(Vlad Topalov and Sergei Lazarev - winners of the New Wave international pop song competition)

 
In early August the Baltic sea resort of Jurmala (Latvia) hosted the first New Wave international pop song competition with 15 performers from 10 countries competing in three rounds: 1)"retro" hits in their native languages; 2) foreign hits; 3) songs from their own repertoire. The international jury led by the well-known composers Raymond Pauls (Lativa) and Igor Krutoy (Russia) awarded the first prize to the Smash duet from Moscow. Vlad Topalov-Sergei Lazarev had been singing together since childhood at the Neposedy children"s ensemble: Vlad for 10 years and Sergei for 5 years. It so happened that they spent more time together at music classes, rehearsals and on tours than at home with their parents. When the boys grew up, neither of them wanted to leave stage and that"s how the Anima duet came into being. Now Vlad is 17 and Sergei is 19, one - a student of the MKhAT theatre school, the other a law student, one has black hair, the other is blond.
One their first recordings was a song from the popular musical "Notre-Dame de Paris", a gift to their producer and Vlad"s father Mikhail Topalov. "The music we perform may be called commercial but we put our souls into it", Sergei says. "We want people to feel that we sing with our hearts". This makes clear why they called their group Anima ("anima" means "soul").
Far from being lured by the "single day" laurels of artificial show-biz idols, the young singers are prepared to work hard to make their way up to the Olympus. "There is much work ahead", Vlad says. "Perfection has no limits. Perhaps, at some moments we"ll feel happy and content, but nevertheless we will understand that we could try to do something better".