Biography:

Dedema ( Mongolian :ᠳᠡᠳᠮ᠎ᠠ, transliterated by Bao Pei : dedm-a , Cyrillic : Дэдма ; 1947-November 28, 2023 [1] ), a native of Ejina Banner , Inner Mongolia , a Chinese Mongolian mezzo-soprano; graduated from the Vocal Music Department of the China Conservatory of Music . He is currently a national first-class actor and the dean of Inner Mongolia Dedema Music and Art College. He once learned the Mongolian traditional singing method of long tune and was known as the “Nightingale on the Prairie”.

Artistic experience

In August 1960, the Ulan Muqi in Ejina Banner , Inner Mongolia was officially established. 13-year-old Dedema joined the Ulan Muqi at the suggestion of her middle school teacher. In 1961, Dedema participated in the three-month Ulan Muqi training class in the region, and at the end of the training class, she sang ” The Waves of Honghu Lake ” in Mongolian during a report performance for Ulanhu , Secretary of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the Communist Party of China. . [2]

When Dedema was 15 years old, she entered the vocal music research class of the ” Inner Mongolia Art School ” to study vocal music. In 1964, when she was 17 years old, she was admitted to the Vocal Music Department of the China Conservatory of Music to continue her studies. After graduation, she successively worked as a soloist and opera singer in the ” Inner Mongolia Bayannur League Art Troupe”, “Inner Mongolia National Opera Troupe” and “Inner Mongolia Song and Dance Troupe”. She is good at singing Mongolian folk songs, as well as large-scale art songs and Western opera arias . In 1978, Dedema received great attention from the singing world with her song ” Beautiful Grassland, My Home “. After 1982, Dedema was transferred to the ” Central Ethnic Song and Dance Ensemble “.

In the 1990s, Dedema won first place in the National Singing Competition for Top Ten Female Singers; in 1995, she won Mongolia’s “National Culture and Arts Supreme Award”; in 1997, she won the highest award at the “ Osaka International Arts Festival” Award [3] .

In March 1998, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, Dedema was invited to perform in Japan . Because she had to perform 41 performances in 58 days, the 53-year-old Dedema, who suffered from hypertension , was severely exhausted. During the 25th performance on April 2, Dedema suffered a cerebral hemorrhage , but she insisted on finishing the song; after the curtain call, she fainted as soon as she entered the backstage. After being in a coma for eight days, Dedema just woke up and was told by doctors that the right half of her body was paralyzed and she would be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

However, Dedema did not give up. After returning to China, she went to the hospital for treatment every morning and continued practicing her voice in the afternoon. Although she is paralyzed on the right side of her body, she has no speech impairment. Nine months later, Dedema returned to the stage. In September 2002, with the funds raised from various sources, Dedema founded the “Inner Mongolia Dedema Music and Art College” in her hometown, which mainly recruits herders’ children with artistic talents [4 ] .

On September 30, 2007, the “Dedema Sixty Years Nostalgic Classic Concert” was held at the Beijing Exhibition Center Theater. The audience still discovered the impact of the illness on Dedema, and she still cannot move her right hand freely [5] .

Dedema is also a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and a director of the China Ethnic Minority Culture and Art Foundation; she was named a “National Advanced Worker” (Model Worker) in 2000.

At 13:42 on November 28, 2023, Dedema died in Beijing due to ineffective treatment of illness at the age of 76 [6] .

Credits: