Lyudmila Zykina

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Lyudmila Zykina

Lyudmila Zykina (left) with Svetlana Medvedeva on 10 June 2009.
Background information
Birth name Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina
Born (1929-06-10)June 10, 1929
Origin Moscow, Soviet Union
Died July 1, 2009(2009-07-01) (aged 80)
Moscow, Russia
Genres Folk
Occupations Singer
Years active 1947–2009
Associated acts Pyatnitsky Choir
Website www.ludmilazykina.com

Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina (Russian: Людми́ла Гео́ргиевна Зы́кина) (10 June 1929 – 1 July 2009) was a national folk singer of Russia.

She was born in Moscow and joined the Pyatnitsky Choir in 1947. Her surname is derived from the Russian word for "loud" ("зычный"). Beginning in 1960 she performed solo. She befriended Ekaterina Furtseva, the powerful Minister of Culture of the Soviet Union, and was reputed to be a favourite singer of Leonid Brezhnev. It is known she was a particular favourite of both Kim Il-song and his son Kim Jong-il, performing in Pyongyang six times at the invitation of the Kims. It was also reported that Kim Jong-il was so fond of Zykina that he invited her to Pyongyang in 2008 in hopes that her performance would help him recover from illness.[1]

Among Zykina's many honors were the Lenin Prize (1970) and Order of Lenin (1979) as well as the titles of People's Artist of the USSR (1973) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1987). According to Dmitri Shostakovich, Zykina was "more than a brilliant interpreter, she was a coauthor, co-creator of composers".

Her signature songs include Techot Volga and Orenburgskii platok. The asteroid 4879 Zykina is named after her. Lyudmila Zykina died on 1 July 2009 after suffering a heart attack.[2][3][4][5]

Honours and awards

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Russian Wikipedia.

References

  1. "Kim Jong-il's Favorite Russian Singer Dies", Chosun Ilbo (29 October 2009).
  2. "Famous Russian singer Zykina dies". BBC News. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
  3. ""Queen of Russian folk" Lyudmila Zykina dies". Moscow: Reuters. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
  4. "Через три недели после 80-летнего юбилея скончалась народная артистка СССР певица Людмила Зыкина" (in Russian). NEWSru.com. 2009-07-01. Retrieved 2009-07-01. 
  5. "Ушла из жизни народная артистка СССР Людмила Зыкина" (in Russian). 1tv.ru. 1 July 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-01. 

External links

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