The Dimash Effect

The Dimash Effect on my blog visits

I am an Italian writer and I have fun blogging (in Italian) on whatever I like. My blog does not have a main subject, apart from entertaining my readers.
My English is good enough to travel and to work abroad. Sometimes I work as a translator from English to good and smooth Italian, but I never thought of translating my iItalian posts in English, because I know that I can’t use the same style I have in Italian.

It happened that my brother was worried about his son being glued to video games all day long.
– He does not even play – he complained – He WATCHES! Watches other people commenting on other people playing videogames! –

Before becoming a writer I used to be a psychologist, and this sounded like a new, terrible mental disease, to me.
I carefully asked my nephew what the hell he was doing, but he was too concentrated on watching his smartphone, his chin resting on his upper chest.
– ..eaction – he answered.

I swear: I googled the words E Action. Could not find anything helpful.
Then I had the smart idea to google e action video. Billions of YouTube reactions came up.
I choose a video that had over 1.000.000 views. It was a reaction by a singer to Dimash Kudaibergen performing S.O.S. d’un terrien en détresse, a French sad song.

I had to watch this reaction a second time to better define my sensations: the guy didn’t look like he was acting and seemed genuinely moved by the performance. Dimash – that was the first time for me listening to his voice – seamed a sort of modern Farinelli, apart from the fact that he could also hit and control very low notes as well as super high ones. He seemed to have the ability to put a huge amount of emotion and character in every single note he sang. Where was he from? The TV show was Chinese but he did not look Chinese and had a very interesting face. His clothes were unusual and stylish at the same time (I am Italian…).

To make it short, I passed the day watching all Dimash’s performances at the Chinese show I am a singer. For every song I also watched some reactions, soon finding the ones that I liked more. Even though it is not my generation, I understood why reactions are so popular between kids: it is like to assist to an event together with a friend and share feelings. Most of these youtubers just sit in a bedroom or a kitchen, like anybody else.

It was also interesting to listen to the analysis of Dimash’s voice by professionals, and I could brush up my Spanish thanks to this guy who gives a funny and interesting lecture on vocal cords and vocal sound.
Then I moved to watch normal people from different cultures reacting to Dimash in different ways. Then Dimash again. What a strange nose. I love guessing people’s ancestry and wander about where they got some physical features from.

In three days I learned tons of info about Dimash and I could remember them perfectly. I just would like to be so good in learning SEO, for example.
I also tried to convince my nephew to watch Dimash with me, before realizing that my brother was looking at me with some deep and resigned disappointment.
Some other worrying symptoms showed up. First of all I suffered from a strange form of happiness, that sort of warm sensation for having a family, while I was watching the reactions to Dimash by people from all over the world. Consequently I signed up with a Dimash’s fan club on FB. It was my first time to be a fan of whatever: I had skipped that phase during my youth. I feared to be the oldest fan in the group but I discovered that I was wrong.

In the fan group we call each other Dear, like Dimash does with his fans: “Hi Dears”, “Thankyou Dears!” “Welcome Dear”.
Funny, uh? What is even funnier is that the atmosphere in these groups is mostly paradisiac: no arguing, everybody is very nice, generous and supporting.

Another symptom showed up and it was painful: I always had a good musical ear and after listening to Dimash so carefully, it developed to the point that I can hear when a note from another singer is just slightly out of tune. Sorry, Il Volo guys.

After studying the history of Kazakhstan, it’s political and cultural relationship with Mongolia, China and Turkey; the phenomenon of Chinese singing vocal shows and the new fashion design of clothes coming from Asia that will soon hit West like a storm (my personal opinion); after discovering singers like Tengri, Ayunga, and Wu Tong with whom Dimash sang Jasmine* during an unbelievable Chinese tv show; after discovering another Jasmine version by Dimash, who sings with a Chinese choreography but gives the song some indian-arabian style – I had so many things to discuss with nobody available, that I needed to write a blog post at least.
I did it and I shared it on my FB wall. I got a single laughing emoticon by my mother, but she said it was a mistake as she just wanted to put a like.

Heartbroken, I shared my post to some Dimash fan groups. It became viral, and I discovered that many Dears were trying to read it even if it was written in Italian, using some translation apps. Some in the group asked for help for the translation. I was so moved that I decided to re-write it in my broken English.
With over 10.000 views in 2 days, the English version of the post has been shared all over the world. So many Dears thanked me from their heart and I found myself watching their FB profiles, trying to pronounce their exotic names, looking at their cities, their college buildings, trying to feel how is life there, how is their life too.

Some Dears translated the article in Russian and Greek and put the translations on FB including also the link to the original one (yes, Dimash Dears love to be generous and fair) and it became viral again, with hundreds of share and comments.

I stayed one full day watching the map of my blog views spreading, and to highlight countries that I did not even know existed. I learned to recognise the Socialist Republic of Macedonia’s flag and the one from Jersey Island. Hundreds of visits from Kazakhstan, a country that I started to like somehow, made me very proud.

It is exciting to do something that gives a bit of joy to so many unknown people and to get some smiles back.
Maybe I am just a naive old lady discovering a well known phenomenon. But I like to think that it is young Dimash, who is a master: a singing master and a strange, healing soul.
Yes, I believe this is The Dimash Effect. And I will translate some of my posts in English, sometimes.
Thankyou, Dimash. Pахмет

* “Jasmine” (Dimash has been performing it in at least 3 versions) is a folk traditional chinese song created during the Qianlong Era (1735–1796). It became very popular, even abroad.
The famous italian classic composer Giacomo Puccini was on holiday by a friend, baron Cassini, in 1920. Cassini, who had been the italian consul in China for long, owned a carillon with some popular chinese songs and Jasmine was one of them. At that time, Giacomo Puccini was composing an opera about a Persian princess whose name is…Turandot. He wanted to locate the scene between Persia and China and took some inspiration by that carillon for some of the songs of the opera.
If you know Jasmine song thanks to Dimash, you will surely spot it in this part of the Turandot: “Turn the side! Why the moon is so late?” From minute 6.15.

Dimash Kudaibergen, the voice that brings Asia to the West

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