Post by Eric on Apr 9, 2009 12:43:17 GMT -7
Alla Pugachova, the most popular singer... or even person, period... in the former USSR turns 60 on April 15th, and thus begins the end of her singing career. She announced that her current concert tour, which began this week in Moscow, will be the farewell to her 40-plus year singing career. In the future, Pugachova plans on working as a producer to help new acts develop their own careers, and she also plans to fulfill her longtime dream of starring in movies.
Her singing career began in 1965 with a performance on a youth radio station in Siberia singing the song "Robot", about a young woman who falls in love with a robot who, unfortunately, can never love her back, and can never change into a human to experience love the way she does. In 1975, she catapulted to superstardom by performing the song "Harlequin" at an international song festival in Bulgaria. Immediately, she became the most in-demand performer in the Soviet Union. In 1978, her grand prize-winning performance of "Kings can do everything" at the Intervision Song Festival in Sopot, Poland confirmed her status as a major superstar. Her 1980 hit, "Maestro" was so popular that it was heard on Soviet radio more often than the national anthem. In 1983, "Million scarlet roses" surpassed all other records, and, in the early 2000s, was voted the #1 song of all Soviet pop music. In 1985, she became the first Soviet singer to receive Finland's "Golden Disk" award. Hit followed hit, she survived perestroika and the end of the USSR, economic depression, the rise of tabloid journalism...
Through it all, her talent has remained. On stage, she is more than a singer. She is an actress who is capable of expressing even the subtlest emotional changes through her voice, her facial expressions, her whole behavior. She doesn't just sing - she becomes the heroine of her songs. Her repertoire covers virtually all genres - ballads dripping with melodrama, bouncy pop songs that get the whole audience dancing in their seats, romances that have come and gone.
Her singing career began in 1965 with a performance on a youth radio station in Siberia singing the song "Robot", about a young woman who falls in love with a robot who, unfortunately, can never love her back, and can never change into a human to experience love the way she does. In 1975, she catapulted to superstardom by performing the song "Harlequin" at an international song festival in Bulgaria. Immediately, she became the most in-demand performer in the Soviet Union. In 1978, her grand prize-winning performance of "Kings can do everything" at the Intervision Song Festival in Sopot, Poland confirmed her status as a major superstar. Her 1980 hit, "Maestro" was so popular that it was heard on Soviet radio more often than the national anthem. In 1983, "Million scarlet roses" surpassed all other records, and, in the early 2000s, was voted the #1 song of all Soviet pop music. In 1985, she became the first Soviet singer to receive Finland's "Golden Disk" award. Hit followed hit, she survived perestroika and the end of the USSR, economic depression, the rise of tabloid journalism...
Through it all, her talent has remained. On stage, she is more than a singer. She is an actress who is capable of expressing even the subtlest emotional changes through her voice, her facial expressions, her whole behavior. She doesn't just sing - she becomes the heroine of her songs. Her repertoire covers virtually all genres - ballads dripping with melodrama, bouncy pop songs that get the whole audience dancing in their seats, romances that have come and gone.
