Vital Nadezhda Babkina inspired “Underwood”

The lead singer of “Underwood” proposed a new interpretation of the fairy tale about the Snow Maiden

New Year’s singles, like New Year’s trees in squares, began to appear earlier and earlier every year, pushing the already expiring year into the back and robbing it of the entire legitimate December. The rock band “Underwood” with their very fresh “Snegurochka” this week is far from the first who are already devouring Olivier, tearing firecrackers, dancing in tinsel and reading poetry while climbing on a stool. And despite the fact that it’s objectively too early to stand at attention in front of the TV with champagne, it’s absolutely impossible not to talk about this charming single.

Artists have been traveling to corporate events since the first days of December, and New Year’s decor for the main holiday of the year manages to become quite frayed within a month. But the market is a market, and show business is part of it. So the Christmas trees have been standing sadly in the rain since mid-November, and songs about the main fairy-tale characters of the endless winter corps de ballet are heard from all the irons.

In the single “Snow Maiden”, the group “Underwood”, in the genre of disco-punk frenzy, describes with pinpoint accuracy the events of an average New Year’s Eve. As is customary with Maxim Kucherenko (one of the soloists, who wrote the song), the text contains a romantic episode, a crowd scene and a change of carnival masks with humorous dialogues. This time, the lyrical hero finds out some clearly too personal relationship with Santa Claus, it is unclear what and why on earth he is suing him for the Snow Maiden, who for some reason froze in a red beret.

“The fact that the heroine is dressed in a red beret, unusual for the generally accepted fairy-tale image, is a hint to all men to take care of their Snow Maidens in cold weather, so that they do not catch a cold or cry,” Maxim explains on his social networks.

The chorus about Santa Claus “moving on,” as it turns out, was sung by the musician under his breath on the morning of January 1 of this year, and by the end of the year (of course), the chorus had matured into a serious musical and poetic statement. The group treats its new creation not without a shadow of seriousness: “Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev and even Nadezhda Babkina addressed the theme of the granddaughter of Santa Claus at different times. The last one is closest to me, since from my Tsvetnoy Boulevard to her theater is at most 10 minutes on foot, and in general she is a vital artist. All these Snow Maidens grow out of the folk epic and are afraid of flaming hearts. The temperature difference is too high – 451 degrees Fahrenheit,” rock artist Kucherenko continues to mock (crossed out and corrected to “enlighten”) the public.

The image of the “vital” Nadezhda Babkina, who inspired the author, gives this whole mess even more surrealism. With bottles of sparkling wine exploding around them, losing consciousness and slipping on the ice in a round dance of flashing garlands, in “The Snow Maiden” the group plays out a standard love drama of New Year’s Eve, which can be seen in any pop film about Christmas trees, chimes and magical coincidences. Not without a textbook drunken heart-to-heart conversation, this time with the Snowman, who wisely advised to keep your passions and desires “in a bundle,” meaning in a small bag, and not to demonstrate these desires to anyone, otherwise they will certainly materialize into some eerie shadows on the ceiling.

At this point in the narrative, the image of Boris Pasternak emerges with his “erotic” blockbuster “Chalk, Chalk All Over the Earth” and the lines: “Shadows lay on the illuminated ceiling, crossing arms, crossing legs, crossing fates.” Underwood’s Snowman turned out to not only have watched movies, but also read books.

Maxim comments on his New Year’s trick: “After all, the New Year is a separation, and a separation from the ground, that is, it is a height, a flight – and this metaphor must be reflected in the song. Santa Claus rushes over the snow in his sleigh “without pathos, without unnecessary words,” and the lyrical hero climbs onto a stool, reading Rimbaud and Barto, and from above, piggy banks of belongings acquired over the year fall and break, like manna from heaven. Everything, in general, rushes along with a whistle and loudly, and still dancing.”

And in the end, of course, the Snow Maiden laughed, the round dances stopped, Santa Claus moved on… and then there was silence. One that inevitably occurs in our cities and villages from about 7 am (when everyone has finally fallen asleep) to 11 am (while everyone is still awake to go visit and “finish their food”) on January 1 of each year.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29182 dated December 20, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Vital Nadezhda Babkina inspired “Underwood”