MONGOLIA: FORMER COMMUNIST RULERS HOLD ELECTION RALLY WITH MONGOLIA'S VERSION OF THE SPICE GIRLS

Record ID: 389695

  • Title: MONGOLIA: FORMER COMMUNIST RULERS HOLD ELECTION RALLY WITH MONGOLIA'S VERSION OF THE SPICE GIRLS
  • Date: 29th June 2000
  • Summary: SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) SARUULSAIKHAN, 25-YEAR-OLD FAN, SAYING: "They are just so awesome. I like them so much!" (2.37) SCU (SOUNDBITE) (Mongolian) BATBAYAR, 38 YEAR-OLD FAN, SAYING: "I'm basically not a fan of pop music style but the Lipstick is a different case and I like them a lot" (2.47)
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ULAN BATOR, MONGOLIA
  • Country: Mongolia
  • Topics: Entertainment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA7L2EGK0XVLSOP2SH4V0U4JT94
  • Story Text: Forget Mao suits, goose-steps and the Internationale.
    Mongolia's former Communist rulers have spiced up their image with peroxide hair, platform heels and a touch of Girl Power as they dance side by side with Mongolia's version of the Spice Girls. As one of their fans says, 'Awesome.' The Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party added a touch of gloss to its recent parliamentary election campaign - by enlisting the help of Mongolia's answer to the Spice Girls.
    'Lipstick,' Mongolia's only all-girl pop group, were signed up to an exclusive contract to play at MPRP rallies, where they sang and danced with charismatic party leader Nambariin Enkhbayar, who models himself on British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
    Donning all-white clothes and coloured hair, Lipstick brought the house down with their singing and dancing.
    "They are just so awesome. I like them so much!" said one fan. .
    "I'm basically not a fan of pop music style but Lipstick is a different case and I like them a lot," said another.
    In an interview under a statue of Lenin in the capital Ulan Bator, the four girls, Ganaa, Gerlee, Degi and Ichko talked about how they started.
    "We have many boy bands here in Mongolia but there aren't any girl groups, so we thought, why couldn't we have one? And even if there were girl singing, why was it that nobody was singing international pop music that took influences from other cultures and musical styles? That's why we wanted to sing," said twenty-year-old Ichko.
    And like most budding talents, they too are looking at expanding their horizons.
    "Mongolia is our home and we want to develop our art form here. But perhaps one day we could go to other Asian countries as well. It is one of our dearest dreams. I really hope that it could come true someday," said Ganaa.
    But despite their ties with the Communists, the four girls said they would not vote for the new-look Communist party that ruled Mongolia for 75 years until it was swept from power by a young democratic coalition in a 1996 election.
    "Democracy has given us a lot. It has given us the chance to sing and dance the way we want to - we can do anything that we want," said twenty-one-year-old, ginger-haired Gerlee.
    Many Mongolians complain that capitalist-style economic reforms since the nation's first democratic election in 1990 have brought precious little material gain, with a third of the population of 2.4 million living on less than 10 dollars a month.
    But for Gerlee, a graduate from Ulan Bator's College of Music and Foreign Services University, the reform era has opened up a world of mobile phones, Internet cafes, discos and record contracts that were unheard of 10 years ago.
    It also gave her the freedom to give up a poorly paid job in government service and forge a career in the music industry with her friends.
    And they take this new career seriously, well aware that some teenagers look up to them as role models.
    "You know, artists are like the face of the people and the nation. A lot of youngsters follow our examples and we want to give them good ones. We have to accept the fact that we have a huge responsibility toward society and cannot afford to make mistakes," said the group's leader Degi.
    The band's popularity also reflects changing attitudes towards women in Mongolia's traditionally conservative, male-dominated society.
    But to most of the girls' parents, the radical change was too difficult to accept.
    "Because my parents grew up during the socialist era, they hated my hair when I first dyed it - they totally abhorred it. They have a very different mentality. I actually dyed my hair at home and when they found out, they were so angry. But now, because my roots are growing back and it looks really ugly, my father says to me: "dear daughter, please go bleach that ugly dark part!" said Degi.
    But the girls, who are all trained in classical and traditional Mongolian music, have finally won acceptance among young and old, and a lucrative deal with a local electronics firm to record their first album.
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