Creme de la creme of the Russian music scene
 

Ok, people, I would really like to start a discussion, it's about the most popular artists in Russia.

So first of - who are the most popular stars out there? I know Dima Bilan's huge, I know t.A.T.u. used to have their moments... Serebro were big for a while.

I've heard about Zemfira, Zveri, Via Gra, are those popular too?
Whatever happened to Nichya - were they really popular?

Is Yulia Savicheva best-selling female artist?

What are the big names?

:D

^
Maybe a bit difficult to answer, Russian music business is strange. Young people don't have the money to finance the music business, as they do in the west, and the whole show is pretty much dominated by the wishlist of grown up - very much grown up - no more growing up (rather shrinking and wrinkling) people.

No surprise that the artists of long past generations earn most of the money - Alla Pugacheva, Filipp Kirkorov, Valerij Leont'ev, Grigorij Leps, Valerij Meladze and Nikolaj Baskov. Only Dima Bilan as representative of the young generation can compete with them. Decent income of stars who have a younger audience (besides Bilan) are the girls rock band Ranetki, MakSim, Zhanna Friske, Sergej Lazarev (not with music!), Yuliya Savicheva (same as Lazarev) and Zemfira.

When it comes to album sales only MakSim can sell her new albums well. Sales figures of most of the other acts are more or less flops.

On radio we can listen to the female singers MakSim, Uzbekian Sogdiana, Valeriya, Ukrainian Ani Lorak and some new acts like IKA and Ri (managed by rapper Seryoga), the girl groups Serebro and VIA Gra. The most successful male acts are the boy group BiS, the singers Irakli, Stas P'eha, Grigorij Leps and Dima Bilan. Then there are some frequently aired bands like Vintazh (the top act of the year 2009), A'Studio, the Quest Pistols, Chi-li, Diskoteka Avariya and the DJs Leonid Rudenko and DJ Smash.

Rock and rap/hip-hop are mostly ignored by radio but are quite active outside the Russian music establishment. Hard to say who is currently en vogue. Zveri, Bi-2, Mumij troll', Zemfira, Nochnye snajpery and Splin are certainly among the best rock groups, but there are some interesting new acts too like Tat'yana Zykina, Maks Fadeev's Kit-Aj, Haki and Princessa Avenue.

On the rapper front nothing new: Seryoga, Timati, Kasta, Basta, Centr and Band'Eros, who had a really bad year 2009.
Don't ask why I give no links for the last category - it's OBVIOUS! :p

Alla Pugacheva is, of course, a legend. :D

MakSim's woo?! But she's booring :lol: BiS are pathetic!!! :eek: Ani Lorak went to ESC, she's cute...

I also wondered about - eeerm the Serebro guuuy - yes, Fadeev. What does he do? He is a musical producer, riight? Is he connected to that Star Factory somehow? And that show - Star Factory - what's that about?

Timati... :cry: Bad bad bad...

******************************

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ponjoYRxJo is HOTTT!!! :eek: The video is so good... :eek: Just saw it for the first time :D

Yes, but .. :rolleyes:
Yes, booring!
Yes, but which boy group isn't?
Yes, and oh God, she can sing!
He was the producer of the second, and one of the producers of the fifth Star Factory. Some of his projects is/was from those shows (Savicheva, Irakli, the oh-god-I-hate-you-Maks thrown away Terleeva, and some less known acts (Pierre Narcisse, Kukarskaya).
Yes, really bad!

well, is so weird that the most $$$$ Acts in russsia are the ones beyond 50 :p, I`m not against them some of the ones you mentioned there(I like Kolya`s attitude more than anything ) I know and heard some songs and well.
what`s up with young people dont they recieved their weekly allowance from parents :confused: Albums are not that expensive there.
wow just imagine if that happen in the west Billy joel (good musician) and phill collings earning more cash than britney spears and jay z(:ill:)

