Natalia Podolskaya: “After giving birth, I began to feel my body and started wearing miniskirts”

There is a certain artistic advantage in the format of concerts for one’s own or almost for one’s own. The star of the party does not need to rock the audience, bring it to a certain condition and keep it in a frenzy until the finale. Everyone is already ready to have fun, give the artist flowers and kisses, without requiring any advance payments. In the end, it did.

Natalya started in a black dress of playful length, continued in a sparkling suit in the spirit of the seventies, dance fighters diluted girlish slow-motions, already proven sauce in the form of hits from the past was attached to fresh dishes, closer to the finale, her legal husband Vladimir Presnyakov joined the singer for two duets, one of which “White Snow”, a classic hit from the repertoire of Vladimir Jr., brought the most sentimental audience to tears.

The driving spirit of many songs did not cancel the classically respectable group, as well as backing vocalists. “Live performance is a completely different energy,” Natalya remarked when the passions subsided. – We use playback, in dance music it’s hard to do without it. But the guitar, drums, bass, percussion, saxophone are all alive.”

In the years that have passed since the fifth “Star Factory”, in which Natalya became very noticeable not only because of her fiery red hair, but also thanks to pressure and ambition, a lot of things happened in the life of the singer. The contract with Viktor Drobysh, not very successful (15th place), but still the arrival in Kiev for Eurovision in 2005, free bread, finally, a thick social trail from the affair with Presnyakov Jr., marriage and successful family building .

Not so long ago, a woman appeared on the horizon of Natalia, who is difficult to refuse. Alena Mikhailova, a producer and music publisher, has built herself an excellent reputation as an expert on pop music that doesn’t make her sick. She brought Vintage and Yolka to fame, and now she works with Marie Kraymbreri, Zvonkiy, Daasha and other heroes of the new time. From the classics – Vladimir Presnyakov, and now Natalia Podolskaya. The first result of the alliance was Natalia’s new album “Of Course Yes”.

– Thirteen tracks are no joke these days. How long has the material been collected?

— There are songs on the album that have already been released in the last couple of years, and six completely new songs. Since autumn, they have been recording, searching, working.

— It’s hard to trace any general line on the album, now no one really cares about such things, but the passion for dancing is immediately clear…

– I really wanted fresh and tempo music. The audience used to consider me a lyrical girl who, in a long dress, spreads her hand and sings beautiful slow songs. I love all this very much, and in slow songs you can reveal your voice to a greater extent. But people want to dance, stomp their feet, clap their hands, so we focused on fast paces. Once I was at a concert of one artist – I just adore him, but I will not name him. So, in the concert, which lasted two hours, there were only two fast songs. All others are slow. I’m just stunned, it’s very boring. No matter how incredibly beautiful the voice is, people need to move in order not to fall asleep.

You have already shown interest in dance music. Quite a long time ago you released a track with Israeli DJ Noel Gitman…

– It was a hundred years ago and remained just an experiment, I no longer remember this song.

– Then there was a song with DJ Smash …

– Yes, it was called “New World” and was included in one of my albums.

– Many of your colleagues say that dance music is actually not very easy to perform …

– There is truth in this. The song “Secret”, which opens the album, has a lot of lyrics and not much room for breathing. It’s hard to do it live. Saves backing vocals, and I can not finish singing some phrase.

– Dancing is, of course, wonderful, but remember how many times even in your musical age fashion has changed. Today they dance, tomorrow they don’t dance…

– they say, we are entering the era of Aquarius and the material gives way to the spiritual, which again comes to the fore. So maybe we’ll start thinking more about the soul again and probably want to think along with the songs. But in general, I don’t see anything wrong with the fact that people want to dance, enjoy life, and for this they need fast, fun songs. Any music is important and corresponds to certain moods. Under slow songs, you can suffer, cry, and fast – for separation.

– Journalists love big words and in relation to your new album they will probably write: “Return”. Did you go somewhere?

“I never left and never stopped. Starting from the “Star Factory” she constantly recorded songs, actively toured. Maybe my songs did not sound from every iron, but touring does not mean sounding on all radio stations. This album is new and important for me in the sense that it was released with the help of a label. I have never had a rear, a reliable shoulder, a professional team. Volodya does not count in this respect, because, of course, he supported me all the time, but he is not a producer, but an artist just like me. And here I was seated on a cloud and enveloped in care and attention. It moves me to tears. The team is fifty percent success.

– You had a contract with Drobysh, and then free swimming began. Did no one offer a wing?

– There have been attempts to connect into some kind of producer tandems, but this invariably made me uncomfortable. And when the last such collaboration ended, I decided that never again, let everything go as it goes. I do not want discomfort at work, it poisons life, because work is a big part of our life. And I am very glad that now everything suits me.

Now the very approach to promoting new music can drive anyone crazy. Just not enough songs. It is necessary that they make a stir in social networks for it, so that a viral video appears and so on. How do you feel about all this?

– I’m fine with all the fashionable youth trends, but I’m still old school. And definitely not a TikTok hero. For me it’s strange, it’s not mine. I have social networks, but the blogging theme still seems somehow unnatural to me. For example, I am very shy to shoot a video when there are other people around who are not involved in the process. I feel like some kind of fool, everyone looks at me and does not understand what I’m doing. I sometimes post my exercises in the gym, but only when I’m alone with a trainer. If there are people around, nothing will work.

— The title track of the album was written by a girl with a very modern approach to songwriting. It all starts with a chorus…

– The author of the song “Yes, of course” Marie Crimebrery, she first sent me the chorus, and I burst into tears. The song has a story. We were a company at the awards of one magazine, where Volodya and I were seated opposite Marie, and she watched us. She was very surprised that, despite our eighteen-year relationship, we talked, hugged, and danced all the time. It inspired her to write the song. She asked me to send her, and I said that Volodya and I once sang Alexander Zatsepin’s song “We Found Each Other” together. There are the words “it’s scary to think that we might not have met, under the same month we could have passed side by side without meeting our eyes, and never to meet again.” And she literally five minutes later sends me part of the verse. “I could pass by – and that’s it, and we wouldn’t know how love carries, I wouldn’t smile like that, I would probably be sad, I would be afraid to be so strong and beautiful with another. Thank you!” Such coincidences are rare. Marie is an incredible talent.

– There is a stereotype according to which girls after childbirth become very sentimental. And suddenly you have a dance break …

“I changed a lot after giving birth. She started wearing miniskirts, which she hadn’t done before because she was embarrassed about her legs. It can be said that after giving birth, I accepted and began to feel my body. And it was after giving birth that my repertoire began to change towards dance. I myself love to dance very much, and as soon as I hear the music, it immediately blows me away. When Volodya and I started dating, we very often went to the Technique of Youth. We danced there both on the tables and under the tables – we loved this business very much and still love it; and there is nothing surprising in the fact that such songs appeared in my repertoire.

– But there is also a new duet with her husband. The temptation to use marital status for personal gain, or does Why the Sky Cry have a clear function on the album?

– This song was planned as Volodya’s solo number. She is incredibly beautiful, but there is a dangerous text. We always avoided breakup lyrics, but this song just killed with its melody, and we decided to sing it as a duet.