as prestigious as AleziRadio Festival of Songs. At that time, Yavonyk did not have adequate infrastructure of accomodations with the exception of hotel itself. Yavonyk did not have an airstrip at that time, which meant that delegates had to be brought in by car, which fortunately is not hard due to the competition being held in summer.
Rumours spread speculating that the town government of Yovonyk bribed Radio Pyalivostok in order to secure hosting rights over regional capital Pyalivostokgrad, second biggest city Yakovskut, third biggest city Akovsk, and port city Makotransk, where the latter three had a population of over 200,000 each and was near to the capital and had proper accomodation and transportation links, which could've been considered as acceptable hosting alternative. Other rumours stated that the Iliya Family themselves has tampered with the voting where they might've bribed the juries to vote for Yovonykk. The rumour is immediately shot down by the Family where they stated that they "currently don't have any interest in investing or putting massive competitions in Yovonyk."
Responding to the controversy, AleziRadio contacted Radio Pyalivostok in order to clarify about the decision. Akinkov Yovoskiy, Director of Regional Radio of Radio Pyalivostok at that time released a statement in November 1967 stating that the decision was correct, and the competition would be held in Yovonyk anyway. They reasoned that AleziRadio Festival of Songs could be a good stepping stone for the town's development as the capital of Southern Pyalivostok.
After the statement however, some people speculated that Radio Pyalivostok was lying about the reason and still speculated that one of the rumours were actually the real reason. Even with the controversy and considerable difficulty of accessing the town, the competition was considered successful by critics.
Pariticipating Entries and Results
| No. | Region | Singer | Song | Translation | Language | Place | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Pyalivostok | Harzanov Kalicheev | Намерения | Intentions | Russian | 16 | 1 |
| 02 | Zafizamarrah | Muhammad Ishaqburahhim | البكاء من أجل شخص آخر | Crying For Someone Else | Arabic | 1 | 37 |
| 03 | Pyalivostok | Aleksandr Habanov and Neyana Ransheva | время придет | The Time Will Come | Russian | 3 | 29 |
| 04 | Aramna | Santa Liliace | Mai | Me | Aramnan | 12 | 9 |
| 05 | Tel Hadiv | Hashe'avot | בוא אלי אם אתה לא מסכים | Come To Me If You Disagree | Hebrew | 8 | 17 |
| 06 | Pantabang Islands | Benny Roosweerde | Het schuldspel | The Blame Game | Dutch | 11 | 10 |
| 07 | Basna | Ida Razak | Hilang | Lost | Indonesian | 4 | 26 |
| 08 | Mosin-Nagan | Erina Nisashadze | რატომ ვტირი? | Why Am I Crying? | Georgian | 10 | 16 |
| 09 | Daya Islands | Mika Rostov | Hyvät asiat eivät koskaan tule aikaisin | Good Things Never Come Early | Finnish | 9 | 17 |
| 10 | Basna | Indah Sariwati | Harapan | Hope | Indonesian | 15 | 2 |
| 11 | Zafizamarrah | Nurfiqli Ismamuraddin | أنا لست أحدا | I'm Not Just Anybody | Arabic | 2 | 30 |
| 12 | Tel Hadiv | Nesha Lanayeil | לַיְלָה | Night | Hebrew | 17 | 0 |
| 13 | Aramna | ELLADA | Deche ete Caledous | Sweet and Warm | Aramnan | 14 | 3 |
| 14 | Daya Islands | Marko Niikanen | Herätä minut, kun aamu tulee | Wake Me Up When Morning Comes | Finnish | 7 | 19 |
| 15 | Mosin-Nagan | Dika and Nomaria | როდესაც საათები უკან მოძრაობენ | When Clocks Move Backwards | Georgian | 6 | 21 |
| 16 | Bristol | Liliac Aounerrie | Maintenant, nous nous blâmons les uns les autres | Now We're Blaming Eachother | French | 5 | 25 |
| 17 | Bristol | Mark Dashings | Everything | -none- | English | 18 | 0 |
| 18 | Pantabang Islands | Erikalda Mashers Salem | Du'urna'ala | Journal | Alezian | 13 | 8 |
Voting by Region
| Results by region times 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZF 1 | ZF 2 | PY 1 | PY 2 | AR 1 | AR 2 | TH 1 | TH 2 | PI 1 | PI 2 | BN 1 | BN 2 | MN 1 | MN 2 | DI 1 | DI 2 | BR 1 | BR 2 | Total | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Намерения | XX | XX | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| البكاء من أجل شخص آخر | 2 | 3 | XX | XX | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 37 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| время придет | XX | XX | 5 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 29 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mai | XX | XX | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| בוא אלי אם אתה לא מסכים | 3 | XX | XX | 4 | 5 | 5 | 17 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Het schuldspel | 1 | 5 | 4 | XX | XX | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hilang | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | XX | XX | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 26 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| რატომ ვტირი? | 1 | 4 | XX | XX | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hyvät asiat eivät koskaan tule aikaisin | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | XX | XX | 1 | 17 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Harapan | 2 | XX | XX | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| أنا لست أحدا | 4 | 4 | XX | XX | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 30 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| לַיְלָה | XX | XX | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deche ete Caledous | 3 | XX | XX | 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Herätä minut, kun aamu tulee | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | XX | XX | 4 | 3 | 19 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| როდესაც საათები უკან მოძრაობენ | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | XX | XX | 21 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maintenant, nous nous blâmons les uns les autres | 5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | XX | XX | 25 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Everything | XX | XX | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Du'urna'ala | 5 | XX | XX | 3 | 8 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Impact
Even if the competition was held in a place that is considered to be "in the middle of nowhere", the competition continues to garner positive acclaim and success. Muhammad Isbaqurrahim who won the competition earned positive press attention and released an album with his winning entry in it a year later which entered AleziRadio Charts. Isbaqurrahim himself was not even favorited to win.
The voting round was also met with shouting from the audience, realizing that this time, two songs had earned zero points, and worse, both of the songs that earned nul points are considered as the favorites to win at the time. Even worse, Harzanov Kalicheev who won the previous year and returned this year nearly earned the same fate, fortunately being saved by a jury from Tel Hadiv who gave him one point. Kalicheev considered the result as an embarrasment and decided to quit the competition even if Radio Pyalivostok requested his return. Santa Liliace who was a mainstay in the competition also earned a dissapointing 9 points even though that she too, was the favorite to win and was expected to finally bring Aramna's first victory.