I like Ani Lorak, I think she has a great talent, and she`s from ukraine which is awesome!!
zhanna friske is ok, though I completely dislike her voice but no doubt she manages as a sex bomb for russians, even Yulia liked that hehe! and that sells!

what can I say about BIS :ill: bad copy of Backstreet boys mixed out with nsync, 1 is cute, (but not enough to make me want to actually Download one song)ok boybands are quite cheessy, but Damn at least some of their members can sing, but I doubt I can say the same of BIS :bum:

poor Timati, he seems to invest on his records, casue I dont think having Snoop dogg, scot storch in his Album has been cheap.
and well Banderos wasnt that band at the top one in 08?, what happenned?:/

Grigory Leps yhodi krasivo, his style on the video is a la Robbie williams :s, nothing special to me.

sergey lazarev has really good talented, much more than many listed,too bad that he`s always one step under Bilan, and overshadow by him almost all the time :bebebe:


but hey!! what about Dima koldum, and the guys from fabrika!!!!:coctail:

are the guys from uma2rman out?, alsue , I always wondered what happend with the band that sang with ur girls (haha) poezia! dont even rememebr their name are there still alive? obviously not creme de la creme, not even when tATu recorded with them.

^
Well, well, well...a lot to say.

About the young generation. They don't have the big money like the western teenagers. Furthermore you can get absolutely every album easily for free on a huge amount of download sites and they seem to spend more money on other things, and don't forget - Russia is in an economic crisis. Another fact is that collections of current music hits seem to be more popular than individual albums. Probably there isn't enough advertising for the groups and singers too. In the end young people get their music almost completely from the internet.

About Zhanna Friske. Honestly I don't even know where she gets her money. Albums - no. Concerts - I'm not aware whether she is even touring. Tele-shows - no. Casinos have been closed, so no more money from there. As a musician she is definitely not major league, nevertheless Forbes lists her as No. 18 of the Russian celebrities.
About BiS. Ok, honestly --> :bum: , but some songs are ok. The clip for 'Korabliki' is a good one though.
Band'Eros: for most of the year there was a big nothing. Late summer they released the single Polosy, but it wasn't much of a success. Can't say that song and video impress me either...
Timati - he should finish to play around and finally do his own thing. More than 50% of his songs are co-projects. It doesn't work.
Grigorij Leps - his merits are an unusual and strong voice, with some vocal chord acrobatics and quite a lot of funny quirks during his performances. The video is nothing special, but the most actual one. Not always the best songs, but maybe Russia's best singer, especially when it comes to power songs.
Lazarev - too much running behind Bilan, lets Americans (bad composers - MTV ware) write his music, not in the premier league musically, but not far away. He just needs good music.
Koldun is Belorussian. Not so much fan support, in 2008 he was quite big, but he fell back.
The girls of Fabrika - were never really big. Famous for their summer hits and pure fun at their performances. Their main problem is a way too small repertoire and it seems that their producer neglects them. He has about ten other projects, among them another new girls group 'Mobil'nye blondinki' (and they are :bum:).
Uma2rman - ups and downs. They are somewhere caught between the young and old audience, and too intellectual. Sometimes they have hits and they are hip, sometimes you don't notice them. It seems that they are quite successful on concerts though.
Polusya - not even sure if the name is correct. If there were no tatu, nobody would even know them, I guess.

Well I like Sergey's Tv Show album and Yulia Savicheva's first two albums.Ya Ustal from Quest Pistols is a good tune as well,but aren't they from Ukraine?Ani Lorak is Ukranian too,she has a great voice and married to a Turkish guy :lol: Some of her songs are nice,like Car Song.Dima looks pathetic mostly but his songs in Russian(don't let him sing in English please!) like Ya Tebya Pomnyu,Na Beregu Neba are nice.He has a huge fan base in Russia though.Serebro was a good idea but I only could bear their Eurovision song.

Argos,what are the chances of our Lena and Yulia to get as big as t.A.T.u.?

