Shanson

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Shanson (aka blatnyak, from French chanson) is an informal musical genre popular in Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Union countries. It is the music rooted in prison life and criminal world, but completely different from American hip hop. Some of shanson performers insist that the genre they work in is more than that and look upon Alexander Vertinsky and Alla Bayanova as their precursors.

Shanson originated in the Soviet Union as an amateur genre practiced by former prison inmates and had been performed clandestinely by Arcadiy Severnyj and others until such performers as Aleksandr Rozenbaum and Mikhail Shufutinsky started to make television appearances and perform at large. Its popularity has grown enormously since then, especially after Radio Shanson was launched in Russia.

Leading shanson performers include Villi Tokarev and Lyuba Uspenskaya (both based in the US), Sergei Trofimov and Aleksandr Novikov, Vika Tsyganova and Mikhail Krug (recenly murdered by criminal acquaintances at his villa in Tver).

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