We believe you are familiar with this feature from our previous issue. Drawing on the opinion of the MAGTI GSM customers,  we have attempted to find out who the most popular actor, writer, artist, or businessman is…
This time the Magtians have named Nani Bregvadze among their favourate performers.

Nani Bregvadze is from  the family of famous Georgian singers - the Mikeladzes. Growing up, everyone in the household sang, and Nani was exposed in this way to great music from an early age. She listened and sang herself - at home, in the kindergarten, at school, the musical college and eventually the conservatory. Ironically, she never seriously intended to become a professional singer. In fact, Nani Bregvadze was perhaps the last person who recognized Nani Bregvadze, the singer.
“I have been always on the stage, always singing. I was brought up in a highly musical environment. As a little girl, we lived on Kote Meskhi Street on Mtatsminda.  I remember the sunny Sundays in our yard. My grandfather would sit outside in the yard. The music was always playing on the radio. I had a wonderful childhood whose cheerful memories and emotions remain with me to this day. I remember winters and heavy snow. I do not know why, but we do not have snow in Tbilisi any more. It was such a joy for us children to play in the snow - to slide on a sled or make a Grandfather-Frost. In the summertime we would climb the mountain to play and pick flowers. As I grew older, the kids who lived on my street would stage different performances and sing. I was thirteen when we moved from Kote Meskhi Street to Griboedov Street. The room where we lived was very small, only fourteen square metres, but I have the most fond memories of those years. I went to School Number One, and although later we moved to live on Plekhanov, and now I live in Vake, I still have a great fondness for the part of the city where I spent my childhood.

“On Rustaveli, above where the LUXE shop is today, lived my classmate Natela Javakhishvili. When we were in the tenth form, we would often go to her place. I would sit at the piano, my friends would open the window and I sang.  Below, in the street, people would stop and listen to me. When I finished, they would applaud and ask me to look out of the window. I would go out and bow to them as they clapped. I remember all this like a beautiful movie. Singing has always been part of me and it was just natural for me. I never thought of becoming a professional singer, however. In fact, I was thinking of becoming a professional pianist. In 1956, I was invited to the famous amateur orchestra of the Polytechnical Institute. I studied at the musical college at that time. Together with the orchestra I participated in Moscow’s Seventh World Festival where we won first place among the Soviet performers, and third place among international performers. Later, already a student of the Conservatory, I sang with the Georgian State Orchestra under Konstantin Pivzner. This was from 1959 to 1964. Then I was invited to Moscow’s Music Hall. I went on three long tours abroad with them. In those days, touring abroad was a  very rare thing. In fact, it was an unimaginable thing.

I returned to Tbilisi in 1964. The Orera ensemble invited me to join them.  This was a very important period in my professional life. It was with this ensemble that I developed as a singer. By then, I was becoming somewhat popular, I was being recognized and began to draw an audience. At the same time, I performed with Mediko Gongliashvili and began to developed my own repertoire. I was invited to sing at a major musical evening in Moscow, and even gave my own solo concerts. I received different titles - Honoured Artist, then People’s Artist of Georgia and later of the Soviet Union. After all this acclaim it would be awkward to continue asserting that I was not, in fact, a singer.”

With few exceptions, Nani Bregvadze has not performed songs from the repertory of other singers. Georgian and Russian composers composed many songs specially for her. Revaz Laghidze, Gogi Tsabadze, Bidzina Kvernadze, Shota Milorava were among them. She does not like when the lyrics of a song are meaningless. She believes that both the text and the melody  must be equally exquisite. That is why her repertory includes songs whose texts were written by such giants as Galaktion Tabidze, Pushkin, Lermontov, Petre Gruzinski, Moris Potskhishvili, Bela Akhmadulina and others.

