“A little freak”: Igor Nikolaev was remembered on Sakhalin on the eve of his 60th birthday: Igor Nikolaev 60th birthday Sakhalin interview  | The tricks of the future maestro were told at the local college of art.

Igor Nikolaev is the author of the hits of Alla Pugacheva, Valery Leontyev, who made the star Natasha Koroleva an ordinary Ukrainian girl, a wonderful melodist and performer of his songs celebrates his 60th birthday. Taking advantage of the beautiful date, we looked into its distant past, because all people come from childhood.

Few fans remember that maestro Igor Yurievich Nikolaev began his musical career at the Sakhalin College of Art. The musician studied at the institution for only a year.

As it was possible to find out "MK", ​​Nikolaev did not differ in exemplary behavior, and with one teacher the future star had conflicts, such that the teacher categorically refuses to talk about the former student even today.

“Teachers don’t really talk about him, because he was underestimated in college,” says teacher and former student Olga Kashina.

Igor Nikolaev 60th birthday Sakhalin interview

- Offended by a famous student?

- No, everything is normal for him. Just the teachers who taught him, for the most part, have not taught for a long time. And there are no others alive ... I remember there was only one teacher with whom Igor did not agree with the characters. I also know one classmate of Igor, Elena Alekseevna Sudakova, they studied together on the stream.

- Igor Yuryevich often recalls college?

“Hardly, he quickly left college.” As far as I know, Igor was a little weird while he lived in the hostel: they were young, they walked nights all night. But the last time I came home, I didn’t even go to college, I just talked with several classmates outside of it.

We got in touch with Elena Sudakova, the same classmate with whom Nikolaev was studying.

- For me, Igor is childhood, Sakhalin, a music school, then the Sakhalin school. Igor’s first composition, let’s say, his first experience in the music field was the performance of a monologue on verses by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and I was among the performers. There was a quartet, where our classmates and Igor entered. There was a competition for the best performance of modern music. For the first time we performed on the stage of the Sakhalin school, I am sure that for Igor this place remains a symbolic place of power. Whenever he comes on tour to Sakhalin, he always tries to return to people dear to him. One of the teachers who put a lot of effort into Igor, Anatoly Mikhailovich Zhuk, Honored Worker of Culture of Russia, taught Igor composition, he is already 83 years old, but he is still on a military post. But he doesn’t speak about Nikolaev. Refuses completely.

- Did Igor Yurievich have a conflict with this teacher?

- Rather, it was a stylistic disagreement. But, as time has shown, Igor chose the right style for his music.

Igor Nikolaev: “Pugacheva and I often went to Africa”

The singer-songwriter Igor Nikolaev, who wrote dozens of popular songs and celebrates his 60th birthday on January 17, in an interview with AiF.ru, spoke about what Putin “prepared” for him for Putin, why he flies to Miami and what factors influence songwriting, as well as about singing because of great need, and about what they did during joint trips to "Africa" ​​with Alla Pugacheva, Vladimir Kuzmin and Alexander Kalyanov.

Vladimir Polupanov, AiF.ru: Igor, before the New Year, you were awarded the title of People’s Artist. Does this mean anything to you?

Igor Nikolaev: My Instagram has a lot of similar comments from different people. "How?! - people are surprised. “We thought you were given the national title 20 years ago.” Even at concerts in the Kremlin Palace, the hosts announced me several times: "People's Artist of Russia Igor Nikolaev." "What for? - I was indignant. “Could clarify at least.” When he is appropriated at 60, this is a rather curious case. Although still insanely nice. Documents are submitted by many, but not all are assigned. For me, this is a sign of attention of the person who signed this decree. Artists sometimes share memories between themselves under which the head of state received titles: someone under Yeltsin, someone under Gorbachev. And I am very pleased that under Putin.

Usually I do not pick up when calling from unknown numbers. On New Year's Eve, a telephone rang right at the airport and an unknown number appeared. He asked the driver: “Ask:“ Who? ”” He says to me: “Minister of Culture”. I took the phone, however, it turned out to be Medinsky, who congratulated me and read out the decree. “Great New Year's gift, thank you very much,” I said. It is nice to know that on the whole island of Sakhalin, where I come from, I am the only national artist. Now in their small homeland they will no longer ask why I’m still not popular.

