Lyubov Voropaeva spoke about an unpleasant episode with a song for Alla Pugacheva

– And then what is the main hit?

– “Two Women” performed by Roxana Babayan.

“Two women were sitting by the fire. One looked like me. The other one is just the spitting image of you… Two women were sitting near the line. And there, beyond that limit, beyond the line, of love, a golden ghost whirled” – well, I agree, this is already poetry.

— Exactly, — says Lyubov Voropayeva, — this is poetry. There is a big difference between poetry and lyrics.

And she tells me that far from always, or rather, extremely rarely, songs appear on her poems.

– Lyrics – it’s just skill. I own it, I succeed, my hand, as they say, is full. I have a lot in demand, a lot is ready in the box, waiting for composers – I don’t always write to the music of my current husband Nikolai Arkhipov, although he, of course, is my main collaborator. But poetry is different. When my late husband Viktor Dorokhin and I started creating the Zhenya Belousov project, I was faced with the task of creating dance music, because the project was dance. I was a poet in such songs as “Such a Short Summer”, “Golden Domes”. But “Two Women” is already real poetry.

“The real poems” Love really writes, although they are known much less than song lyrics. And it’s sad. They are deep and beautiful. “The words are not ticking, frozen. Frosty in the trap. Didn’t you, Lord, didn’t you take them away as a warning to me? My spirit is tired of this fight, and the times are not the same… Perhaps living by reading the signs is not so difficult in silence?!”

Agree, very, very good poems! But the public often likes something simpler …

– What other songs are written on “real verses”?

– A song for Alla Pugacheva, which she took, but did not sing. Until it did. But I can’t even say the name of the song, let alone quote something from there. I can only say that there are very strong lines about love.

– Why is it so stern – “I can’t even quote”? Are you an author?

– We wrote a song with Arkhipov for the anniversary concert of Pugacheva. They asked the director Alla Borisovna if it was possible to pass it on to her. She asked to be sent. She immediately answered that she really liked the song, they say, she and her husband listen to it without ceasing. And just a few hours later, Alla Borisovna herself called back and said that she was taking the composition. We were happy! We formalized everything legally, transferred exclusive rights …

— Exceptional? That is, you completely gave Pugacheva a song? For everlasting possession? And she “put it under the cloth.”

– So far it turns out that it is. I know the song was in line for recording. And then she disappeared from there. Pugacheva never wrote it down. And now the song is lost both for us and, it seems, for the public.

– Maybe this is a kind of revenge – to ransom, not to sing yourself and not to give to another? Have you had a conflict with Pugacheva before?

– As such, it was not. Once upon a time, at the dawn of a misty youth—but that was a very long time ago! – Viktor Dorokhin and I gave her our song “Twenty degrees of frost.” It seems she took it for Christina. The song was danceable, but Alla Borisovna herself … she didn’t dance. Kristina was just starting then … And we just had a huge creative success – Valery Leontiev took our song! And we, of course, wanted to conquer the second bastion – Pugachev. I called Alla Borisovna, introduced myself: “I am the poetess Lyubov Voropaeva,” and offered to listen to the song. She unexpectedly replied: “Let’s bring it.” Vitya and I, overjoyed, went to her house. He did not want to get up – he was afraid that Alla would remember him: Vitya worked in “Singing Hearts”, when she sang in “Merry Fellows”, they talked, and he knew that she was oppressed in the group. In short, I got up alone, and in the apartment Nikolaev, Kalyanov … I took a back seat – I gave the song and ran away. Vitya scolded me for not insisting that they listen to me. But before we got home, Pugacheva called, praised the song and said that Christina would sing it … And so the days dragged on. There was no result. We called, asked, the answer was “yes, yes, we are working.” But we never waited for the outcome. Dorokhin began to get nervous, did not want to wait any longer, and in the end we gave the song to Katya Semenova. This one and another one – “For a Minute”, which in the end suddenly became a hit and became the favorite of “Songs of the Year”. The diploma of the laureate opened the way for us to radio and television broadcasts – we were happy! And then I read an interview with Kristina Orbakaite, where she said: “Here, there were authors who brought me a very nice song, I just fell in love with it, started working on it, and suddenly I turn on the radio and hear it performed by another singer. Yes, such authors will not miss their own! It was like that … But I don’t think that Pugacheva remembers this story all her life …

– And yet, that song hidden from everyone – what is it about?

About great love. I even made some poetic discovery there. It seemed to me that these lines should be close to Pugacheva. In general, Alla and I somehow go side by side all my life. For example, my grandmother lived in the house where Vladimir Trifonov lived – the same person to whom she dedicated her song “Grey Coat”.

– The first love of Alla Pugacheva …

– Well, yes. Grandmother often met Alla at the entrance, once she noticed that she was carefully carrying a volume of Pasternak in her hands – apparently, Trifonov gave it to her.

– Did you and your late husband Viktor Dorokhin start your creative career with the most important stars?

– Yes. Vitya said: “Either our songs are sung by the first stars, and then we represent something as a creative tandem, or we need to look for another occupation in life.” And we went to Valery Leontiev. They found out where he was performing, burst into his dressing room after the concert, shouting: “We brought you a song!” And there were people there! .. And right in front of everyone, Dorokhin turns on the player, takes out a piece of paper with the text and begins to sing in his nasty voice … Valera looked and looked and suddenly said: “Nice song. Let’s write it down.” It was the song “Portrait of a Woman”, then this was the name of the disc, which was released by March 8 at the Melodiya company.