“I have been fortunate to have had songs actually written for me. There are so few new songs now, that many sing from my repertory. But this is normal, how it should be. They sing differently. Some of them I like, some I don’t. Most modern songs are different from those songs that were written in the past. If I were a  young singer, I do not know how I would win the affection of the audience. In the past, proper songs just came along, without my effort. Composers paid equal attention to the melody and the words. My songs have very refined texts, except the romances, perhaps. But simplicity is in fact characteristic of the romance. The text must be moving, however. That is essential.”

Refined - Nani likes to use this word, and it is one which also happens to  best describe her - her performance, voice, manners and most certainly, her appearance.
“I have never regretted the choice I made. I would not be any good at anything else anyway. The only thing I regret is that I could have  become an opera singer. If I had trained more, I think I could have. I am more of a classical performer. Perhaps this is because I received a good classical education. To this day I do not know who I am as a singer, really. My singing is neither purely classical nor popular - it is more academic perhaps, which sadly is not a very popular style these days. Two years ago, the Georgian Voices, my daughter Eka and I  were giving a concert in Saint Petersburg. We were very nervous. They have such loud shows, and we were  nothing like this. As the concert began, Gia Chirakadze announced: “Now you will listen to her majesty the music”. There was an incredible response to our performance. Many came and thanked us after the concert. A truly good song will always be admired.

“I have never sung for the sake of the applause. I have been singing because I love to sing. I have always felt an enormous responsibility toward the  audience. If an actor or singer does not love his audience, he or she is doomed to fail. I have always tried to be considerate of them and what they really need from a performance. I never stroke my own ego by letting them beg a long time for more. This is why I sometimes have a third set of songs prepared. And another thing - you can never cheat the Georgian audience. The Georgian people have great sensitivity and taste for music, that is both why and because we have been blessed with so many good songs.”

Nani Bregvadze has countless admirers, including many famous and influential people - political and public figures, writers, actors, journalists and even cosmonauts.... Few would be able to resist the temptation to take advantage of these kinds of connections. Yet Nani has never asked anyone for anything. Singing has been her only livelihood.

“I know many people and have many dear friends in Russia and abroad - to say nothing of my Georgian friends. I wish I could name them all here. I have had many memorable concerts and meetings. How can I forget Bichvinta, or Sukhumi where these wonderful people would come together.

“But things have changed so much. Neither my daughter, nor I have a talent for business. Neither is self promotion my strong point.  So I sit and wait for someone to invite me to a concert. I have no agent. Perhaps they think I am so “well-off” that I have no need for one. However, I do need someone who will help organise concerts. But when I see the problems that other people have, how can I say I have a hard life. I can, for example, borrow money and then pay it back after a concert. Lately, however, things are going rather well. I went to Moscow recently, then to the United States. I am going to the Czech Republic now and to Israel in  autumn.

“I spend a lot of time in Moscow. So many people have left Georgia. We have very  talented people, but there are problems. First, it is regrettable there are few opportunities for performers to appear on different stages in front of different audiences which is essential for the singer’s professional growth. Next, good singing requires a combination of good music, text, talent and very hard work. There is an abundance of talent in Georgia, but I believe it is fair to ascribe the success of many foreign popular singers almost solely to ingenious and painstaking image-making. And there is a lack of this type of promotional acumen here.

“I have been lucky in these respects. I began my singing career under favourable circumstances.  I have learned so much throughout the years and had such great experiences. I do not want to sound complacent, but I have acquired a different wisdom and attitude. My songs already have everything going for them - music,  words, feeling and profound depth. Even my voice surprises me these days - my vocal cords fully obey. I do not smoke, and that must help.”

Nani Bregvadze has performed in many countries and cities on all five continents. In all of the former Soviet Republics and in every province of Georgia, she has experienced beautiful concerts, an exotic world and a great many humorous incidents.

“I have never kept a diary, I thought I would be able to remember everything. My friend and colleague Zura Iashvili, however, did keep one, and I would tell him to go ahead and keep it for me too, so I can copy it. Now my accompanist Mediko Gongliashvili writes and I again threaten  steal a friend’s diary for myself.
“I have been on many tours. I remember my impressions of Paris. I thought ‘this was my city.’

