Pop coup d’état: the “half-naked king” Kirkorov was displaced by a pop hooligan

Three victories (and a record for the ceremony!) of Dima Bilan in the nominations “Song of the Year”, “Music Video of the Year” and in the main “Singer of the Year” (all for the verse “Sharp Razor”) against one and a somewhat tortured-looking statuette to Philip Kirkorov for quite the mediocre “Soundtrack of the Year”, the song “If You Leave”, also to the rather mediocre (it came together at one point!) film opus “Nuremberg” looked like a challenge to age-old foundations.

Previously, such mind-boggling “balances” in the number of statues not in favor of the King of Pop did not exist, but it was impossible to imagine. Previously, Philip left the vaults of “Victorian” ceremonies not just as a sort of Elvis Presley (“the king entered the building, the king left the building”) and a certified peacock, but an invariable record holder for the number of awards. And here is this upstart Bilan!

Yes, it was precisely the upstart, I remember, that Philip the Beautiful called Bilan in Helsinki during Eurovision 2007, when the ill Dimon refused to perform at someone’s guest party. “What does this upstart allow himself to do?! – Philip seethed with indignation. – Who is he?! Let him first be in the charts for 20 years, and then make himself a star!”

At the same time, Bilan by that time was not just a performer of the hit “Night Hooligan”, a chick of the Aizenshpis school, but already an “almost winner” of Eurovision, having taken second place in Athens a year earlier with the mega-hit “Never Let You Go”, and went with a bang the entire Eurovision audience… And 17 years after that scandal, having fulfilled Kirkorov’s minimum time in the charts, Dima Bilan made a fat goat not just for some Lazarev, with whom they were always mated (that is, compared), but for himself . Scandal! Or a milestone?

Of course, there is no need to talk about a change of eras here. We still have one era – the Woman Who Sings. Or she sang. But it’s still an era. It’s more like an epic thing here—a piece of a great Epoch. The epic of the king of pop was replaced by the epic of a pop hooligan, and even a night one. And not only for objective, but largely for subjective reasons, which in the current, and very depressing, circumstances, most likely even prevail.

From an objective point of view, we can say that this is how monarchies end. The cunning Madonna understood everything a half-bump faster, recently demanding that they stop calling her the queen of pop. She explained: “Although it is honorable, monarchies are in the past, and I am the future.” With the “future,” of course, the veteran of pop-erotica went a little too far, but arrogant bravado was always her gut. Just like the king of pop Kirkorov.

But not just stop himself, but also urge the entire world around him not to call him the king of pop, it seems, above all Filin’s remarkable powers and connections. Well, I couldn’t, man, I couldn’t… No! He and Lyusya Chebotina were still coordinating from the stage of the ceremony in the same ringing voice: “Only a king can make a princess out of a queen,” – with all his style and gait, making it clear who the king is…

From subjective reasons, the factor of Bilan’s punchy and fighting girlfriend Yana Rudkovskaya, who knows how to promote, break through, achieve, eat baldness (the school of Aizenshpis, producer and show business shark of the hurricane 90s!), is possible. What and how she ate (and whether she ate at all?), let’s say, was unknown to three hundred academicians of the award, but she looked very self-satisfied at the ceremony when she came out against the backdrop of Bilan’s triumph to announce the next nominees.

Another subjectivism, a kind of ugly mark of time, recently exploded with a loud scandal, literally turning Philip into, if not a naked, then a half-naked king. Experienced artists still remember the times when not just a title, but publication in the mainstream press could have a fateful significance. A note about a successful concert served as a reliable cover from bureaucratic tyranny, while at the same time, scolding on the pages of a serious publication promised large costs.

Now you can praise, scold, give the loudest titles, debunk him into an insignificant ciliate-slipper, but the artist’s fate is decided by the semi-anonymous slander of a couple of city madmen, obsessed with envy and class hatred. The stars seem to be beginning to realize this, so the distribution of various awards is more perceived as a pleasant social bustle and an occasion for a post on social networks, realizing how fragile the world is and fleeting luck.