– Did your signature project “Zhenya Belousov” appear later?

– Yes, there we have already acted not only as authors, but also as producers – in fact, we were the first most successful producers in the emerging show business in Russia. We were engaged in everything: both organization and PR, I came up with a lot of some kind of PR moves, Dorokhin did concerts.

– Then you, like many “golden” authors of that time, received decent money from creativity; has the situation changed? How much do writers earn today?

– Then, at the time of Zhenya Belousov, Dorokhin came up with the main correct financial approach to work – we divided the income from the concert in half. The fees were huge back then. Today I will not say that we are starving or in great need there, but our incomes are significantly lower. In fact, we get nothing from RAO. Especially with the onset of the pandemic, when there were, in fact, no more concerts.

– What broke your relationship with Zhenya? After all, you broke up with him before he passed away?

– I think that the same notorious “star fever”. After all, not even we alone ensured his advancement, a whole team worked. But you know, all this is quickly leveled and forgotten with the advent of popularity; the star begins to feel that everything is done only by herself.

– On September 10, you wrote in your account: “Today is the day of the death of Zhenya Belousov, our beloved Zhenya! It seems that only yesterday we were happy, joking, recording songs, eating and drinking together and making grandiose plans. And now a quarter of a century has passed … I remember, I love! Do you still love him?

– Of course! He is like a child to me…

– Does it tingle in your chest when you hear “my blue-eyed girl”?

– Yekaet. Although I’m tired of being the author of this song. In every interview, in every headline, I am in this capacity. You won’t believe it, I’m afraid to die as the author of the song “My blue-eyed girl.”

– My God, what a horror! Are you that tired of her?

– Poems come as a gift from God, and lyrics are a craft. Yes, I can do them, but I’m not a songwriter, I’m a poet.

Zhenya Belousov would have turned 58 today. Do you imagine him at this age? His creative path, his role? Or is he the same Yura Shatunov – a generation of artists who were greatly influenced by youth?

— It was a generation of artists, which was very much influenced by time. Then it was as if some kind of floodgate opened, and people had such joy! Everyone went to concerts, everyone liked to dance, everyone wanted to have fun, clap, rejoice!

Did they steal a lot of ideas from you at that time?

Everything was copied all the time. The same Bari Alibasov, the guys from Na-Na told me about it themselves, and many others. They took everything: they copied PR, some producer moves … Plagiarism in show business is a common thing.

– You started a very long time ago, when today’s masters were beginners. Are you friends today or are the stars keeping to themselves?

– There is no friendship in show business, never was and never will be. Relations are normal, we communicate with each other, including in social networks, but all this is not friendship.

— Which other composers are your co-authors?

For example, Laura Quint. We wrote a comic song “Polite” with her, it was recorded by Misha Shufutinsky, it was included in his album “Boom-Boom” … The song was shown on TV, and there Misha performed it together with Leshchenko and Vinokur, who were sitting on a bench, and on the chorus of the song, they jumped up from the bench and bowed.

There was also the song “Love and War”, which we wrote many years ago for the singer Irina Shvedova. We even forgot about this song, and suddenly it was found! The song “Music of the Body” performed by Lolita became the winner of the “Song of the Year” …

– You have been in show business for so many years, has it changed a lot over the years, or what was it, and has it remained so?

– Purely psychologically what it was, and remained so. Specific area, specific people. And it seems to me that this is the case all over the world: show business is the same psychologically. But today time has changed, some artists are on some lists … Although for me all artists are equal, and I communicate with everyone.

– A lot of time has passed since your first songs, and in show business, as there were those who created hits, including you, so today they are all in the top. And the stars haven’t changed either. Why is there no update? The country has changed, circumstances, and the stars, as they were, are still the same …

– Maybe because it has always been like this: the more mature generation loves the stars of their time, the young have their own idols. Both we and older stars do not know the TikTok generation. And they may not even know adult stars, unless they heard about them from their parents. And I don’t think our idols – ABBA, The Beatles and others – worried our parents.

– Don’t you think when you hear samples of new generation music that degeneration occurs? Musical and literary abilities, not to mention the ability to sing?

– There is a feeling that everything has become much simpler, and the young show business has turned into fast food. Of course, it cannot be compared with the same ABBA, world-class performers who show exceptional, amazing world shows. And the fact that they took the stage at such a mature age, and everything else happened in video format, in no way interfered with the audience.

– You really are a real poet, not to mention the fact that you are a very talented songwriter. But often I see how you share different recipes, tell how to cook this or that dish. Where does your love for cooking come from?

– It’s from mom. We lived very poorly, but my mother always cooked something special, tasty for my sister and me. And in the last years of her life, when she could no longer cook herself, I brought her dishes cooked by me, and she appreciated: “Oh, what a charlotte, but how did you make it? What did you put in that pudding?” It was such a ritual. Now that my mother is gone, I cook and always remember how it was. And it warms my heart…

Hello dear soul.
I’ve been waiting for you for a long time…
Almost missed each other…
Where were you before?
And the answer is barely audible
thrown out of the dark:
“We are no more with you.
It was where you are.”