Fut-Fut-Freestylo exhibit

I’ve posted this before elsewhere but never here before.

Most come across Fut-fut-freestylo on YouTube. I did too. It even amazed me that Kazakhstan had its own idol show (when it doesn’t even have a McDonald’s location) that was basically ripped off from American Idol (which itself ripped off from UK’s Pop Idol) and rebranded as “Superstar KZ”. This was, of course, not to say that in my mind Kazakhstan was “backward” but that in my mind Kazakhstan had not sold out to American “culture”. I personally despise idol shows.

But one audition on Superstar KZ stood out as impressive. It was Ernar, a simple-looking Asiatic dude with a traditional instrument known as a dombra. He was trying to sing Bomfunk MC’s “Freestyler”. It soon turned into a Kazakh song with Kazakh lyrics, possibly imitating an older song by R. Lizer. Ernar’s improvization amused the hell out of the judges:

The original Superstar KZ audition!

Partial lyrics:

Uigana shikan bildergen
turgyda osken buldirgen
ainalain kizdarau
kaderi kim belgen

Ou ou ue
suisen be
barim tastapsen
magan tisen be!

Tiri-diri-dam, tari-duri-dam… (chorus)

(It beats me to know what these mean)

He then got a chance to perform at some “finals” show or something, in front of an actual concert crowd of about a thousand - and cheering. The judges are also seen appearing to love Ernar, as well as enjoying copious amounts of Pepsi.

The original pop song MV. It looks very old and badly choreographed but bear with it - it’s not exactly filled with juicy American MTV-style effects. Still, you’ll love the ending. He wakes up from a dream and we assume he’s a street rat but then still ends up driving off in a Mercedes-Benz. Perhaps in Kazakhstan, the Mercedes-Benz is the equivalent of a Ford in Canada? :P

Another clip of the original Superstar KZ audition with two other auditions in the beginning that clearly show that Superstar KZ judges are possibly as mean as American and Canadian Idol judges.

Some guys in Poland trying to sing and dance to this song. Hilarious stuff.

On top of that, there have been remixes and tributes all over YouTube. Finding them is left as an exercise.