Soinam Wangmo: A Rising Singing Star

Soinam Wangmo singing at the Xigaze Qomolangmo Cultural Festival in August 2002. BALSANG CERING

On May 12, 2002, Soinam Wangmo won the only gold medal for amateur singers at the 10^th National TV Contest of Young Singers, with her song Golden Hometown.

On May 17, she won the best singer award at the final.

These made her a star following in the footsteps of Cedain Zholma, a female singer from Tibet loved throughout China.

A Star Rising From the Grasslands

Soinam Wangmo came from a small village in Nagqu. Tucked away at an elevation of 4,400 meters, it is some 700 km from Lhasa. Her mother is over 70, and she has two sisters, one elder brother and one younger brother. She followed other members in her family in herding since childhood. High skies dotted with white clouds above mirrored by white sheep dotted over the landscape below are embedded in her mind.

Soinam Wangmo loves singing and her teachers were herders who sang songs full of a loving desire for life.

“When young, I joined them to sing while herding sheep,” she recalls.

“We sang the praises of the blue sky, the white clouds, the grassland and everything we encountered in life.

“We created words to sing and sang freely to satisfy ourselves.”

According to Soinam Wangmo, her father was the best singer in her neighborhood. And she herself was known far and wide in her early teens for her singing talent. Unfortunately, her father died when she was 14, and the songs she sang were somewhat sorrowful.

At the end of 1991, Soinam Wangmo, then 14, was recruited by the Sog County Song and Dance Troupe. In the following year, she was sent to attend the National Ethnic Minority Singing Contest in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Her Herding Song won first prize. Her success led to her being recruited by the Nagqu Prefectural Song and Dance Troupe, which is some 300 km from her home.

She stayed with the troupe for 10 years. During this period, she and her colleagues shuttled between various villages in the prefecture, bringing happiness to farmers and herders. Very often, they recorded her singing for further enjoyment at home.

First Prize Winner of Tibet

A brother-in-law of Soinam Wangmo, who graduated from the Music Department of Tibet University, was magistrate of Biru County. He created Golden Hometown from the herding songs popular in Sog County. When Soinam Wangmo was given the music book, its tune and contents filled the girl with great excitement. With bright eyes, she sang it for the whole night.

Her performance of the song at a local singing club brought down the housel. Endless curtain calls filled her with courage and confidence.

In January 2002, when she was told the Tibet TV would organize a Spring Festival Evening Party, she went to its director to express her wish to sing during the party. When asked from where she graduated, she replied: “I love to sing and people in Nagqu love my singing.”

The trial turned out to be a great success. Her singing of Golden Hometown elated all. And she was admitted into the evening party, and her singing won over the audience.

In a short span of five months after the Spring Festival Evening Party of 2002, Golden Hometown entered the hearts of the public. And her performance won 99.33 out of a possible 100 points at the 10^th National TV Contest of Young Singers, ensuring her of first prize.

During the singing contest, Soinam Wangmo wore an otter robe adorned with silver and jade adornments. Weighing dozens of kg and valued at some 60,000 Yuan, the robe came from her mother who had worn it from her youth. This made her different from other contestants.

But what she sang is the best.

“Ten TV contests have been held,” Cedain Zholma said happily, “and Tibet finally has won the first prize.”

The noted Tibetan singer went a special trip from Tibet to Beijing, as reinforcement for Soinam Wangmo.

Cedain Zholma attracted the Chinese, Tibetans included, with her Emancipated Serfs Sing, a song that made it possible for the world to enjoy Tibetan music.

Soinam Wangmo’s Golden Hometown brought Tibetan music into the lives of more people in China.

Talking about her success, however, she said: “I am a female herder who came from the vast Northern Tibet Grassland. My life, filled with happiness. comes from the snowy mountains and the grasslands. I will sing praises for them for ever.”

As she said this, her eyes shone like twinkling stars.