Ramin Ismailov, 20 yrs old, is a psychology student from Moscow and will be representing Russia in Mr. Gay Europe 2010 to be held in Geneva 19-24 October 2010. He is (almost certainly) ethnic Azerbaijani. I say “almost”, as his name/surname is common and popular in Azerbaijan, however, I was unable to find a confirmation of his ethnicity on the net. There is slight possibility that he could be from one of the northern Caucasian republics in Russia too.
An Azeri friend of mine said “yes” in response to my question re Ramin’s ethnicity: “true, looks like an Azeri - I would even say, definitely yes. The name Ramin Ismayilov or Ismailov is definitely Azeri - but can also be Daghestani or other North Caucasian.”
Ramin likes “singing, playing piano, dancing, meeting friends, and swimming in the rivers and lakes of Switzerland”. Reportedly, he won a modeling contest and appeared in popular Russian gay magazine “Kvir”. Says Ramin: "I want to win Mr. Gay Europe for the gay men in Russia".
Funnily enough, last year Russia was represented by David Baramija of Georgian origin.
Now if Armenian gay man represents Russia next year, that will be a hilarious development :)
Neither Armenia nor Georgia participated in the Mr Gay Europe. Initial intentions and announcement on possible Armenia participation from 2008 were scrapped due to lack of sponsorship. In 2007, Azerbaijan was represented by Sadikh Ragimov, 19 yrs old, from Baku.
*pictures - via Mr Gay Europe; photo of Ramin Ismailov - by Slava Galkin.
An Armenian friend of mine, who lives in Moscow and personally knows Ramin Ismailov, confirms that he is Azeri. He says that Ramin is a nice guy.
ReplyDeleteMr. Gay Europe 2010 is off citing financial reason.
ReplyDeleteBelow is a statement of organisers.
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Mr. Gay Europe 2010 in Geneva is cancelled
In an email received late Friday October 15 the Grand Hotel Kempinski in Geneva informs us that the event Mr. Gay Europe 2010 has not brought the expected income to the hotel and therefore the Grand Hotel Kempinski pulls out of the sponsor deal with the Mr. Gay Europe organization. This is only three days before the event is about to take place.
Financially Mr. Gay Europe is a small organization where most of the job is based on voluntary work though our big network throughout Europe. The hotel has given us the option to buy a block of rooms for the event but we are in no position to change our budget this close to the event dates.
Even though we feel this is a breach of contract we have no possibility to take this through the Swiss legal system at this short notice, and also this would mean considerable expenses which will burden the organization.
The Mr. Gay Europe organization wants to stress that we have never promised any specific number of rooms to be sold and we also want to inform that financially we do not have any pending bills or invoices from the hotel.
The tickets sold for the Grand Finale on Saturday 23 will be refunded immediately.
The Delegates who have paid their tickets to Geneva will have their airfares refunded. A special team including our Executive Producer and the Delegates' Liaison will be at the Delegate's and Producer's disposal in the week to come. This is a sad and crucial time for Mr. Gay Europe.
All the Delegates that were to experience and participate in Mr. Gay Europe 2010 are invited to Mr. Gay World 2011 in Manila. Normally the European Delegation would have counted maximum ten Delegates, right now this number can be as many as 20. Along with other European countries that couldn't take part in MGE 2010 will also be invited to Manila.
The Delegate from Europe that gets the highest rank in Mr. Gay World 2011 will be given the title of Mr. Gay Europe. And if it happens to be that an European wins the Mr. Gay World title, the second highest European will take home the title MGE.
The preparations with Mr. Gay World 2011 are going extremely well thanks to our amazing team in the Philippines. We are going to make sure that the Europeans get an extra special value out of their stay in Manila.
The Executive Producer of Mr. Gay Europe will intensify the effort to prepare and groom the European delegation for their trip till Mr. Gay World. We will amongst other things work with different airlines to offer attractive airfares for the Delegates who will to take part in MGW 2011.
We want to express our frustration and despair to all those who have been looking forward to the event in Geneva, the local gay community who have been so helpful, the artists that were going to take part in the finale show, our team in Oslo who have been working so hard for this to happen and most important of all – the Delegates – we really don't have words to describe what we feel right now.
On a closing note we want to thank Mr. Gay Europe 2009, Sergio Lara, for an unforgettable year, his reign comes to an end today. We at Mr. Gay Europe wish him the best in his future endeavors – may his dreams come true!
Mr. Gay Europe Team
http://mrgayeurope.com
After one year hiatus, Mr Gay Europe 2010/2011 will take place in Bucharest 13-17 April 2011.
ReplyDeleteRamin Ismailov will be among 10 delegates/contestants.
ReplyDeleteMr. Gay Italy is the new Mr. Gay Europe