| Eduard Khil Эдуард Хиль |
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Eduard Khil receiving a 4th class Order of Merit for the Fatherland in 2009 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Эдуард Анатольевич Хиль |
| Born | 4 September 1934 Smolensk, Western Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR |
| Origin | Leningrad, Russian SFSR, USSR |
| Occupations | Singer |
| Years active | 1955–present |
| Associated acts | Prepinaki |
| Website | http://edhill.narod.ru/ |
Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (Russian: Эдуард Анатольевич Хиль; born 4 September 1934), sometimes anglicised as Edward Hill, is a Russian baritone singer and a recipient of the People's Artist Award of the RSFSR.
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Eduard Khil was born on 4 September 1934 in Smolensk to Anatoly Vasilievich Khil, a mechanic, and Helena Pavlovna Kalugina, an accountant.[1] Life as a child was hard on Khil, with his family breaking up and was brought up by his mother. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII Eastern Front), his kindergarten was bombed, he was separated from his mother and evacuated to Bekovo, Penza Oblast where he ended up in a children's home, which lacked basic facilities, such as food. Despite this Khil regularly performed in front of wounded soldiers in the nearby hospital.[1] He was reunited with his mother in 1943 when Smolensk was liberated from Nazi Germany and in 1949 moved to Leningrad, where he enrolled and then graduated from printing college.[1] In 1955, Khil enrolled to the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied under direction of Evgeni Olkhovksky and Zoya Lodyi. He graduated in 1960.[1] During his studies, he began performing various lead operatic roles, including Figaro in "The Marriage of Figaro".[1]
After graduating he fell in love with pop music after attending a K.I. Shulzenko concert,[1] and started to perform popular music. This led to him winning several prizes in the next two decades. He won the "All Russian Competition for Performers" in 1962 and was invited to perform at the "Festival of Soviet Songs" in 1965.[1] He attained second place in Sopot International Song Festival in 1965.[2] In 1967, composer Andrey Petrov won the USSR State Prize for a collection of songs performed mainly by Khil,[1] and in 1968 Khil won the Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR. The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was awarded in 1971,[3] and Russia's most prestigious artist award, the People's Artist of Russia, was awarded to Khil in 1974.[2] He was so successful that the public called him the 'Symbol of Leningrad'.[4]
Between 1977 & 1979, Khil taught solo singing at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy.
Khil has toured in over 80 countries[1] and currently lives at Tolstoy House (Толстовский дом) in St. Petersburg.[5]
After his singing career faded in the early 1990s, Khil re-entered private life and worked in a cafe in Paris, singing cabaret. Since 1997, Khil has been involved with his son in a joint project with the rock group Prepinaki.
For his 75th birthday, Khil was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th Class in 2009 by Russia[1] and in 2010 performed in St. Petersburg's Victory Day Parade.
After retiring from a singing career, Khil slowly faded into obscurity in his later years. In 2010, Khil reclaimed the spotlight when he became the subject of the viral Trololo internet meme on YouTube, thanks to the spreading popularity of a single-serving website "Trololololololololololo.com" featuring a 1976 video of a vocalised version of the song, "I Am Glad I'm Finally Going Home"[note 1] (Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой).[6]
He was the first artist to sing such songs as Woodcutters (Лесорубы in Russian) and Moon Stone (Лунный камень) by Arkady Ostrovsky, and Song about Friend (Песня о друге), Blue Cities (Голубые города), And People Go To the Sea (А люди уходят в море) by Andrey Petrov. Other popular songs performed by Khil included From What the Homeland Begins? (С чего начинается Родина?), How the Steamers Are Seen Off (Как провожают пароходы), Winter (Зима), Birch Sap (Берёзовый сок), Alder Catkin (Серёжка ольховая), We Need Only the Victory (Нам нужна одна победа), and many others.
Khil's manner of execution of songs is unique and easily recognizable in Russia, characterized by charm, always having a great sounding bright, sonorous voice and the flight of lyrical baritone, with the powerful charge of optimism and humour.[4] On the stage Khil kept very confident, smart, accompanying singing light dance moves and spectacular gestures. By never changing his academic style of singing, Khil enjoyed enviable career longevity.
