Bahali, a song composed by local Karamay singer, Li Man, was awarded the silver medal at the Third "New Songs for Xinjiang" Original Music Contest on Feb 5.

Li Man was born in Karamay. She has won prizes in many large-scale singing competitions, and has been honored with the title of "Lark from the Desert" by her audiences.

The contest celebrated the 60th anniversary of the foundation of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It was sponsored by the Chinese Musicians Association, the Publicity Department of the Party Committee of Xinjiang, the Xinjiang Culture Department, the Xinjiang Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Xinjiang Daily, Xinjiang Economic Daily, and Xinjiang People's Broadcasting Radio and Xinjiang Television. They started to collect original music last March, and have received entries not only in Chinese, but also in ethnic languages.

By the end of last November, 1,372 songs had been collected and 103 of them were selected for the next round. After three review rounds, two gold, three silver, and five bronze medals were awarded, together with 10 prizes for excellence.

Edited by Peter Nordlinger