- Last November, you visited your native Kholmsk. You usually come to such places with two feelings: the joy of contact with your native places, familiar from childhood, and the feeling of bitterness, because little has changed there for decades. This is true?

- Usually, in such cases, the poem of Gennady Shpalikov is quoted: “Unfortunately or fortunately, the truth is simple: never return to your previous places. Even if the ashes look quite, you can’t find what we are looking for, neither to you, nor to me. ”

This is all clear. But on the other hand, there is heat that is no longer anywhere. The feeling of their street, the river in which he fished in childhood, an incomparable smell. I sniffed all sorts of seas and oceans in my life. But in Kholmsk there is a special smell of the sea.

When I wrote the first song about my native places, “A Man in Love with Sakhalin,” I was surprised at how quickly it became a total Sakhalin hit, although it describes my personal drama. “Everyone loved him, and then forgot, he was left alone on the earth,” there is nothing fun in these lines. Or: "Let there be bad weather in the soul, but nevertheless a person who is in love with Sakhalin believes in happiness." Therefore, my countrymen asked me to write a bright song. And recently, with the poet Alexander Vulykh and I wrote “Under the Sakhalin Sky”, which instantly became popular on the island. I am very glad that now Sakhalin residents can not be sad, but sing a positive song.

- What songs have become significant in your destiny?

- Each of the first songs turned life around. Each in its own way. Iceberg was one of the first to be released in Krugozor magazine under the heading "At the request of listeners." “12 days”, performed by Sasha Abdulov, also appeared in “Horizon” and became iconic. “Let They Speak” - Kristina Orbakaite’s debut song, performed by her at the age of 14. With her, Christina began as a singer. The first record-minion also belongs to the category of landmarks, where Iceberg and Tell the Birds were published. Oddly enough, both of these songs never came out on any Pugacheva’s album, only in collections. The large giant-plate “Happiness in Personal Life”, where “One Hundred Friends”, “Two Stars”, “Ferryman” were, also became fateful.

- There were only hits on this album. Has his exit made you a wealthy man?

- Of course not. For the disc "Happiness in my personal life", the circulation of which amounted to tens of millions of copies, I received 167 rubles. Then it seemed to me that this was decent money. My senior colleagues, who received good copyright in Soviet times, Yuri Antonov and Mikhail Tanich, told me: “Wait, old man, the crane is about to open. And a golden rain of deductions will pour on you. ” But the crane did not open. There used to be a saying: “Ask your VAAP accountant about whether your dad is talented.” VAAP (All-Union Copyright Agency - Ed.) In 1991 ordered a long life, and the “accountant” was gone with the agency. RAO began to deal with copyright, but the situation has not changed for the better. All my savings, which were on the passbook, somewhere evaporated.

I saw with my own eyes how the gray-haired venerable authors sadly approached the window of the RAO box office, cursed and moaned. And, having achieved nothing, they left. With the collapse of the USSR, traditional institutions of making money also changed. I continued to write songs that became popular: Komarovo, Ferryman ... But there was still no money. As part of the Recital group, he continued to tour with Alla Pugacheva. And once the trumpeter Pavel Zhagun, the texts of which were written “Glass Flowers” ​​and “One Hundred Friends”, told me: “Igor, something needs to be done. It cannot go on like this anymore. ”

It was obvious that only solo artists receive good concert fees. And I suggested to Jagoon: “Let's write a song for an unknown artist, like me. Kabatskaya, the people. " The first two pages of my work book are stamps of Sakhalin restaurants: Cosmos, Ocean, Evening, Sakhalin. I knew what kind of song people need so that they bring you the "top five" or "top ten."

- And the Mill became such a song?

- Yes! The day after the first broadcast, I could not leave the door unrecognized. I didn’t have a car, and people in public transport shied away from me like a plague. How is it, he is with us on the same bus ?!

“The Mill” is one of the simplest songs you wrote. How do you feel about her?

- And you try to write such a simple song so that the audience at the reflex level picks it up from the first lines. “Steppe and steppe all around”, “Birch stood in the field” - complex or simple songs? Rather simple. But they coincide with the genetic code of the people, naturally appear and live among the people for decades. Pasha Zhagun, who writes the most complicated poetry, can write such a simple song in which the history of a person is schematically laid out: childhood, departure from his native land and return to the old mill. All life before my eyes for three verses, written in simple words. This song and the following “Birthday” and “Stranger” turned my life 180 degrees. Thanks to them, I did not get to the first places in the charts as a composer, but as a performer, and earned the first decent money.