Eduard Khil is married to Zoya, and the couple have a son, Dmitri (born 2 June 1963). Eduard Khil also has a grandson also named Eduard. Khil met Zoya in July 1958 at the Leningrad Conservatory where he sang, whilst she danced. Afterwards they went on tour together, where their romance began. They got married two months later at 1 December.[4][7] The family name Khil is not derived from Hill, as it is reported on various web sites. The singer stated in an interview that he probably has a Spanish ancestor with the surname Gil, which is pronounced similar to hill.[4]
In 2009, a 1976 video of Khil singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song I Am Glad, Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home (Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой) was uploaded to YouTube[8] and became known as “Trololololololololololo” or “Trololo”.[9] The name "Trololo" is an onomatopoeia of the distinctive way Khil vocalizes throughout the song. The quirky and catchy video quickly became an Internet meme and Khil became known as "Mr. Trololo" or "Trololo Man".[9]
The song was written by Arkady Ostrovsky. Besides Khil, it was also performed by Valery Obodzinsky,[10][11] Hungarian singer János Koós,[12] and by Muslim Magomayev on the Little Blue Light program in the Soviet Union.[13] According to Khil, the Trololo song originally features lyrics, which described a narrative about a cowboy riding a horse to his farm[14][15]:
- I'm riding the prairie on my stallion, a mustang as such, and my sweetheart Mary now knits a stocking for me, a thousand miles away from here.
- Я скачу по прерии на своем жеребце, мустанге таком-то, а моя любимая Мэри за тысячу миль отсюда вяжет для меня чулок
Arkady Ostrovsky's son, Mikhail, gives another version of the vocalise story:
Nobody banned its lyrics, but my father just composed the music during the period of his disagreement with Lev Oshanin. The latter told him that the lyrics are more important in a song and that a composer is nothing without a lyricist. So Dad told him during the argument, "Well, I don't need your verses at all, I'll manage without them."—Mikhail Ostrovsky, Rossiyskaya Gazeta (Russian)
...никто ее слов не запрещал, просто музыку отец сочинил в период размолвки с поэтом Львом Ошаниным. Тот сказал ему, что стихи в песне главное и без поэта композитор - ноль. Вот папа и сказал ему в пылу ссоры: "Да мне вообще твои стихи не нужны, обойдусь".
The Trololo video first appeared on some sites beginning on 21 February 2010, the most prominent of those being the "Trololo" website that rocketed the meme into popular awareness, receiving more than 3,000,000 hits in its first month.[16][17] It gained prominence on 3 March during a segment on The Colbert Report.[18] It was also parodied by actor Christoph Waltz on Jimmy Kimmel Live![19] as well as Craig Reucassel on the Australian TV show "The Chaser".
The "Trololo" meme in turn re-ignited interest in Khil's singing career aside from his vocalised performance; for a time, the "Trololo" website included a petition for Khil to come out of retirement to perform on a world tour.
I haven't heard anything about it. It's nice, of course! Thanks for good news! There is a backstory about this song. Originally, we had lyrics written for this song but they were poor. I mean, they were good, but we couldn't publish them at that time. They contained words like these: "I'm riding my stallion on a prairie, so-and-so mustang, and my beloved Mary is thousand miles away knitting a stocking for me". Of course, we failed to publish it at that time, and we, Arkady Ostrovsky and I, decided to make it a vocalisation. But the essence remained in the title. The song is very playful – it has no lyrics, so we had to make up something for people would listen to it, and so this was an interesting arrangement.—Eduard Khil, LIfe News (Russian)
- Я об этом ничего не знал, в первый раз слышу. Приятно, что и говорить! Спасибо за хорошие новости!
- С этой песней связана целая история. Для нее сначала были написаны стихи, но они были неудачные. То есть удачные, но в то время их нельзя было публиковать. Содержание было такое: «я скачу по прерии на своем жеребце, мустанге таком-то, а моя любимая Мэри за тысячу миль отсюда вяжет для меня чулок». В то время опубликовать такое, конечно, не получилось, и мы с поэтом Аркадием Островским решили - что ж, пусть это будет вокализ. Но в названии все-таки осталась суть: «Я очень рад, ведь я наконец возвращаюсь домой». Песня очень озорная - слов в ней, конечно, нет, но надо было придумать что-то такое, чтоб ее слушали, поэтому была очень интересная аранжировка.
Khil's son was quoted as saying "He thinks maybe someone is trying to make a fool of him," and "He keeps asking, 'Where were all these journalists 40 years ago?'"[9]