Came to the concert incognito: Busulis on how Pauls opened him up to 'New Wave' 0 6

The musician is very grateful for this and considers his collaboration with Raimonds Pauls one of the greatest gifts of his life:

"It happened a long time ago, on March 23, 2005, at 1:00 PM. In the producer's room of Latvian Radio, to the right of Studio 6. That was when we had our first meeting, and the Maestro scheduled a meeting with me to invite me to participate in the 'New Wave' competition of 2005."

Even after 20 years, Intars Busulis vividly remembers this meeting in detail, which became a huge turning point in his creative life. That same year, he won the 'New Wave' competition, and soon followed a collaboration with the Maestro and the Kamēr choir, resulting in the album Pauls. Busulis. Kamēr. Almost immediately after that, another album was released — "Dai, Boh!", a joint project with poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Currently, the collaboration continues in the concert program "Shakespeare. Sonnets."

The Maestro has always been known for his ability to discover new talents. It turns out that in the case of Intars Busulis 20 years ago, he used quite an unusual tactic. Together with Laima Vaikule, he came incognito to the performance of Viva La Bomba at the Essential club, where Intars was performing one of the roles:

"For one of the performances, in search of new talents, Maestro Raimonds Pauls and Laima Vaikule came. Nobody knew they would be there. Later, I read somewhere in a newspaper that they were there — Laima in a hood, the Maestro also hiding, and that’s how they selected me for 'New Wave'."

Over time, Intars Busulis and his family also developed warm and friendly human relationships with the Maestro. One trip on a motorboat particularly stood out for Intars: "Once the Maestro said — do you want to go for a ride on the boat? Back then, he still drove his own boat. I asked — can I bring my son? My son was about seven or eight at the time. And we sailed for about an hour from Baltezers to Lielupe.

We had sandwiches with us, Lana put lard on rye bread, and it was — wow! I still remember that taste, that atmosphere in the boat.

The Maestro was at the helm, and my son and I were just enjoying ourselves. We sailed through the canals of Baltezers, then briefly went out to sea to get back to Lielupe. It was very beautiful."

Intars characterizes the significance of Raimonds Pauls in music and our culture as infinite — it has continued for several generations and will keep going.

In Intars's family, there has long been a tradition of hanging the Latvian flag outside their home on the Maestro's birthday:

"I can show you now. I think I took a photo of it. Yes, here it is — on Monday at 11:20, I already have the flag hanging. Every year I do this on January 12, and it will continue to be so; I will keep this tradition."

If he had to choose one song that is closest to his heart, Intars chooses Dziesma nenosalst, because it is very personally connected to his mother, who passed away a year ago:

"We, the brothers, sang it to our mom every year on her birthday. We knew she would cry, that she would be emotionally filled at that moment, and we specifically sang this song.

And we never sang the second verse: 'Someday every voice will fall silent, someday every lullaby will fall silent, only the song does not freeze.'

Before that second verse, we sang at the top of our lungs, truly, emotionally."

Intars Busulis took the opportunity to send birthday greetings:

"I wish Raimonds Pauls inexhaustible energy, so that everything continues as it is, and of course, health, health, health! Hold on, and everything will be fine. It really will be good!"