UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 20, 2015. Ural Vagon Zavod held its first singing contest, with economist Tatiana Melkozerova winning the grand-prix for her cover of Lara Fabian’s Desperate Housewife.

The company press service reports the contest took off on September 18. 60 people came to compete in the first selection round and 21 employees of Ural Vagon Zavod, Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Office, and Ural Railcar-Building Design Office made it to the finals. Contestants performed in five categories: opera singing, pop/rock, folk, rap, and variety show.

The panel of judges comprised composer and head of Nizhniy Tagil Drama Theater’s Music Division Vadim Shosman, Professor Ekaterina Marinenko and Professor Natalya Kropotova from Nizhniy Tagil Liberal Arts College, acting Director of I.V. Okunev Palace of Culture Inna Salnikova, and other experts. Head of the corporation’s social work department Yulia Trubitzina acted as the chair of the panel.

The Audience Choice Award (founded by the company trade union) went to electrician Ksenia Nilova for her performance of Cuckoo. Oleg Garifullin from the Metrological Department won in the opera singing category with a Russian art song. Shipment engineer Oksana Medvedeva and her Lady Perfect were awarded for Ingenuity, while engineer Ivan Kulikov and his cover of Muslim Magomayev’s Blue Eternity got a prize for Expressiveness. Turner Ivan Matveyev and his cover of Lune from Notre-Dame de Paris got a prize for Integrity.