Dimash first sang Daybreak on the Chinese competition ‘The Singer’ in 2017. The song tells the story of a young boy who was made an orphan after both his parents were killed in a tragic accident when their cable car fell and crashed. The song was written and originally performed by Han Hong, a famous Chinese singer and songwriter. She tells the story of the young boy from his perspective. When she heard his story it moved her so much she wrote Day Break for him. At the moment the cable car fell and crashed the father tried his best to hold his son high above him for most of the night in the hopes that he would be saved. The two-year old boy survived but sadly both his parents died.
Han was so deeply touched by the story of this little boy, she adopted him, so greatly did she empathise with him. Her own father had passed away when she was just 6.
Dimash learned the song phonetically in the space of one week. He wanted to show his appreciation to the Chinese people who had so resoundingly supported him and ‘adopted’ him as one of their own from the beginning of the competition.
This performance was at Dimash’s Bastau Concert, Astana 2017.
This is a much more polished performance, but for me it has a raw edge to it that wasn’t there during his first performance on the Singer. Considering his concert came close on the heels of the end of the competition, the difference in the delivery of the song is marked. My own opinion is that this is the superior performance of the song. The raw emotion Dimash delivers throughout reaches inside me and made me feel every single word of his story. I cried, I had chills, goose bumps and felt sheer joy at his mastering of the song and it’s difficult language in such a short time frame.
As a side note, I was alarmed at how much weight he appeared to have lost in the time between his Bastau concert and the end of the Singer competition. Thankfully it was a short lived thing, he has since gained weight again and looks delightfully healthy and handsome as ever!
The second song I’m featuring today is Qaragym-Ai.
Qaragym-Ai is a beautiful song written by the Famous Kazakh composer Kènes Duysekeyev, who passed away in June of 2020. Kènes Duysekeyev was Dimash’s teacher and mentor in the master’s program of the Kazakh National University of Arts.
The words of this composition were written more than 25 years ago and they were dedicated to the daughter of a dear friend who was getting married. At the request of his friend, Kènes Duysekeyev wrote music to the words, which in turn reflected the composer’s sadness about the never to be wedding of his 19-year-old sister, who had passed away. When Kènes first heard Dimash sing it he is reported to have said Dimash had captured the essence of the composer’s memories. According to the composer, Dimash was able to convey to the audience those emotions and feelings that the author of the words and himself put into them. After all, the meaning of the author’s words carry one thing – love.
Dimash dedicated this performance of the song in the October of 2020 in memory of his Mentor and Tutor. The emotion in his performance is very evident, it is immediately obvious this song has special meaning to Dimash, his personal investment is raw and untamed. You can feel his great sadness, you can hear it in every word, it is etched onto his face as he sings.
I am not embarrassed to admit this performance broke my heart.
I hope you enjoy both of these songs as much as I did.
Gemma - Journey of Self discovery 
WOW! These are so powerful. I teared up a bit on that first song where he goes down on his knees towards the end. You have very quickly turned me into a Dimash fan! Daddy and I were listening to his music on a long drive yesterday…my husband was VERY impressed with his range.
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Dimash’s fans are known as ‘Dears’ Nora! It’s the name he gave them and now there are millions of them all over the world! We are a couple of Dears together! I know the first time anyone hears Dimash they will get blown away by his stunning vocal range. He goes from a bass vocal fry all the way up to whistle tone #D8, Mariah Carey is the only other artist I can remember singing that high!
Once the shock of his range wears off, the timbre of his voice hits you and draws you in. Daddy will be Dear number 3 in no time! Dimash has a way of capturing your attention and holding it forever! I struggle to listen to anyone else these days although I do try. By the end of a day I will always find myself going to sleep listening to him on my digital speaker.
I will put up a video in the next few days where you can listen to his vocal fry, it’s the darkest sound I’ve ever heard but I love it!!
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I will look forward to this Gemma! I have added Dimash to my regular YouTube que… I have a bit of music that I enjoy while doing house chores, cleaning, etc. You might find this silly, but I tend to listen to musicals. Some of my favorites are Hamilton, Phantom, Beauty & the Beast, and Newsies. Between you and Sir, I am really breaking out of my musical shell! XOXO
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I don’t find it silly at all! I tend to have things like La Traviata, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, and of course now everything is littered with all the different Dimash songs! I have a special place in my ears for music by Miss Montreal (Sanne Hans) she has the most liquid voice ever and is wonderful to just have on in the background while I’m working, My poor Alexa speaker thing is getting so mixed up with all the foreign names she is playing all kinds of weird stuff, I asked her to play Endless Dimensions by Dimash the other day and she played Baby Shark?? I don’t understand 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣 but I did laugh my head off!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying your musical journey! 😀 xx
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I didn’t know this singer and I really enjoyed these two songs. The stories behind their compositions are intense and touching🎶❣️🎶
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Ah Luisa, check out my other posts by Dimash I promise you won’t be disappointed. He is being hailed as the best singer in the world right now, I don’t know whether that is even remotely true, but I will say, he is in a league of his own. His octave range has just been updated as being 7 – 8 octaves! I adore his neoclassical work with Igor Krutoy!
Sorry 😀 I’m fangirling a little bit here! I’m so glad you enjoyed these two songs! 💖
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Thanks a lot. I’ll check your other posts about him.
Do you know I didn’t know him?
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He only burst onto the world music radar in 2017 when he took part in the I am Singer 2017 competition in China. He was brought in as a wild card and is the first foreign singer to be invited to take part in that competition. He’s from Kazakhstan and although he was very famous in his own country he was a relative unknown everywhere else. He was listed as second place runner up in the I am Singer competition because the Chinese powers that be who ran the competition said that a Chinese artist should win as it is a Chinese show. Interestingly, the following year Jessie J from the UK took part and she won and was allowed to take the first place prize. I think the organisers must have received some serious complaints about placing Dimash as runner up.
I had never heard of him until late last year when I was looking on YouTube for new music and stumbled across a reaction video of him singing SOS d’un terrien en détresse. A Kazakhstan singer singing a french song, in french in a Chinese competition. I confess I was hooked from that moment. Apparently he sings in 12 or 13 languages! He’s just 27 years old!
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Great!!!
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