And here they are dressed up: the weirdest New Year's Eve concerts of the stars
Singer Vlad Topalov sang for 40 minutes on New Year's Eve for a single woman, Vladimir Selivanov from "Real Patsyans" - for traffic police officers who stopped him on the way to a concert in Barvikha, and Dima Bilan managed to give concerts in seven different places. Brandon Stone once performed personally for the president of Kazakhstan under conditions of secrecy, and Katya Lel - for two gentlemen in tracksuits. Russian artists told Izvestia about their most unusual and strange New Year's concerts.
Dima Bilan
Singer
- There were times when I performed for 45 minutes for just two people. And there were many such birthdays. One of them is an absolutely brazier story: open air, sea and I was asked to sing several times the song "I will win you back". It was about six years ago. And if we talk specifically about New Year's Eve performances, once there were seven of them! We had to catch absolutely all the spots, and it was madness! I don't subscribe to that anymore!
Singer Dima Bilan
Vlad Topalov
Singer
- Once on New Year's Eve I performed in front of just one woman. I think it was in 2007 or 2008. It was in St. Petersburg in a private house with a separate concert hall. In the dressing room I listened to the President's speech, chimes, and at 00:10 I went on stage, and she was the only spectator. It was such a strange New Year's Eve for her. I sang all my songs for 40 minutes. There were a lot of waiters. And she was dancing, singing - so much fun! I mean, she was nice, but it was still weird.
And my most vivid childhood New Year's memory is the year from 1999 to 2000, when I performed as part of the group "Neposedy" right after the chimes were struck on Tverskaya Street in front of the Moscow City Hall. We were all so looking forward to this millennium! We met it on stage, and we were given the first money in envelopes for the New Year. I don't remember what the amount was, but it was astronomical for us. Unforgettable! Spent it on friends, McDonald's and movies.
Singer Vlad Topalov
Brandon Stone
Singer, producer and composer.
- Many years ago I performed for Nazarbayev at his country house. It was December, the 27th, as I remember. I flew to Kazakhstan. I was wondering if there would be a dressing room. No! Everyone was sitting in the kitchen, there were a lot of artists there. They took my phone away from me, took me into the kitchen, and said: "Please sing for us the songs that you will perform for him. Well, I started singing one of my songs, the second one. They said, "No, not that one!" I had another one to the words of Filatov: "And Lenka smokes in the vestibule and looks out into the night, such a night". I remember the deputy minister of culture saying, "It's generally unseemly to smoke in the vestibule. What does that mean? Are you going to sing this to the president?" They asked if there was anything famous. I sang When Marimba Rhythms Start to Play. They said, "Oh, that's a great song, we love it." And it was about 45 minutes into the show. They said, "You just sing this song and then leave."
I go out. It was just him and probably his wife. There was nobody else in the room. And at that time I was still living in Germany, and I was told: "When you arrive, don't speak Russian at all, talk to him in English". So I went out and said: Hello, I'm from Germany. Very nice to meet you. I sang one song and got the same money as for 45 minutes. True, they had to pay me in euros, as I lived in Germany, but they gave me everything in tenge. I had millions of tenge. I said, "What should I do with them?" I was told: "Change them on the way to the airport." And it was minus 27 degrees, we were traveling with this bag of tenge, nobody had changed it.
Music producer, singer and composer Brandon Stone
Kirill Turichenko
Lead singer of Ivanushki International
- We have been meeting the New Year on stage for 20 years exactly. I think we performed in Dubai last year or the year before. When we were moving from one concert to the second, and it was planned that we would celebrate New Year's Eve already at the venue, we got into a traffic jam. In the end we met it just in the tunnel, when everyone around us was celebrating, and we didn't even see the fireworks. And we drank water in the car - we had a bottle and a couple of cups.
From left: Ivanushki International band members Kirill Andreyev, Kirill Turichenko and Andrei Grigoriev-Appolonov.
Katya Lel
Singer
- I remember the moment very well - December, we fly to Peter for a very famous event. My team is dancers, musicians. There are 14 of us. We go on stage, and opposite sit two people in tracksuits in one of the very famous residences. They said: "Katya, sit down, eat, enjoy yourself". I replied: "Gentlemen, I'm singing my 45 minutes now, and you get high, relax. I'll do my part, I'll do the rest later." I worked for these two gentlemen for 45 minutes and they were happy - dancing, singing, living for themselves. They had the right!
Singer Katya Lel
Vladimir Selivanov (VAVAN).
Actor, singer
- In 2021 on New Year's Eve, when I was driving from a concert to a private event in Barvikha, I was stopped by traffic police. As luck would have it, my insurance had run out! So I decided to make a holiday present to those on duty at the post - I took out my guitar, sang three songs and congratulated the guys. It was the best New Year's shift for them, and after this case I always have insurance. In the end I was an hour late for the concert. The customer and the audience told everything as it was - there were no claims, they laughed at the situation.
Actor Vladimir Selivanov
Katya Guseva
DJ
- This year on New Year's Eve I will be working at the Radisson Collection Hotel in Moscow, where many artists will gather. And the most memorable performance on the holiday for me was an event in France at one of the popular ski resorts. At that moment I had absolutely no idea what kind of music the guests preferred and how many of them there would be. As it turned out, it was a private event at a private home where the owners had their own nightclub. My performance, scheduled for an hour, unexpectedly stretched into six hours of non-stop dance party.
When performing in front of such a serious audience, it is always difficult to anticipate their musical preferences. I was genuinely surprised when I found out that they enjoyed listening to the hits of the 90s - the very songs that we all know so well, from Andrei Gubin to Leonid Agutin. I always dreamed of visiting Courchevel. And just like that, this desire led me to an unforgettable New Year's Eve night full of music and joy.
DJ Katya Guseva
