There weren't enough votes: stars vs. Trump, rappers outlawed, "Mothership" on the charts

Kurtukova's "Mother Earth" became an international hit, Taylor Swift's "childless cat lady" failed to influence the results of the US presidential election, rappers P. Diddy and Jay-Z found themselves at the center of a criminal case, and Kanye West returned to the charts and was not afraid to visit Russia, but never gave a concert in Moscow. "Izvestia" recalls the main musical sensations of 2024 and tries to understand how the past year "sounded" in industry news and, in fact, in our headphones or speakers.

Our "Mother"

The main Russian hit of 2024 can be safely called "Matushka" by Tatiana Kurtukova - a folk singer, whose name until recently was completely unknown to the general audience. The song itself was written back in 2022 and appeared on streaming services at the same time, but it was only last spring that the song went viral.

To date, only the official YouTube videos of "Mother" have a total of about 150 million views. But what is even more interesting is that all these months the single has not left the first lines of the streaming charts. In other words, it's not just about the curious people who decided to take a peek to see what this thing everyone is talking about is all about. No, people (very advanced and willing to pay for music) actually listen to Mother in everyday life.

In part, this phenomenon has confirmed society's demand for songs that appeal to national pride. In 2022 SHAMAN sang "I'm Russian - and I'm lucky", and Kurtukova together with the author of the hit Peter Andreev put the same idea in pseudo-folklore clothes: "For me - Holy Russia, for others - Zanozonka".

However, with Yaroslav Dronov it was still typical pop-rock, albeit performed with folk-tinged vocals. Kurtukova and Andreev make a clear stylization of folk music, not being afraid, but, on the contrary, emphasizing the lubokness of both melody and verses. There were even suggestions that we were looking at a parody, a postmodernist joke - everything here is so overdone. But the seriousness of intentions is emphasized by "fashionable" arrangement - for some reason in the spirit of Turkish pop.

However, you can accuse the creators and listeners of the hit in bad taste as much as you want, but it won't cancel the main thing: the track didn't just "go in", it showed exceptional survivability. It literally went to the people. It is sung and played on different instruments by amateur musicians in the subway, used by ticktockers for their commercials....

By the way, the latter was the reason that the popularity of "Mother" went beyond the borders of our country. And now the French soccer "Ligue 1" publishes a video, where the "Matushka" shows the Marseille goalkeeper Heronimo Rulli's saves.

Whether Kurtukova will be able to repeat the success or will remain a performer of one hit, it will become clear, apparently, next year. But it is worth recognizing that her very rise forms a new image of the Russian pop star: now it is not a lecherous mercantile girl with pouty lips, who with her whole appearance (and not only) says "for money yes", but a modest young lady with typical Russian beauty without interference.

The song is sung

American singer Taylor Swift entered the 2024th in the status of the main world star of the music industry. Earlier Time magazine named her "person of the year", the tour in support of Taylor's newest album broke all records, and the artist's performances with enviable regularity hit the news reports: fans jumped so much that they caused an earthquake, and airlines had to introduce additional flights to transfer all those who bought tickets to the concerts ...

No wonder that in the run-up to the US presidential election, Taylor was in the center of particularly close attention. Everyone was waiting to see who she would support and whether she would agree to such a step in principle. After all, her whole image is built on positivity and apolitical, Swift does not sing about social problems, does not criticize the authorities and does not call her fans to anything. In other words, she does everything to neither annoy nor repel anyone (probably one of the secrets of her success). And with the country divided into two irreconcilable camps, she clearly did not want to be associated with either of them.

She didn't want to, but she had to. At one point, several major media outlets reported that Taylor was under pressure to "take a stand." In other words, support Kamala Harris. The singer, obviously, resisted to the last, but when the situation for the Vice President became quite alarming, Swift "finished".

The singer published a post where she unequivocally spoke in favor of the candidate from the Democratic Party, signing herself "childless cat lady" (a hint to the scandalous statement of JD Vance, Donald Trump's partner). The Republican camp did not fail to respond. "Our democracy is threatened by toxoplasmosis," joked Ilon Musk. And Trump himself was even more specific: "I hate Taylor Swift."

The most interesting thing is that despite Swift's megapopularity (in social networks she has over half a billion followers - one and a half times more than the entire population of the United States), her entry into the campaign in favor of Harris did not bring any tangible result. Polls before and after the post of the "childless cat lady" did not register any obvious difference in the preferences of the electorate, and the election itself turned out to be a defeat for the "blue".

In general, ordinary people unequivocally showed Hollywood gentiles (and of the musicians it is not only Swift, but also Billy Eilish, and Madonna, and Eminem ...), that their influence on public opinion they greatly overestimate.

Guilty P's and all-and-all.

The most high-profile scandal in American show business also had a political tinge: the arrest of rapper P. Diddy. It would seem, what's the big deal? Another hip-hop star was behind bars, and not as relevant and loved by the public as Eminem, Kanye West, Drake or 50 Cent. How many stories of this kind happen from year to year (and it's good if there are no fatalities)... But the case of Sean Combs (real name P. Diddy) turned out to be a special one, because it caused a whole trail of reputational problems for the whole establishment.

