A Bangladeshi expatriate, Nowshad Ferdous, has become the champion in a major singing competition in South Korea.
Some 1,800 migrant workers including working citizens of the country participated in the competition. Nowshad became champion leaving behind 11 finalists who are South Korean citizens.
CourtesyThe final round of the 44th National Workers Festival was held at the KBS Hall in Seoul, South Korea's capital, on Thursday. As the winner, he will get the Prime Minister's Award and a prize money of Tk4 lakh which is equivalent to 5 million South Korean won (KRW).
CourtesyThe prize-giving ceremony will be aired on KBS, a popular Korean TV channel, on May 1.
CourtesyAn EPS worker in Seoul, Nowshad earlier won several awards for singing Korean songs in other competitions. Before moving to South Korea as a migrant worker, he worked as a Korean language teacher in Bangladesh for several years.
After winning the 44th National Workers Festival, Nowshad said: “I came to Korea in 2016. After coming here, I used to sing in various Bangladeshi communities as a hobby, although I could not sing well then. When I went to Bangladesh in 2020 and was stuck for a long time due to the coronavirus, I started practicing music. I also got trained in poetry recitation for better pronunciation.”
CourtesyHe also said: "After coming back to Korea, I put my full concentration on music in addition to my work. I also enrolled in a music class here.”
Ferdous mentioned the classes had helped build his confidence.