Despite all the secular gloss that still reigned at the ceremony (the stars did not come in rags, of course), the outfits were probably more monastic than one might expect. After the well-known “half-naked” events, celebrities are trying to press the button to turn off the shocking in almost any situation. Like, now is not the time, although on the sidelines they frown and babble something like “well, you understand everything!” — with a literally Shakespearean emphasis on the word “everything.”

Although Anya Pletneva, the permanent and luxurious frontwoman of the Vintage group, accepting the award for the “Dance hit of the year” action movie “Bad Girl”, looked quite in keeping with the train of the heroine of the song. Either she is not aware of what happened in the country while she was making hits in her creative palaces, or she simply did not understand anything, but the mature guys, when they saw her guipure transparencies, dropped their jaws: “Is this still possible?!” – They widened their eyes.

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In terms of major musical discoveries, such ceremonies, in principle, do not differ in abundance, but the sweeping star show still showed some trends. One of the main ones boils down to the fact that chanson (in the Russian, and not French, of course, interpretation) is experiencing another rise. It’s as if everyone needs this genre again, both rockers and rappers are flirting with it, and the public is ready to welcome the chansonnier with open arms. The song “House Killed” performed by Sergei Revtov famously went on air last year and brought two trophies at the ceremony – to the performer himself, who is also a composer, in the category “Urban Romance” and to Mikhail Gutseriev as “Poet of the Year”. Songs with poems by the poet-hitmaker were presented in eight categories, of which they won in four, sharing laurels with Dima Bilan, as well as singer Sergei Pavlovsky and composer Igor Krutoy for the song “Living Heart”. The parable about how the souls of people who once lived there remain in destroyed houses is poignant not only a priori, but also in the context of, as they say, the topic of the day. That’s why the poet said, accepting the award for “The House of Murder”: “This is unexpected, but expected,” his sad irony resonated with the audience.

The irony of the other nomination – “Rock band, rock performer” – is that the genre was divided more than others by a figurative, but quite tangible new “Berlin Wall”, and the very fact of the presence of at least Yuri Shevchuk and Diana Arbenina among the nominees with “Night Snipers” already looked like a revelation. However, the academicians “turned on”, apparently, forced realism, by Solomon’s decision giving the statuette to the “Moral Code” group, a group that played the season with concerts, recordings and albums, but nothing more…

Each musical number was presented as an exclusive, but the main “special effect” was a foreign artist who leaked through the tour embargo. This time Pupo took on the role of envoy of musical civilization. In the old days, he would hardly have been considered some kind of super-guest. Rather, it is a welcome relic of the era of the cult of the Italian stage. But now Signor Gelato al Cioccolato is an outlandish company, who in a simple suit (compared to Kirkorov’s!), without any pomposity or scenographic frills, is still ready to go down to the hall, embrace his beloved russi in a warm embrace and feed everyone sweets retro hits. The Russi surrounded l’italiano vero (the real Italian) in delight, like bees in a hive. The picture came out not only epic, but also expressively dissonant with the local “people’s favorites,” none of whom dared (or wanted) to leave the stage to join the plebs. Their love was only at a distance. Confusion, good gentlemen, and reproach…

Only Bilan – as, apparently, the new Number One – not only went public, but flew over them like an entertaining cosmonaut in the most spectacular number of the entire show to the winning song “Sharp Razor”, which caused a slight commotion in the stalls and discussions about who is now the first guy in the village in the lounge. Among the girls, we can probably highlight Anna Asti and Ani Lorak. Apparently, the clouds above them are clearing, and this year the unyielding, and more recently, all-powerful “guardians of bond and loyalty” will probably allow them to please their fans with both concerts and fresh hits. Lorak, for example, performed her track “Dancing” even before the release and danced conscientiously; Asti, as “Singer of the Year,” repeated “Tsarina” as the undoubted banger of the reporting season. Artists generally know how to have fun despite all the circumstances and, of course, look young. Even if the world is going to hell…