- You worked with Alla Pugacheva for 7 years as part of Recital, you have been friends for many years. When you are in such close proximity with a great woman, is the “brink of greatness” in a relationship leveled?

- Despite the fact that we have known each other since 1979 (that is, two-thirds of my life), my attitude towards her does not change. I am the godfather of her daughter, we can say relatives. But I never turn to "you." It doesn’t work, I don’t want, I don’t see the need for it. And it's not about age. The difference is only 10 years. With my friend Sergei Shakurov, who is 18 years older than me, we are on “you”. And with Pugacheva I can’t. I still have a reflection of a 19-year-old boy who came to the Pugacheva team, which already was a megapopular artist. Before my eyes, in late 1979, a new program was being prepared for the Olympics-80. The repertoire was changing. Complicated songs such as “Hush, I beg you, hush” or “I'm not jealous anymore” to Mandelstam’s verses appeared. I ended up in such a creative team that not only performed songs of Soviet composers, but experimented.

I am happy that, in fact, the kid entrusted me with making an arrangement for Vysotsky’s song “Trouble”. In the performance of Marina Vlady it was a waltz. And I made her a slow bossa nova. He came up with a theme that sounded between each quatrain instead of a chorus. Vysotsky did not have this. Pugacheva during these losses cautiously moved around the stage, as if on ice.

- Did you meet Vysotsky?

- I saw Vysotsky once in my life, - the first and last - when he came to a rehearsal in the Variety Theater. Absolutely not like all the stories about him and his last days of life: drunkenness and drug addiction. He looked good: stylishly and fashionably dressed, modest, sober. He really liked my arrangement and the loss. Everyone was waiting for him at the concert, and he promised to come. But, by a tragic coincidence, on July 25, 1980, on the day of the premiere, Vysotsky died. It was the height of the Olympics, people had a holiday. Everyone knew about his death, but from the stage it was impossible to talk about it. When his song sounded, there was no applause. There was a spontaneous minute of silence.

“Have you ever caught yourself plagiarizing yourself?”

- Glinka found himself plagiarizing. But at the same time he had a well-known aphorism, which we memorized during our studies: people compose music, composers only arrange it.

- The main array of your songs one way or another about love ...

- And who does not have the “main array” about love?

“But you have rare exceptions.” For example, "The Afghan Wind" to the verses of Nikolai Zinoviev. A song on the topical social theme of the war in Afghanistan at that time. This is unusual for you.

- Why is it “unusual”? Everything that causes a response in my soul is characteristic of me. “Tell the birds” is also on a social topic. Now it is even more relevant than when I wrote it. “Tell us, birds, it’s time that our planet is fragile glass. Pure birch trees, rivers and fields, from above it is more tender than crystal ... ”In 1983, Pugacheva sang it, after a while - Batyrkhan Shukenov, then Dima Bilan. And every time it sounds new and relevant.

The "Afghan wind" appeared in 1988, when there was already perestroika and supposedly "glasnost". But all the same, it was impossible to write like this: "Not in the forty-first near Kaluga, where the hill is high, in the eighties near Kabul - face in the sand." “A funnel ... And another funnel ... Through the years of breaking. Why are you knocking, a funeral, in a prefabricated house? ”Or:“ And now two shadows appeared among the mountain ash, in the new military cemetery, father and son. Father said: “You wanted to go into space, the door is open, now put you in a zinc suit”.

This song sounded in "Song of the Year 88", and then it was banned. I know that Valera Leontiev went to the Ministry of Defense and the Komsomol Central Committee - the bodies on which the fate of the song depended. But this did not help, she was still banned. It seems to me, because she hurt people who lost loved ones in this war. “They put you in a zinc suit now,” they saw inappropriate lines in these lines.

“You once admitted that you were running away from bad weather in Miami, where you have an apartment.” And it is there, looking at the ocean, you write songs. Does it really work better than at home? How much does the view outside the window influence which song is born as a result?

- It’s not the view outside the window that affects me, but the climate and comfort within the family. To see the happy eyes of a little man (Veronica’s daughter - Ed.) Is more important to me than any ocean. I almost stopped flying to Miami. I go there because the eldest daughter Julia lives there. My daughters live in different countries and miss each other. I love all my girls: Yulechka’s wife, Veronichka’s daughter and Yulenka’s eldest daughter. I want all of them to spend together as much time as possible. But often it doesn’t work out.

