I will turn the calendar for the 30th time: the song “September 3” of the Shufutinsky anniversary

On Sunday, September 3, Runet celebrates an unofficial holiday – one of the main meme-songs of the Russian-speaking space of the Web is celebrating its 30th anniversary today. Exactly three decades ago, Mikhail Shufutinsky first performed the song “The Third of September”, which was loved by the public in the 90s and gained a second wind and even greater popularity in the new century.

The music for the future hit was written by Igor Krutoy, the lyrical text – by Igor Nikolaev. The creators of the song subsequently said that the date mentioned in it was chosen by chance – it perfectly fit the music and lyrics, but in reality it had no particular meaning for the artists. However, only until 1995, when on September 3 Shufutinsky’s grandson was born.

The Third of September became an Internet meme in the early 2010s. Then the first “photo-toads” with Shufutinsky and quotes from the song began to spread through forums and communities. In 2021, “The Third of September” entered the top Runet memes of the year according to Google.

Over the past ten years, the authors of memes and even Shufutinsky himself have repeatedly been criticized for – according to the dissatisfied – vulgarity, annoying and unoriginal. Critics compared the annual surge of public interest in the hit and related memes to watching the same Soviet films on New Year’s Eve and called it bad taste. Every year on the eve of September 3, preventive critical posts about the meme appear on social networks. This time, among others, Ksenia Sobchak noted, saying that these jokes “have already got everyone”, that “this is not funny” and that if she sees at least one more such meme, she will call “the police, the fire department, the clinic, the MFC and the church.”

However, it seems that a significant part of the Russian-speaking audience does not share this opinion and, having started a couple of days before, today continues to post old and new September 3rd memes and even celebrate offline. So, in St. Petersburg Kupchino the day before they held an unofficial “Day of Shufutinsky”. The audience was greeted by numerous portraits of the performer, a song sounded and a solemn ceremony of turning the calendar sheet took place. When asked why the holiday was held the day before the significant date, the organizers replied that “in all seriousness, it was exactly the second of September.”