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.