In general, Veronica was born in Jurmala. Most of the summer we spend there, in a non-hot climate, on the seashore. From there I fly on tour in the summer. The organizers do not care what tickets to buy: from Moscow or from Riga. There is no difference in money. What matters to me is not the ocean, the sea or any other body of water. And that the family was happy.

- Are there any songs that make you sick? His, of course.

- Such songs can be found in every album. But I never regretted that they were recorded. I love all my songs. And everyone has a story and a reason why it was written. I never think: “And now I’ll write a bad song.” Why write it if you know in advance that it is bad?

- Can you tell the story of the creation of the song “Two Stars”?

- In the 1980s, we had something like a secret society, which included Alla Pugacheva, Alexander Kalyanov, Vladimir Kuzmin and I. From time to time, various invited guests joined us. But the backbone was like that. We spontaneously left in an unknown direction, most often it was Moscow suburbs. We called it "go to Africa."

“Why to Africa?”

“It means to go somewhere, away from everyone.” Each of us took turns finding such places. It could be holiday homes and pensions that were closed for the winter. We agreed with the management, and for us we specially opened a banquet room where we brought the equipment. You come to some snowy boarding house, where not a soul. And inside - the meadow is covered, the equipment is connected. We sat down, drank, ate, played, sang. And then we went somewhere to ride. This is such a buzz! And everyone was waiting for the next "Africa". By the way, the joint album of Pugacheva and Kuzmina “Two Stars” is the brainchild of “Africa”.

With Alla, we could catch a truck on Tverskaya at 2–3 a.m. and go to a rented apartment on Altufevskoye Shosse, which we rented with our first wife. It was located on the ground floor, and there was almost nothing in it: neither a telephone nor a refrigerator. In winter, a net with products enclosed in several packages (so that the birds did not stick together) hung outside the window. And while there was no complex of poverty and a sense of hopelessness.

“Was the song Two Stars born there?”

- No, in another rented apartment on Novatorov Street in Moscow. We had a tradition of celebrating my birthday according to Sakhalin time, that is, 8 hours earlier than in Moscow. We walked on the night of January 16-17 in an apartment where furniture was also sparse. But there was a piano, which also served us as a table, and a carpet on which everyone was lying. Early in the morning, I took a sheet of paper and wrote the whole text cleanly, without corrections. Volodya Kuzmin and Alla were visiting me. And right at breakfast I played them this song. And in the evening of the same day we went to Pugacheva’s studio in Olimpiysky and recorded it. The song was born in January. And in February, Pugacheva and Kuzmin went with her to the festival in San Remo.

- Who is easier to write: yourself or another artist?

- I was always more interested in writing songs to someone than for myself. It has always been that way. For myself, I wrote last.

- How will you celebrate the anniversary?

- About 10 years ago I bought a DVD recording of the anniversary concert for the 60th anniversary of Elton John in Madison Square Garden. I watched and thought: “How can a person feel at 60 years old, continuing to rock and roll at concerts: jump on the piano, wear shiny jackets, etc.? Maybe behaving indecently at this age? You probably need to put on a tuxedo and sit thoughtfully at the piano, playing with one finger? ”This is a very good concert by Elton John, but I still saw a certain age-related lethargy there. Age takes precedence over spirit.

In my anniversary concert, which will be held on November 11, 20 of the best songs made in the new arrangements will sound. Plus 8-10 brand new songs. To prove first of all to myself that I can still do it. And so that new songs are familiar, they need to be recorded and in the summer to begin to acquaint the public with them. I want to make them sound modern and uncompromising, without discounts on the fact that I am 60. And the start of ticket sales for this concert will begin on January 17, the day I’m born.

- Have you formulated for yourself the basic rule of life?

- The main rule is that God is merciful. He will always lead you on the right path even from the most difficult situation. I have a song about this. “If you are not lucky in the little things, do not be offended, do not cry. It will pass. And senseless fear, and a streak of failure. It's gonna be all right. It will be hot from love lips. Everything is fine, everything will be fine. If only life continued. If the misfortune of a black bird suddenly knocks on your window, you don’t give in to the mercy of fate, happiness will come anyway. ”