“We went to Afghanistan when the Soviet intervention was nearing the end.  Mediko and I drove in a car and we were  protected along the road by a tank. We happened to be in Nicaragua during the revolution there, as well. I remember Tahiti, a fascinating paradise of a country. In our film “Orera in Full Swing” there are sequences of our tour in Tahiti. I remember Jamaica, where we were warned to stay inside because the mad had been released from a mental hospital. In Morocco, King Hassan II invited us to his palace after the concert. I have been to  many places, but never have I seen a table of such  astounding beauty. I still have the gown that he gave me as a present - a black velvet dress in gold embroidery. It is very heavy, I had it with me in the United States and wore it once. I put it on and was paralyzed - it was like wearing a space suit.  But it is a beautiful garment.

“It is funny, but I am not an adventurer. No matter where I go, I miss home. Two months is perhaps my maximum and then I run back home again.

“In the past I used to have many concerts throughout Georgia - in Sukhumi, Gagra, Pitsunda, to say nothing of Batumi and other towns.

“Once we had a concert in Moscow. The second act was mine. I was extremely nervous, although everything was going on very well. I announced the last song and then... my mind just went blank. Mediko went on playing, as I walked up and down the stage. Finally, I went up to her and whispered to her to prompt me the words. Mediko could not help me, as she herself had forgotten the melody!

During the turbulence after the Soviet Union broke up, I did not perform on stage for a long time. My first concert after this long pause was in Moscow. The hall was packed and I was very jumpy. Again, I forgot the words. What could I do, I walked to the edge of the stage and told the people that I had forgotten the text and could they remind me.  Everyone in the audience, it seemed, wanted to help me out, so they began to shout the words from all quarters of the hall. So I had to quiet them down,  and ask that just one of them prompt me. Things like this happen, but somehow I find a natural way out of an awkward situation. Someone later even asked me if I did this on purpose.”

It is impossible to have a busy life both on stage and at home, especially with  housework to do. Maybe there are exceptions, but Nani credits her mother for her success on the stage. Her mother accepted the responsibility for the whole family. Their house was always full of guests, which included many outstanding people of all generations.

“Mother always wanted me to be surrounded by good people. She wanted to help me have a healthy, happy life.  My friends could come to me any time. Mother was always ready for guests, and she always gave visitors a hearty welcome. Later, after she died, my friends told me ‘we thought we were coming to you, now it turns out we were coming to your mother.’  I remember an occasion when I was given another honorary title. Eka was already performing on stage too - and successfully. So Mother joked that she should be given the title ‘Professor.’

My mom had one very good quality which she passed on both to me and to Eka. She would never say anything negative about any singer. She always said ‘You should always acknowledge good in people. It will not leave you any worse off.

“As a matter of fact, I did not want Eka to become a singer. Touring was so hard for me that I did not want her to go through it. Also, one thing is for sure -  if you are a singer or an actor, your spouse should be with you when you tour. If that is not so, the family will inevitably break up. This happened to me. Your spouse should be connected to your profession in some way. My husband and I loved each other dearly. He wanted me to sing and did not object to my touring. Yet, we could not avoid our eventual divorce.

“Eka too has finished the conservatory. Even as a little girl, she had an incredibly musical ear. She was one year and three months old when she sang the same lullaby, which my mother sang to me and which I had sung to her. And now, my grandchildren have been raised with it. The boys are already grown up but neither of them sings, they chose a different profession. One studies at the Technical University, and the other is at the Medical University. We, however, place great hopes in Natalia. She is seven and very gifted. She has a wonderful timbre, almost operatic.  I just pray for the good health of Eka and the other grandmother Lamara Margvelashvili, my son-in-law and that things will change for the better and everything will be well again. “

Very recently little Natalia debuted on-stage with her mother Eka Mamaladze. May God give her the recognition, profound respect and sincere love that her mother and grandmother, the already legendary Nani Bregvadze have received from so many.

ELISO  KAPANADZE