Offtop:

Quote:

d married to a Turkish guy

Do you think about being a patriot all the time?! :eek:

Three words - sexy pussy, wow! :D

:lol: I hope not.
maybe she `s into advertising, modeling, she seems to fit on almost anything relating to showbiz

honestly I think lena and Yulia can have their chance they have a fanbase already, obviously big sales , given the crisis, and that tATu`s fan base is merely young people mostly, cant be something we have to expect.

There is also potap and nastya kamenskih Theyre quite huge.
P.S Cheap russian lady gaga wanna be katya razumova EWWW.

In showbiz nothing is impossible. Keeping that in mind, my answer is a confident "No". Times are bad for beginning a new project. Both don't have a team which can establish them in the Russian market, the fan-base, though strong in it's quality, isn't that big in numbers. If you want to start a successful project you have to be in one of the famous production centers or have an excellent PR manager (and that's exclusively women for some reason). Another way may be in the Moscow party scene, if you put all your eggs on dance music.

Tatu has done everything to displease the media, so neither Lena nor Yuliya can hope for assistance from that side. And anyway. A year of independent bumbling about is over and absolutely nothing is the result of it. No song, no gig, no PR activity...If you don't move, you fall back. I didn't see real activity from the girls since January 2007 - that's three years, wasted years. As solo artists I don't see any chance for them, together as tatu, with the backbone of their fan community, they may reach again the second league of Russia's music scene, if they turn down pseudo alternative ambitions and find the language of their target audience, and of course active PR.
*******************
In Ukraine they are absolutely on the top. I don't know how's the situation in Russia, they have really many things running in their home country, so I'm not sure if they even have time to care for the Russian market.
Another new project from Maks Fadeev. All of a sudden every producer wants to create a pop satire project. I think it can only work if the stars have a certain kind of virtuosity (not only musically), as Lady Gaga has. Svetlana Loboda from Ukraine shows something like that for years and probably she is the only one in the Russian speaking East so far, who is good at that.

What happened to Nichya?

Offtop:

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazy malchik (Post 391956) Do you think about being a patriot all the time?!

Offtop:
That was all I know about her,so it's not about being a patriotic ;)Didn't you want to know about show business?

Nastya and Potap are huge in russia. Well at least russian music chanel (I have few) play them alot. I think they do care about russia because artists get main money from private gigs and that is huge market in Russia.

russian private parties are really something big, I read and saw on youtube that some rich people there have shakira , Xtina aguilera, and rihanna to sing at their birthdays, I guess that they rather world wide big names than their own artist :D

Do you know from what the ~50 Russian and ~30 Ukrainian active girlgroups live? :gigi:

Is there a band "Balagan Limited"? An article says that they've submitted an entry for Russian national final.

Yes.
They tell it, too.

Are they well known in Russia?And band Unisex was said to prepare for Eurovision,which would be no surprise because they entered last year's selection.How about Unisex?Are they popular or something?

I would both groups put in the category "Yes, there are some people who have heard about them once upon a time". Ok, Balagan Limited is almost medium popular (among people with strange taste :D )..

I have to agree with you there :D

Sergey lazarev may enter to the major league since I read he`s signed with Sony music

the negative part: he`s starting to sound too R&B, in his latest song heartbeat I dont know if I`m listening to sergey lazarev or Justin Bieber, :ill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUmGVTa-rIY

His thick Russian accent and his feminine sounding voice will never fly in a western market. This sounds like nothing that's played here. He's a tool.

Trudnyj Vozrast is one of the best albums I've ever heard.

Are BK known in Russia?They submitted an entry for Russian Eurovision national selection called "He's a liar" ,listen to the song here
http://www.myspace.com/bandbk

i hope that's an exaggeration, but yeah trudny vozrast is a great russian pop album. but Moj Raj = Boooring and her song about Radio Airwaves is just more of the same.

