The music producer said it was time for Meladze to stop all concerts

Interestingly, the singer’s price tag at foreign parties turned out to be stable. “The most convenient place is in Dubai and Turkey,” Sergey Luppov, his current director, leaks potential meeting places with the singer to telegram channels. He assures that while the singer does not work in Moscow. What this is connected with, the director did not explain, but he indicated the fee for Meladze’s participation in a corporate party for oligarchs abroad – 100,000 euros.

“If they pay such an amount, it means that there is a demand, and that means that this is the conjuncture of the moment,” producer Konstantin Sergeev assures MK, who promoted Meladze’s songs at the height of his performing career. – Each director names the price that he negotiates with the artist. Someone is trading and is reduced to almost half of the amount, while someone stands to the last at the final price.

– The artist is forced to make a choice here and there. Is it correct?

– The artist is a public profession. And it is important for an artist to be out of politics, but in our difficult critical time it is impossible, so everyone makes their choice: someone makes it deliberately and balanced, someone is guided by emotions. Perhaps someone will regret later on this or that choice.

– Did Meladze give the impression of a cautious person who calculates his moves?

– I think that he calculated his moves, but, as a bearer of hot Georgian blood, somewhere emotions took over.

– How did you meet him?

– Who of those whom you ask from the music industry could attend Meladze’s first solo concert at the Olimpiysky in 1997? Few people remember this concert. And I was on it and talked with Valery.

For the first time I saw him at Alla Pugacheva’s Christmas meetings in the Firebird casino with the song “Limbo”. It was something fresh and unusual and very interesting. In the summer of 1995, I graduated from GITIS and in July, with a small team of artists, I went to open a nightclub in Novorossiysk, in the seaside park of the city, the song “Farewell, Gypsy Sera” played from under every bush – it was impossible to get away from it.

And literally two months later I came to work at Studio Soyuz, the largest record label at that time, which released CDs and cassettes of mostly popular music. Where did they take me to the position of press officer of the label. And in the office we constantly heard Meladze’s songs, as his album was re-released with two new songs. Moreover, our sister Valeria Liana worked for us. After a while, Valery Meladze and his producer Evgeny Fridland came to the office.

– What was the first impression Valery made, how did he differ from other artists?

– The first communication is quite normal, pleasant: a well-mannered intelligent artist, the impression of him coincided with screen expectations. Meladze’s voice at that time was timbre very different from all that sounded. Like the arrangements of his tracks. The themes of the songs were very fresh and unusual – perhaps, by the way, this is what sunk into the souls of people, and the audience took them with a bang. In a short enough time, Meladze became a box office artist, began to collect halls and go on tour throughout the CIS.

And, of course, his strong team that worked with him at that time: the author of words and music – brother Konstantin Meladze, producer Evgeny Fridlyand, the sound engineer Kim Breitburg and Pavel Vorotnikov, the best sound recording specialists at that time, were responsible for mixing the songs. Super professional team gave such a great result.

– Meladze has such lines: “I am a foreigner everywhere, and everywhere I seem to be my own, like a boat in the ocean, my shore is lost” …

– Prophetic song. I met Konstantin in the spring of 1996, during the release of the second album, The Last Romantic. In his modest rented apartment near the Aeroport metro station, we discussed for a long time the work on one of the most successful, in my opinion, CD records. Along with the chic hit “Actress”, there were slow beautiful songs and unusual philosophical compositions, for example, “Vera”. The composition, of course, had nothing to do with Vera Brezhneva at that time.

Konstantin told me in detail about how the work on the second album was going. In show business, this moment is considered a difficult turning point, because after the first successful second, as a rule, it is weaker – it is compared with the first. It is very difficult to confirm the quality and give out a musical creative product on the second disc, at least not worse, and maybe even better – this is very rarely possible. And this team succeeded.

There was a very interesting clip “Girls from high society.” In Soyuz, we had the idea to present it at the Metelitsa club, where we came up with the girls’ march. It was all very sweet, light, optimistic, in a good mood, and went very easily. This song was remembered for a long time, became one of the image and bright ones for its performer.

– Can Meladze afford to stop his concert activity and live abroad without a specific job – or will he continue to perform by virtue of his character?

– I think he can no longer perform and just live for himself. Due to the fact that he performs all his songs in Russian, his audience is Russian-speaking. Or will perform at private parties “for very respected people.”

Can he get involved in politics? For example, in Georgia?

– Such a charismatic artist could build a political career in more than one country.

– How will the scandalous situation in relation to the artist end?

– Well, Meladze will be banned, his music, songs, voice will leave the honey space. May he live! With headphones and at home, people won’t stop listening to it. No one will call the police with a complaint about the neighbors who turned on the song “Beautifully you entered my sinful life” at full volume. Which, by the way, even in Poland became a popular hit. I was a witness when in Moscow Meladze’s song “Promised Heaven” was played at a disco in retro style. Nobody was outraged. It may no longer be possible to do so now. That’s all.

– Can administrative barriers stop such a successful show business machine as the Meladze brothers?

– They probably can. But it is simply impossible to erase his songs from the memory of the listeners, it is impossible to delete anything from their music libraries. You can probably ban singing their songs in karaoke. I enjoyed singing them myself.

– List what from Meladze’s repertoire you ordered at karaoke?

– In previous years, I was happy to light karaoke in the company to the songs “Actress”, “Without fuss” I sang, “Let’s hide tears from strangers” – I really liked this tango, “Beautiful” is a wonderful song, but most often I ordered “I don’t I can do without you” (laughs). In principle, I sang the entire repertoire of Meladze. The listed songs always raise the people and cause good emotions. After all, not so many really bright, beautiful, masculine romantic love songs were written in our country. For 25 years, a third of everything belongs to the pen of Konstantin Meladze, and they were performed by his brother Valery. Since every single with a clip is a hit.

– And today – which of Meladze’s songs would you sing?

– I’m not sure that I will have a desire to sing Valera’s songs. Now somehow it’s not up to karaoke, I don’t even want to go there. Life has changed, to say the least.

– The Tagansky Court of Moscow received a lawsuit from an Orthodox activist against Philip Kirkorov. The reason for the complaint against the performer was the stage object that the singer used in his video. They want to prosecute the singer under the article on insulting religious feelings. Did Kirkorov deserve such an “adventure”?

This is his cross. The self-proclaimed king must carry his “holiday man” theme. What’s next? Perhaps it was a materializing metaphor, to put it in an art history term. This is a very difficult time of transition. Whether the kings and queens of the stage and stage are needed now is not clear. Is there a social demand for them?

– And who do you think is the request?

– There is a big demand now for artists from the people. Now is not the time to boast of wealth, it’s stupid, some expensive shows are also not even economically profitable. The time has come for artists who carry their spiritual history, artists with warmth.

Why is their time only now?

– Actually, the time of such artists never passed. They just weren’t always in the public eye and were often overshadowed by those who were actively and aggressively promoted, those who gave out a bright, high-tech product. I will not name the artist, who was the most prominent and in demand 3-4 years ago. And now, for political reasons, she has left the Russian media space. But what is left of her? Nothing.