Alla Pugacheva
Alla Borisovna Pugacheva is a Russian singer and songwriter. Her career began in 1965 and continues to this day, although she retired from performing in 2010 after the international concert tour "Dreams of Love". For her "clear mezzo-soprano and a full display of sincere emotions", she enjoys an iconic status across the former Soviet Union as the most successful Soviet performer in terms of record sales and popularity. For several decades, Pugacheva was a sex symbol, a style icon, an inspiration for Soviet women and a heroine of Russian tabloids. In the media, Pugacheva has been called "the Queen of Russian pop music". Pugacheva is one of the few Russian performers who has achieved international success, along with Anna Netrebko and t.A.T.u. Some Russian publications have suggested that she would not be welcome to return to Russia.
Her repertoire includes over 500 songs in Russian, English, German, French, Kazakh, Hebrew, Finnish and Ukrainian, and her discography has more than 100 records, CDs and DVDs. In addition to Russia and the former Soviet Union, Pugacheva's albums have been released in Japan, Korea, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Israel. In total, she has sold more than 250 million records. Her debut album, Mirror of the Soul, has sold 10 million copies. Pugacheva's other albums were also successful, including How Disturbing Is This Way, released in 1982, which sold 7 million copies.
During her career, Pugacheva has toured Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, Scandinavia, Central Asia and other countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Greece, Italy and Israel. She has performed in some of the most famous concert halls in the world, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Olympia in Paris, Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, Royal Theater Carre in Amsterdam and Apollo in London.
In addition to Russia and the countries of the former USSR, Pugacheva's singles were included in the hit parade in other countries of Europe and Asia, including France, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Japan and Mongolia.The singles "Harlequin" and "А Million Scarlet Roses" are her main international hits.
In 1988, Billboard noted that Pugacheva “ranks with such great musicians of all time as Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. In 2000, The New York Times called her "the goddess of Russian pop music, Moscow's Tina Turner with a touch of Édith Piaf".
She became a People's Artist of the USSR in 1991, a Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation in 1995. In addition to state awards, Pugacheva was awarded regional and international music prizes. She has received awards in several countries around the world, including the United States, Germany, Finland, Poland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Ampex Golden Reel Award, among others. Pugacheva was recognized as the best singer of the 20th century in Eastern Europe by the ZD Awards, named a living legend and the best performer of the 1990s decade by the Ovation Award. In 2017, she was included in the list of "100 most influential Russians of the century" according to Forbes, along with Mikhail Gorbachev, Yuri Gagarin and Pavel Durov. In 2022, she was among three Russian women included in the BBC's 100 Women list. Pugacheva was inducted into the Top Hit Music Awards Hall of Fame. For several decades, Pugacheva had the largest fee among performers in Eastern Europe. Due to her many years of popularity in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Pugacheva was compared by the media to Madonna, and she received the nickname Russian Madonna.
In addition to her career on the music stage, she starred in films and musicals, voiced films and recorded soundtracks. Pugacheva is considered a gay icon, and in 2012 she supported the punk group Pussy Riot. She was a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador from 1998 to 2007.
Early life and education
Pugacheva was born to Boris Mikhailovich Pugachyov and Zinaida Arkhipovna Pugachyova in Moscow, on 15 April 1949. In 1956, she enrolled in music school No.31, and attended the Ippolitov-Ivanov music college. She went on to study at school No.496, finishing her studies there in 1964. She then studied in the choral-conducting department of the college. Pugacheva recorded her first track "Robot" in 1965, for a morning programme on Radio Yunost.Career
The beginning, solo career 1965–1976
Pugacheva finished college in 1966 and subsequently toured with the group Yunost' in western Siberia. The following year she began working as a piano accompanist at the State Circus Musical college. She provided the leading vocals to a number of bands, including Novy Elektron, part of the Lipetsk State Philharmonic Society, in 1966, Moskvichi in 1971, Oleg Lundstrem's band in 1972–73, and Vesyolye Rebyata in 1974–75. She recorded songs throughout that period for numerous movies.In 1974, she came in 3rd place in the All-Union competition of musicians. In 1975, she received the Grand Prix of the Golden Orpheus international singing contest in Bulgaria, performing the song "Harlequin" by Emil Dimitrov. The Amiga label released her winning song as a single in East Germany. Subsequently, in Bulgaria, the Balkanton label released the live recording of "Harlequin" from the festival as a single. A year later, Pugacheva returned to the Golden Orpheus to perform a concert outside the competition. The Balkanton released the live tracks as Pugacheva's first album Zolotoy Orfey 76. The single "Harlequin" has sold 14 million copies. In that same year, Pugacheva recorded a number of songs for the musical drama-comedy The Irony of Fate as the singing voice of Nadja, the female protagonist.
In 1976, Pugacheva performed at the international music exhibition MIDEM in Cannes.
