A city official in Russia’s Belgorod region who chose to play the Star Wars theme music during a newly elected mayor’s inauguration has resigned, the city’s administration announced Thursday.
Liudmila Grekova, the head of the Belgorod culture ministry, left her post a day after new mayor Yury Galdun took oath.
As Galdun approached the podium, Grekova had decided to blast the sci-fi classic’s distinct, brassy opening score. Officials and attendees reacted with blank stares and straight faces — and the unconventional choice of music was enough to cost Grekova her job.
“We decided to change up the music to make it more modern. We chose the music but we didn’t clarify where exactly it was taken from. There were no ill intentions,” Grekova was cited as saying by the Baza Telegram channel.
The city administration press service later told the state-run TASS news agency that, in fact, a fragment of Soviet composer David Tukhmanov’s “Ceremonial March” was the intended entrance music for the new mayor.
Moreover, they asserted that the Star Wars blunder had been traced back to the sound engineer who had accidentally included the space opera’s theme in the playlist.
Perhaps Grekova wanted to set a good precedent for the new mayoral term with the victory-against-all-odds-style composition of the Star Wars theme. However, it instead resulted in the termination of her tenure.
As Darth Vader himself said, “Be careful not to choke on your aspirations.”
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