I touch myself

After Dima Bilan, probably the biggest male Russian pop star in Sergey Lazarev, formerly of homoerotic boyband SMASH!! Sergey, 24, left the pop duo in 2004, just a week after the release of their final album, leaving his band mate Vlad Topalov to carry on under the SMASH!! name by himself. Apparently Vlad's father, the manager of the group, was so pissed off he used his connections to try and make it difficult for Sergey to forge a career as a solo artist.
Nevertheless Sergey's first solo album Don't Be Fake was released in 2005, and in 2006 he took part in the reality show Dancing on Ice. The show was a bit hit and Sergey managed to finish in second place, further boosting his profile and popularity among the Russian public. His management realised what an effective promotional tool the show was, and earlier this year entered Sergey into the reality show Circus with the Stars. Sergey proved to be an all-rounder and natural in most of the circus acts ended up winning the show.

In June Sergey released his second solo album, TV Show, which included his hit single, a cover of the Johnny Hates Jazz song Shattered Dreams, which is very good, and apparently reached number 14 in the British club chart. His best song is Don't Be Fake with it's classic lyrics: "Now take your hand I'll slip it / into my hand just kick it / just pull it down, unzip it / I touch myself."

Download Shattered Dreams [Right-click, Save Target As...]
Download Fake (Metro Mix) [Right-click, Save Target As...]

YouTube links:
Sergey's homoerotic acrobatics on Circus with the Stars
Shattered Dreams Video
Fake Video - Look at Sergey dance like the gay that he is

They call me Dima Bilan

Dima Bilan's intentions to launch in the West have been known for a while now. English versions of most of his latest album Vremya reka (Time is a river) have been circulating on certain Russian radio stations.

It turns out Dima has been recording in America with none other than Timbaland. He performed one of his new Timbaland tracks, Number One Fan, at the recent MuzTV awards in Moscow. It's rubbish! It's generic R'n'B crap. He even mentions his name in it loads of times. Do they really think he will be able to break the tough American and British markets with a mediocre R'n'B Timbaland cast-off?

Dima Bilan - Number One Fan (Right-click, Save As...)

Work Your Magic

Hurrah! Eurovision season is already in full swing as countries from Iceland to Israel select their representatives for Helsinki 2007. One song that has particularly caught my ear is from the Belarussian final selection. In Belarus they hold a live televised show with 15 finalists, from which Belarussians choose their top three songs via a phone vote. The next part of the selection is rumoured to be quite corrupt, as special judges, in private, select which artist of the three will get to represent the country. A few weeks later the winner is announced. One of the final three this year is 21 year-old Dmitriy Koldun, whose surname means 'wizard', with the song Work Your Magic, composed by the woman behind Dima Bilan's Never Gonna Let You Go, and "Russia's Michael Jackson" Filipp Kirkorov. I find the song to be quite amazing, with a catchy chorus, impressive vocals and a dramatic finish. Dmitriy is also quite a looker; which helps; and I'd let him cast his magic potion over me any day.

The Belarussian final will be held on Monday 22nd January with special guests Kseniya Sitnik (winner of Junior Eurovision 2005), Andrey Kunets, Carola, and Dima Bilan. A live stream of the show can be found here. The transmission time is 19:20 Minsk time, 17:20 GMT.

Download Dmitriy Koldun - Work Your Magic [RapidShare]
www.dima-koldun.com/
http://esckaz.ueuo.com/belarus/

Russian Winter Festival

Just a quick post for readers in and around London to let them know that the third annual Russian Winter Festival is taking place on Trafalgar Square this Saturday, 13th January 2007. As well as the usual mix of stalls selling Russian food and other crap, there will be a concert featuring Dima Bilan(!), Pelageya, Tokio, Garik Sukachiov, and others. The show will run from about 11am until 6:30pm, and Dima Bilan should be on stage at around 2:30.

This will not be the first time Dima has performed at the event, he also appeared at the first show in 2005, but since then his popularity has soared and he has become one of the biggest, if not the biggest pop star in Russia today. Saturday's appearance is significant as Dima is about to launch himself in Western Europe.

http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/russian_festival/index.jsp

Malinka, malinka, malinka moya

Russia's answer to the Beasty Boys, middle-aged rap trio Diskoteka Avariya (Disaster Disco) are one of Russia's biggest pop acts, having released eight albums during a career spanning almost ten years. The group's music is best described as 'hip-hop-pop', (but more leaning towards the pop), and is catchy, fun and quite insane.

I remember a couple of years ago London held its first annual Russian Winter Festival on Trafalgar Square, at the end of which was a concert featuring some big Russian pop acts. Dima Bilan, Glyuk'Oza, Uma Turman and others had all finished their sets, and the predominantly Russian crowd was going wild waiting for Distoteka Avariya to come on. Unfortunately, the event had overrun its designated time slot, and despite the event being attended by the Mayor of London himself, they weren't allowed to perform.

For their recent hit Malinki-Malinki they collaborated with over-the-hill pop star Zhanna Friske, and filmed a lovely little Snow White-esque video. Malinki (literally meaning 'little raspberries') is the name of a town in Disktoteka Avariya's native Ivanovo Region. Also, malinki is slang for a crowd of beautiful women surrounding a lone man; apparently it's short for an expression like 'He's like a bear in a raspberry bush'. Anyway, enjoy!

Diskoteka Avariya i Zhanna Friske - Malinki-Malinki

Malinki-Malinki (YouTube)

http://www.avariya.ru/

www.malinki-malinki.ru

The Return

I'm sorry for being rubbish and not explaining why I haven't written for about four months. I've been living in Russia and didn't have a computer at home, and didn't have time to write at Internet cafés. But I am back home in the UK now with lots of new Russian music which I will begin to share with you within the next few days.

Yulia with the braids

It wasn't until the second listen of Ukrainian girl group XS's song Yulia, that I realised what, or more precisely, who the sound is about. The line "Yulia with the braids" gave it away, and the video confirmed my suspicions. Yes! It's about our friend Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and now opposition leader of Ukraine. In the video we see one of the girls from XS sporting Ms. Tymoshenko's trademark blonde rap-around braid, dancing in front of a red heart, the symbol of the former PM's party, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. There are also some nice looking Ukrainian men in Cossack dress, if you like that sort of thing. XS's music is much like that of their fellow countryslags VIA Gra, except that they actually sing in Ukrainian. In fact, Yulia sounds more than a bit like VIA Gra's song Stop! Stop! Stop!

www.xs.net.ua
Download XS - Yulia
Download the video [Rapidshare]