''The Woman Who Sings'', 1977–1980
Pugacheva went on to work on the musical film The Woman who Sings in cooperation with the band Ritm in 1977. She played the leading lady, a famous pop singer who sacrifices her personal life for her career. The soundtrack, which was co-written by Pugacheva and composed of pop songs, culminated with the dramatic title ballad "Zhenshchina, kotoraya poyot". The Soviet audience, regarding the film as autobiographical, brought the soundtrack to reach record audience of the year in 1979, as it was bought by 55 million people. The soundtrack was first released in 1977 as part of the double album Zerkalo dushi, which was a collection of her songs from 1975 to 1977. The Victor label released a collection album Alla Pugacheva in the same year in Japan. In 1978, performing the song "Vsyo mogut koroli", Pugacheva received the Amber Nightingale prize at the Sopot International Song Festival which at the time meant automatically winning the Grand Prix of the Intervision Song Contest. In 1980, the Kansan label of Finland released her above-listed works as the compilation album Huipulla. Also, the release of Pugacheva's album took place in West Germany.In July 1979 in Moscow, Pugacheva performed in a duet with Joe Dassin.
''Watch Out'', 1981–1984
During the 1980s, Pugacheva was a frequent visitor to Stockholm. She started out with multiple guest appearances on the popular Swedish radio show Galaxen conducted by Jacob Dahlin, and later frequently appeared on his TV show Jacobs Stege. Dahlin and Pugacheva used to perform duets, such as "Superman" where Dahlin sings as the title character. In Stockholm, Pugacheva recorded an album in English, released by the World Record Music label in Sweden as Watch Out and by the Melodiya label in the Soviet Union as Alla Pugacheva in Stockholm.International success, tour in Scandinavia, 1985–1994
The period 1985–1988 became a new, so-called "youth period" in Pugacheva's work: the arrangements of most of the compositions were made in a modern style with a hard rock guitar, and the lyrics contained more social themes.In the mid-1980s, Pugacheva toured Finland, Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, as well as the Baltic countries, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Her performance was a success. Therefore, in 1985, in Finland, in the port of Kotka, the ceremony of launching the ferry "Alla", named in honor of Pugacheva, took place.
In 1985 to 1988, Pugacheva performed with German rocker Udo Lindenberg. The result of their collaboration was the release of the album "Songs instead of Letters", published by Polydor Records in Germany and Melodiya in the USSR. In May 1987, Pugacheva performed the song "One Voice" at a concert in Vienna with American singer Barry Manilow. At the same time, she performed with the Swedish pop group Herreys and the Norwegian pop group Bobbysock. In September 1987, Pugacheva's single "Find Me" entered ZDF-Hitparade in Germany.
In 1986, she performed in Chernobyl for the liquidators of the nuclear power plant accident.
In 1987, Pugacheva was the headliner of the Sanremo Music Festival along with Whitney Houston.
In 1989, Pugacheva performed at the Country Music Festival.
In 1990, Pugacheva participated as a guest in the World Music Awards ceremony in Monte Carlo.
In 1991, she performed at the music festival in Ariccia.
In 1994, she performed at a rock music festival in Tallinn.
''Voice of Asia'', 1995–2006
In 1995, Pugacheva was the headliner of the Voice of Asia music festival in Almaty along with Toto Cutugno was also a headliner.She represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997 with the song "Primadonna", finishing in 15th place out of 25 places.
In 1997, together with the Econika Corporation, the singer launched her own brand of shoes under the Alla Pugachova brand. The shoes became the most successful non-song business project of the singer, along with the perfume "Alla", produced for many years since 1990 by the French perfume company "Sogo".
From 1998 to 2000, Pugacheva made an international tour with the “Yes” program for large halls, including stadiums, and the “Favorites” program for chamber halls, such as theaters and cultural centers. Over three years, she gave more than 150 concerts in Eastern Europe, as well as in Germany, Greece, Israel, Britain and the United States. She also released video clips for her hits from this period, such as “Autumn Leaves”, “Call Me With You”, “A candle was burning on the table”, and received the Golden Gramophone award, awarded by Russian Radio.
In 1999, she guest starred at the historic concert of the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
Pugacheva had sold a quarter of a billion records by 2000; in 2003, Pugacheva released the album “Live in Peace, Country!”, and in 2008, “Invitation to Sunset,”, albums received gold disc status in Russia from IFPI; in 2023 one of her songs were used for Atomic Heart for the intro.
From 2005 to 2019, Pugacheva awarded a cash prize from personal funds in the amount of $50,000 to young talented performers from Eastern Europe, the Baltics and Central Asia, including rock musician Koop Arponen from Finland, Tina Karol from Ukraine, Marina Lucenko from Poland, Stas Shurins from Latvia, Monika Linkyte from Lithuania, Maxim Erzhan from Kazakhstan and others.