Maria Pakhomenko

Maria Pakhomenko (Russian: Мария Леонидовна Пахоменко; 25 March 1937 in Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union – 8 March 2013 in Saint Petersburg) was a Soviet and Russian singer, a holder of the title of People's Artist of Russia since 1999.^[1] She is probably most known for the song "Stoyat Devchonki" ("Стоят девчонки", composed by Aleksander Kolker) and for her version of "School Waltz" ("Школьный вальс").^[2]

The song that brought her fame was "Kachaet, Kachaet..." ("Качает, качает...") that she recorded for the theater play Idu na Grozu ("Иду на грозу") in 1963.^[1] It was the first solo song she ever recorded and it took a lot of effort by her future husband, composer Aleksander Kolker, to persuade her to do it.^[3] Maria Pakhomenko owed much of her popularity to songs written by Kolker (who is probably most famous for writing the song "Karelia" for Lidia Klement). Some of the titles he wrote for her are "Опять плывут куда-то корабли", "Печальная", "Красивые слова", "Стоят девчонки", "Чудо-кони".^[1]

Among the songs by leading Soviet composers of which she was the original performer are "Lyubov Ostanetsya" ("Love Will Stay", by Valery Gavrilin), "Nenaglyadnyy Moy" (by Aleksandra Pakhmutova), "Muzhchiny" ("Men", by Eduard Kolmanovsky), "Razgovory" ("Conversations", by Eduard Khanok), "Vals pri Svechakh" (by Oscar Feltsman), etc.^[1]

Career highlights

In 1968, she sold 2,000,000 discs.^[4] In 1971, Pakhomenko became the first of Soviet singers to win the Grand Prix at the Golden Orpheus song contest.^[1][5]

References