In brief, several women and men have accused the rapper of violence and sexual exploitation, usually at his parties, which P. Diddy organized with his girlfriends. Diddy organized with enviable regularity. A total of 120 plaintiffs filed lawsuits against the rapper, 25 of whom were minors at the time of the alleged crime.

Of course, after the story with Harvey Weinstein, such things hardly surprise anyone anymore. But the peculiarity of the situation with P. Diddy is that to get to these parties was considered a special chic, and the company Combs made the most successful and brightest figures of show business. Especially friendly were the relations between P. Diddy and another rapper - Jay-Z, as well as the wife of the latter, Beyoncé.

The media claimed that the star couple couldn't have been unaware of what was going on at the parties, and moreover, covered up their friend's outrages and covered their tracks using their connections. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are prominent Democratic supporters, having supported Barack Obama, then Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. They were considered no strangers to the White House. But if before the popularity of stars, especially Beyoncé, was a gift for "blue" candidates, then after the story with P. Diddy, the agitation of the queen of r'n'b began, on the contrary, to damage the reputation of opponents of Trump. Therefore, Kamala Harris lost an important trump card in her campaign. Although, as the story of Taylor Swift shows, it is not at all certain that, if this scandal had not happened, Beyoncé would have been able to influence public opinion.

Anyway, the election has passed, and the problems of the elite of American show business continue. In December there was a more than serious accusation against Jay-Z himself: the rape of a 13-year-old in the house of P. Diddy. Diddy. Whether Americans will forgive their idols their "naked parties" - we will know in 2025.

West in the East

Up until the story with P. Diddy and Jay-Z, Kanye West confidently topped the list of the most scandalous rappers of our time. It seemed that after losing his contracts with Adidas and Universal Music (and therefore most of his income) and his endless provocative outings (and antics) with his half-naked wife Bianca Censori, he finally lost his status as a trendsetter and turned into just another freak, in addition to being disrespected.

It got to the point where Ozzy Ozbourne publicly forbade him to use a sample from his song so as not to be associated with Kanye. But in early 2024, Ye released the album Vultures with Ty Dolla $ign and made a triumphant return to the charts. The lack of marketing support from labels does not prevent the Carnival single from topping the Billboard Hot 100, and Kanye himself - once again proving that for his music the public is ready to tolerate, if not everything, then very many of the author's quirks.

At the same time, the rapper continues to behave extremely reckless and extravagant (from the point of view of the American elite), and another manifestation of this is the artist's unexpected visit to Russia. While top Western stars are boycotting our country and competing in judgmental statements, Kanye, in the company of his Russian friend Gosha Rubchinskiy, is strolling around Moscow and seriously discussing with our promoters the prospect of a big stadium concert.

Since summer the media and Telegram channels have been bombarding the infopole with "insights" with the dates of the proposed performance, predicting how many days tickets to Luzhniki or a similar stadium would have been sold out completely, but the show never happens. Either they failed to agree on the price, or the artist's disorganized and unpredictable nature played its role, as he can promise for a long time and postpone the fulfillment of his promises time after time (it happens regularly with his albums), but Kanye's Russian fans are left to follow his work remotely - in particular, listening to the sequel Vultures, which was released six months after the first part and was also a success.

Izvestia's final playlist

In each of our music reviews we regularly put a playlist with new songs. But in the final selection, a kind of top-10, we would like to present not just good tracks (of course, there were many times more than a dozen of them), but things that are significant, as indicative as possible. Actually, this is the answer to the question of what 2024 sounded like.

We start with Carnival by Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign - everything is clear here. Then you will hear an amazing collaboration between American rapper Xzibit and Yakutian band Otyken: in conditions when Western artists distance themselves from Russia as much as possible, the appearance of such a record is doubly remarkable. But the song itself is undoubtedly extraordinary.

In the past year rap remained the main musical trend both abroad and in our country, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that our playlist contains so many works with chit-chat. However, Kendrick Lamar's Not Like Us would have made it into the selection in any case: it's another high-profile scandal, not described in the main text of our material, but still requiring a mention.

Lamar challenged another rapper, Drake, in his composition and topped the charts. The conflict of the stars reached the point of legal proceedings, the prospects of which are still unclear, but all this only contributed to the popularization of Not Like Us.

And while American artists are figuring things out and cleaning up from the accusations, Russian artists are reacting to other events. RICH's "Militia Romance" album is one of the first attempts at serious artistic reflection on what is happening in the NWO. And the track "How Much" is a vivid example of it.

And again we move across the ocean, where Lana Del Rey gets married and makes another collaboration with a rap star - this time with Quavo. And Taylor Swift is promoting her album The Tortured Poets Department, which had a mixed reaction from critics but was an undeniable commercial success. The main question here is how the singles of these artists got on Russian streaming, despite all the sanctions. But if that's the case, why not take advantage of it?

In the "point of the golden section" of our playlist, of course, is "Mother" by Kurtukova. And it is interesting to compare Russian folk from a new star with a similar phenomenon in the USA. A country composition by not the most famous artist Shabuzi somehow miraculously managed to break through to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart this year - and stayed there longer than any other hit. Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Kanye and others can only envy the lucky newcomer.

In Russia, in addition to "Matushka", rock "Trains" by Zhenya Trofimov and "Clouds" by My Michelle were listened to on repeat. With them we conclude our musical journey through the year 2024.