Kazakh singer advances to battle round at Russian Voice

30-year-old Kazakh singer from Almaty Diana Sharapova has joined the team of Russian popular singer Leonid Agutin after the blind audition stage at Golos, a Russian version of internationally renowned The Voice, Tengrinews reports.

At the blind auditions stage, where four coaches choose teams of contestants, Leonid Agutin pressed a button to rotate his chair to see the Kazakh singer after she had performed Sam Brown’s Stop. Thereby, Kazakh singer is now in Leonid Agutin’s team.

Dream comes true for Diana, because she wanted to be in Leonid Agutin's team. “When I was a child, I listened to songs from his albums from morning till night not without a purpose. Our musical tastes are probably similar,” Diana said.

The next stage for Diana is the battles phase.

Once the coaches have picked their team, they are to pit them against each other in battles. The participants will perform a song of the coach's choice at the same time in a boxing ring-styled stage. After the two artists complete the song, one will progress to the live shows and another one will be eliminated from the competition. Finally, each coach will have six singers for the next stage - live shows.

To advance into the blind auditions stage, one must pass a preliminary casting. In an interview, Diana said that she sent her best performances, whereupon she was invited to the casting in Moscow. “I sent songs from my first album, covers of Beatles’ Yesterday and Mariah Carey. I attached all links to my performances at Two Stars (a Kazakhstani singing contest) and other concerts which could be of interest to them. They are looking for interesting singers and extraordinary voices,” she said.

Earlier, another Kazakh singer Binazir Yermaganbetova qualified for blind auditions in Golos. The episodes with Binazir will be aired next year.

Golos is a Russian version of internationally renowned The Voice that premiered in October 2012 on Russian Channel One. The winner of the first season Dina Garipova later represented Russia at Eurovision-2013. The second season was aired from September to December 2013. Sergei Volchkov was the winner of the second season.

The jurors are Russian folk singer Pelageya, Russian popular singers Leonid Agutin, Dima Bilan (runner-up of Eurovision-2006, winner of Eurovision-2008), and one of the first Russian rock singers Alexander Gradsky.

Reporting by Aizhan Tugelbayeva, writing by Assel Satubaldina