Vyacheslav Dobrynin
Vyacheslav Grigoryevich Dobrynin was a popular Russian composer and singer also known as Doctor Shlyager. He was awarded the People's Artist of Russia in 1996.
Early life
Dobrynin was born in 1946 to an Armenian father and a Russian mother. He never bore his father's surname of Petrosian – his father left the family before he was born and he used his mother's surname Antonov throughout his childhood, changing it to Dobrynin in 1972. He studied at Moscow State University and received a diploma as an "art historian and theorist" in 1970. He subsequently worked at the Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin Museum.Career
As an amateur musician and singer he participated in different Beatles-style groups. Dobrynin started to compose songs in the late-1960s and from 1971 co-operated with the Oleg Lundstrem orchestra, "Vesyolye Rebyata", "Samotsvety" and other bands. He wrote more than 1000 songs, often based on poems by Leonid Derbenyov, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Mikhail Tanich and Ilya Reznik. In 1998, Dobrynin got a star on the Star Square in Moscow.In the 1980s Dobrynin started to record his own songs, and in 1990 he founded "Doctor Shlyager" band.
Death
It was reported that Dobrynin suffered a stroke in September 2024 and was hospitalised in Moscow. His death was reported on 1 October. He was 78.Family
He is survived by his wife, his daughter Yekaterina Dobrynina, and two grandchildren.Dobrynin has performed in duets with his US born granddaughter Sonya Dobrynina-McGaffrey; with the songs "Whenever in the Future" and "All I Have in Life" to open a concert in the Kremlin in 2011 when she was 10, and "Raspberry Berry" in Corcus City Hall in 2016 when she was 15 which was broadcast live on Russia's Channel One 1TV.
Songs
Dobrynin's songs are mostly dedicated to unhappy love and romantic events of a person's life. Among his most popular hits are:- All I Have in Life
- Native Land
- Don't Rub Salt Into My Wound
- Where Have You Been
- The Carriage is Rocking
- Blue Fog
- Two Candles
- White Bird Cherry
- Music is Playing On the Ship
- The Music is Flowing
- Don't Worry Auntie
- Big Dipper
- Raspberry Berry
- Old Grannies
- Witch Lake
- Casino
- You Don't Dream of Me
- So This Is What You Are Like!
- You Broke My Heart
- Who Told You?
- I'm Afraid of Your Love
- Not a Moment's Peace
- Don't Forget Your Friends
- Write Me A Letter
- The Queen of Spades
- I Miss You
- I've Had My Fun
- Nobody Loves You Like I Do
- Crazy Rain
- How Unlucky I Am
- Well
- Forget-me-not
- Goodbye
Awards
- Lenin Komsomol Prize
- 15-time winner of Song of the Year Russia
- Ovation prize
- Order of Merit for the Fatherland IV degree
- Order of Friendship