Valery Obodzinsky: career and facts

Soviet pop was a real proving ground for its representatives: many talented artists were literally "hounded" by censorship and authority.. There were various reasons: too "western" style, too inappropriate songs, too much royalties... The cruel fate touched many, including Valery Obodzinsky. The owner of a pure, one could say diamond voice - Obodzinsky performed incredibly beautiful lyrical compositions, which found an ardent response from the public (especially the beautiful half of it) and was one of the most commercially successful singers of the USSR! At the zenith of his fame, he gave several concerts a day and earned huge money, and among his passionate fans were the leading beauties of the Soviet Union....

Alas, but in the 80's his career crashed. The idol of millions started drinking. His oxygen was cut off, his records were destroyed and he was banned from performing. He worked as a watchman at the tie factorywhere he lived. Today there is a bad reputation about him, they say - he was a madman and a "lost soul", with serious addictions and cheating wives. But you can't blacken a man like that! First of all, it's not for us to judge him. And secondly, a person never turns to a glass for nothing: there is always a reason for everything.....

"A Personality Loved and Hated."

Obodzinski had difficult military childhoodHe spent his early years in Odessa under the auspices of his grandmother Domna Kuzminichna. There was no romance in his early years in Odessa: he helped his grandmother, who worked as a janitor, miraculously escaped with his brother from an enraged fascist, then there was the hated school, which Valera himself always considered an extremely boring part of life... However love of singing The young Obodzinski had flourished in him since his youth - it is even astonishing, under what influence? He started his way with performances on the beach - from here, confusing legends have crept up, allegedly while young Obodzinsky sang, his yard mates "cleaned" the pockets of the audience. To believe or not - everyone decides for himself, but Valery himself never hid his "street past".

Obodzinsky was early addicted to all kinds of hot drinks - not without the influence of his comrades. It's said that when he was discovered Pavel Shakhnarovich - a drunk Valery fell out of a prop window right on stage!

Soviet rock star

Obodzinsky's temperament could hardly be called calm: at the height of his fame, the artist often drank, and even addicted to substances, which he once personally admitted. He could go on stage in a drunken deliriumand forget his own song and start making up new rhymes as he goes along - as in the case of his iconic disclaimer "these eyes don't mind." during a concert in Uzbekistan in the '80s. Sometimes he could quarrel with his colleagues... In general, working with him was not easy. But it was worth it: as Shakhnarovich said, "the Soviet philharmonic societies were tearing Valera to pieces"! And indeed: several sold-out concerts brought in a month's box office receipts.

His earnings were 10 times the salary of the secretary of the regional party committee! This could not leave anyone indifferent: soon Obodzinsky began to be accused of corruption scams with philharmonic societies, as well as in the "too non-Soviet style.". Soon he had his oxygen cut off: first they closed the entrance to Central Television, and then ordered him to destroy his recordings... Cruel? Absolutely! And this cruelty extended not only to Valery himself, but also to the public, who wondered in bewilderment where the favorite performer of the "Eastern Song" had suddenly disappeared....

A painful fall from Olympus into harsh reality

Professional failures were rapidly followed by personal. The first marriage broke up shortly after the birth of their second child: rumors swirled, allegedly Nelly Ivanovna (first wife) got pregnant by another man. And if only that: evil tongues started gossiping that Nelly had never loved Valery, and that during their marriage she had been in "close relationships" with dozens of men - including Joseph Kobzon! A similar situation was repeated with Lola - the second chosen one of the artist (and again the people's judgment did not do without mentioning Kobzon ...).

All these troubles led to the fact that the singer snapped: Valery began to drink more and more, and soon his singing career remained only vivid memory... His songs were severely criticized, and he himself was banned from appearing on television. So, the idol of millions found himself in a harsh reality: he got a job as a watchman at a tie factory, where, in fact, and lived for a long time. It is not known how his future fate would have turned out, if not Anna Esenina - his common-law wife and last wife. They met at the factory, and according to the woman - in this faded man with hopelessness in his eyes it was difficult to recognize the star of the USSR. Anna allowed Valery to move in with her, and later it was she who insisted that Obodzinsky record an album of songs by Alexander Vertinsky.

Then in the fall of 1994 at the concert hall "Russia." was the first performance after a multi-year break: tickets sold out in a flash, it was a full house! The audience has not forgotten the performer of "Eye opposite", and he, in turn, has done a lot of work on himself to reappear in front of it. To the great surprise of many, his voice remained as pure and beautiful....

Notoriety today

In 1997, at the age of 55, Valery died. The turbulent - truly "rock 'n' roll" years did not pass without a trace, making themselves known in the form of heart complications. Today the fame of this man has acquired a bad character: for example, the TV series "These eyes are opposite"which was broadcasted on the First, shows Obodzinsky in the image of a kind of psychopath and madman, drinking and addicted "fallen nugget"....

But we can never understand the life of a genius, for it is subject only to his own set of rules. His actions and addictions cannot be measured by common standards, it is impossible to blame him for drinking or using. So. there was a reason for that.. We all want to keep the image of the idol in the memory of pure, and therefore it is worth remembering the man on his merits, without trying to find logic in his fateful decisions - it was his and only his choice.