In St. Petersburg, early in the morning of June 4, the famous Soviet pop singer Eduard Khil died. In the last years of his life, thanks to the Internet, the artist became popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. RBC invites readers to get acquainted with some interesting moments of his biography.

Photo: ITAR-TASS

E. Khil was born on September 4, 1934. in Smolensk. His childhood occurred during the Great Patriotic War. In 1941 he was evacuated from his hometown to Bashkiria, where he ended up in an orphanage in the village of Raevsky near Ufa. At the age of 9, E. Khil and a friend twice tried to escape “to the front,” but both times the boys were caught and returned.

Edward was reunited with his parents when Smolensk was liberated from German occupation. During the period of war and famine, the boy was severely malnourished and developed dystrophy, but his grandmother helped him get rid of it. In 1949 E. Khil came to Leningral and entered the Leningrad Printing College. At the same time, he studied at the opera studio of the Kirov Palace of Culture, worked as a foreman at an offset printing factory, was fond of painting, and studied at an evening school for music education.

In 1960 The artist graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory (singing class) and began performing as a soloist at the Lenconcert. He participated in performances at the Conservatory's Opera Studio, and at the same time the first concerts took place with classical and chamber repertoire from works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Gounod, Schubert, Beethoven, Mussorgsky. E. Gil sang Figaro in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and in "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini, Janusz from "Pebble" by Moniuszko, leading roles in "Eugene Onegin" and "The Queen of Spades", Count Elfort in Aubert's "Black Domino". For his performance of the last part, E. Gil became a laureate of the White Nights festival.

In 1962 He performed for the first time in Moscow on the stage of the Central House of Artists with a variety repertoire. The young singer was introduced by the master of the Soviet stage Leonid Utesov. In 1969 E. Khil headed the jury of the song competition, at which Lev Leshchenko and the Belarusian VIA "Pesnyary" announced themselves for the first time and became laureates.

In the same year, the singer’s first giant disc was released at the All-Union Recording Studio “Melodiya”. Eduard Khil recorded children's fairy tales on a gramophone record. In that era, not a single New Year’s “Blue Light” was complete without the participation of the artist. In 1974 the singer was awarded the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR, and a year later he became a laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize.

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Once at a concert, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin asked E. Khil to sing the song “How good it is to be a general.” When the artist began, all the generals rose from their seats and left the hall. After this, E. Khil was called to the Political Directorate of the Army and told that he would have to “take a year off” from touring and television. Then Yu. Gagarin went to the Political Directorate and convinced the military that E. Khil sang a song not about Soviet generals, but about Italian ones. “Oh, so he sang about NATO generals? Well, then it’s possible,” answered the Political Directorate.

In 1966 E. Gil received recognition at the international competition "Golden Rooster" in Brazil. The singer performed in the famous 20,000-seat Maracanazinha Hall. In 1977-1979 the artist taught solo singing at the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography. Among his students is the famous romance singer Oleg Pogudin.

The voice of Eduard Khil is associated with such famous songs as “Where the Motherland Begins”, “At the Forest on the Edge...”, “At a Nameless Height”, “And People Go to Sea”, “How They See Off Steamships”, “Oh, the Sea, sea", "Lumberjacks", "A man left the house", "A song goes around in circles", "It was recently, it was a long time ago", "Blue cities", "How good it is to be a general", "Birch sap", "Sunny ballad", "Two Brothers", "Moonstone", "Time for Love", "Don't Cry, Girl", "I Remain a Leningrader" and others.

E. Khil is the performer of the anthem of the city of Yoshkar-Ola, the performer of the unofficial anthem of the city of Kolpino “The Izhora River Flows” and the author of the dedication to St. Petersburg “Hymn to the City”.

In the early 1980s. On Leningrad television, E. Khil created and hosted the program “By the Fireplace,” in which he talked about the history of classical Russian romance, invited the best professional performers, students of the conservatory and theater universities, and sang himself.

In 2004 A concert dedicated to the 70th anniversary of People's Artist of Russia E. Khil was held at the St. Petersburg Theater of Musical Comedy. In addition to the hero of the day himself, who performed the program “Songs of a Lifetime,” the concert was attended by Edita Piekha, Ben Bentsianov, Lyudmila Senchina, Zoya Vinogradova, Vitaly Kopylov, Taisiya Kalinchenko.

In 2010 E. Gil experienced a second surge in popularity - then a video clip of the singer’s performance, recorded in his youth, was posted on the Internet. The video in which E. Gil performs the vocalization “How glad I am, because I’m finally returning home!” became very popular - it received more than 5 million views and over 13 thousand comments in a few months.

E. Khil’s unique sound and style made the song trendy. The singer became known to many foreign listeners, who called his song “Trololo”, and the performer himself - “Mr. Trololo”.

Eduard Khil: songs that last a lifetime