Anna Asti hit the jackpot under the Loboda flag

The singer collected three sold-out shows in Moscow

The solo career of the singer, performing under the Anna Asti brand, has already become a reason for behind-the-scenes conspiracy theories and banal envy. She has two albums that set the charts on fire, and the dynamics of demand for concerts are reminiscent of the popular desire to buy a cooperative pie at the beginning of perestroika. The three capital soldiers looked very smart, but provoked thoughts about the veracity of what was happening.

“I eclipsed everyone again,” Anna proudly declares from the stage, and the line from the song quite accurately reflects the current pop situation. A triple sell-out at the rather large MTS Hall, combined with some kind of hypertrophied excitement around the new album “Tsarina,” turns Anna into a singer who is needed by almost everyone at the moment. But does this turn her into the singer everyone was waiting for, as, for example, Valeria was presented in the early nineties?

Musical functionaries with experience like to groan, complaining that success in this business is now reminiscent of winning in a casino. And if earlier the intention to break the bank was based on different strategies and the desire to create your own musical material, different from others, now in the overwhelming majority of cases the same scheme is used. A dance beat, a chorus with the simplest set of words and a little drama if we are talking about singing girls.

Anna is completely fine with drama. She usually sings about love, which blazes in the range from unhappy to desperate; at concerts she dilutes her hits with monologues about heartbreaking personal experiences and calls to party like it’s the last time. Allegro’s battle cry “Babonki!” does not lose relevance even in new high-tech scenery. As a result, the ladies dance as hard as they can, not forgetting about selfies; some men are not far behind.

The club-corporate breakaway, with an eye to which all these songs were written, still sells well, although in the format of large halls the limited potential of such music is heard very clearly. Of course, they are trying to disguise their limitations. The menacing-looking group adds rocker noise to dance hits, the voice of the artist herself makes it possible to give live concerts and even swagger with bold notes. But all this is unlikely to change the overall situation. And it lies in the fact that for a full-fledged concert, the singer may have enough hits and special effects, but in terms of variety of forms and contrast of emotions, her baggage, frankly speaking, is sparse. All the trump cards are of the same suit, and no amount of video art mixed with sparkling outfits will disguise this.

Artists follow different paths to their musical happiness, but they all meet at the box office from time to time. Anna is in complete order here. Right now she is Lady Bestseller, has every right to bask in the glory and listen to compliments like “You are number one” from the lips of Philip Kirkorov, whose uncanny sense of heightened excitement always leads him to those who will help get extra applause. They even have a joint number called “Hobby”, a routine song if you scrape off the advertising gloss from it, but the alliance itself is another example of the fact that the King of Pop also needs Anna now.

In any fame, among other things, there is a lucky coincidence of circumstances, and in the case of Anna this is immediately evident. It is quite obvious that her “Phoenix” (the name of the show and the singer’s first album) was reborn from the ashes of Loboda’s career. The public clearly needs such a singer, and in the absence of the original, of course, it was necessary to engage in import substitution, although the final product of such a strategy, whether in music or in cheese making, can most often be described as “similar, but not very much.” The ability to catch falling banners is a useful skill in an era of scarcity of bright ideas, but such a trick seems to be disposable. I wonder if everyone understands this.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29143 dated October 25, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Passion by Asti