As far as i'm concerned the russian music scene is, as argos has been implying, dead. Only a handful of artists, the russian music stations still play songs from when began liking Russian music. i couldn't believe it when they played "Tak i Byt'" by Propaganda a few weeks ago - seriously?! It's sad but yeah... it seems the only artists who can get a lot of airplay are those from the Meladze and Fadeev camps (which includes Fabrika Zvezd artists to an extent).

The group BK! exists since late 2007, practically unknown. They make something like brit-pop and tried their luck in 2008's Eurovision selection with a song called "Don't Break My Heart". The band-leader Boris Hludnev was Dima Bilan's manager at his first Eurovision experience.

Only a few days to the dead-line in Russia, and no star is interested in the contest. The people in charge at the TV channel 'Rossiya' have to be completely desperate by now. Everything we have are Roma Kenga, LiVi, Stas Satsura, Balagan Limited, BK!, Unisex and porn-star Lena Berkova - what a list!

You forgot Dima Bilan!He revealed in his video blog that he prepared a song for Eurovision.For the third time?No,I wouldn't like that!

So far he has nothing submitted, and the dead-line already had been prolonged. Manager Rudkovskaya told about this possibility, too. The tour begins on Monday and there is not a single news line about his participation. On the other hand he will certainly be at the Olympic Games in Vancouver to cross the fingers for Plyuschenko, as all media report. So what about the candidates' tour?

By the way, Miss Berkova is sure that she will win the contest, if the voting is fair, and her song "The Bear Arrived" was for another singer, who wanted to participate last year. Unfortunately he died from alcohol abuse. If it were not a tragedy I would full heartedly :lol: (ok, honestly I'm :lol: anyway!)

Dima Bilan has rescheduled his Australian performance so that he can participate in the NF,so he's likely to submit a song.

I think this suits quite well in the thread. On Sunday, Valentine's Day on Muz TV was the "Big Love Show 2010", where a very representative sample of the most wanted stars for the young generation in Russia showed up. Only a few top acts were absent like Dima Bilan, who is on an official mission in Vancouver. But altogether a good glimpse on who is 'in' and what's cool for the teens and early twens. If you miss some names - well, probably they are losers :) (at least for the young audience).

Sergej Lazarev - Najdi menya: This live version sounds so much better than the original one. Unthankful job to begin the show - the people were much less in mood than later in the show, but he did it excellently.
Vintazh - Eva: The superhit of 2009 from the new top act of Russian music scene. The lady has her own real kindergarten at home already, but she knows how to leave her mark!
BiS - Pustota: Ok, boygroups - special case. But they do a good job and are by far the best Russians in that genre and they can sing quite well. Ex-Star Factory participants produced by the famous Konstantin Meladze, which means: every song is of top quality.
Serebro - Sladko: Leadsinger Lena was supposed to leave the group and go solo, obviously she as well as the Fadeev brothers (one as producer, the other as her lover) have changed their minds and reason has finally won, the fans can be happy! A convincing performance from girls in best mood.
Roma Kenga - Summer Night City: One of the new stars. Not the best singer but with a good portion of charisma. He will try to represent Russia in the 2010 competition of the European Song Contest.
Band'Eros - Ne vspominaj: After a lousy year and the loss of one of their members they finally came back late last year. Hopefully they will continue with creative r'n'b / hiphop music of the Eastern kind.
23:45 & 5ivesta Family - Ya budu: The climber of the year 2009. Not really in the top league as singer, but with her raspy voice she won the hearts of the teenagers. Dance and rap in combination - not unusual in the disco and club scene of Russia.
Vika Krutaya - Ubegu: The daughter of the most famous Russian composer Igor' Krutoj, and I bet daddy gets rashes when he hears his daughter's music. Minimalistic and monotonous dance music, right at the moment it's well received, especially in the capital's scene.
Zhanna Friske - A na more belyj pesok: An enigma, this lady. In her seven years in the girlgroup 'Blestyaschie' she was the most elegant (almost snobbish) member of all time, and no boy or girl younger than thirty would have confessed that (s)he is a Zhanna-fan, but since she left the group in 2003 she attracted first of all the young audience, even now with her almost 36 years, as you can see at this performance.
In'-Yan - Kamikadze: Another Star Factory project of Konstantin Meladze - great songs and good voices, but some flaws with their performances, the sparks don't want to ignite most of the time, it's a pity.
VIA Gra - Sumasshedshij: The next Meladze project, the decade old girlgroup with the proverbial 'every year line-up change'. Still the best of the best. Unrivaled in Russia, how they interact with the audience, and this time they are simply irresistible.
Timati feat. Mariya - Love You: Somehow this egomaniac with his horrible music not only survives in Russian music business, he even manages to be one of the stars of the young audience. Fingers in the ears and hold out!
Quest Pistols - Belaya strekoza lyubvi: Not so long in the upper league. Definitely one of the most interesting performers in the Russian scene. Quite unusual, but always fun to watch. With this hit song a flawless act.
Infinity - Zamechtalas': Sometimes it's not easy to explain why someone is famous. A simple girl, seemingly only modestly talented, straying around on stage, having nothing special to offer, but the youth of a whole nation has taken her to their hearts.
DJ Smash - Samolyot: A disappointingly short performance of the top DJ of the nation, and definitely not his best work, but the teens love him anyway.
MakSim - Na radiovolnah: For years now Marina bores us with one copy after another of her earlier works, and sometimes even with plagiates of other artists' works. This one isn't much different, but she has a huge fan community (of girls who still have not met their fairytale prince, as some sharp tongues note).
Alexander Rybak - Fairytale: Watch and listen, who can sing better, Rybak or the audience (the answer is easy, really!). Anyway, this guy can do what he wants, everybody loves him.

I thought that Lena sang all the parts,the video was a total shock for me :lol: I didn't think the new girls were able to sing actually :D And they totally sound like Lena.I'm still in a shock:lol:

Is Pavla Kuchenko known in Russia? She participated the Russian national final with this song

http://esckaz.com/mp3/Pavla%20-%20Inflatuated.mp3

I quite like it.Does she have chances?

She was doing quite well in 2008, had almost a hit with Ne uspela, but since then it has become very silent around her.
She isn't well known, but if I look on the semifinalists' list which the channel 'Rossiya' published today, everything is possible. Oh God, the whole competition will be so weird! :hah:

The channel kept the right to add direct finalists to the selection,which I think will make Dima Bilan's song enter the competition.

It would make sense then, why all the stars 'boycott' the ESC. Even Roma Kenga, the only bigger name, is not on the list. If everybody knows that Bilan is already booked for Oslo, it makes no sense to invest time and money for the selection. Only the unknown acts, who get their attention on TV (maybe for the first time in their lives) can win in this situation. I just hope that I will see Elena Esenina (love it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikjgXrOEIZk ), Yulika (Do you know, how r'n'b sounds on a balalaika? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGKi1gKvifo ) and "Blondrock" (exquisitely hilarious - http://www.rockgeroy.ru/view/songs/135233.html ) in the Russian final in a week.

Dima Bilan has withdrawn from the final :D

I hope that I will see MIUSHA in the final. But I don't know what she will sing. :ithink:

Max Barskih
Макс Барских

I discovered this guy and his song Agoniya, which is really catchy. Is he known in Russia? Argos?:)

another song from him - Suka Lubov, so catchy.

Until now not so much. He is new and not Russian. Participant of Fabrika zirok 2 (the Ukrainian Star Factory) in December 2008. He writes his songs himself and is known for his very blunt and almost aggressive courtship of Ukrainian top star and sex symbol Svetlana Loboda. Well, they had a duet together, which is even more remarkable than his other songs - Serdtse b'yotsya - the heart beats. You'll look in vain for anything even halfway comparable in Russia, but no surprise - the Ukrainian music scene is very much alive, the Russian is absolutely dead.

In some youtube videos the girls were crazily cheering for him and singing along loudly.