Natalia Gulkina: “Now you can’t force me to sing Mirage songs!”

Natalya Gulkina was born in Moscow on February 20, 1964. Today she is an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation and a Russian pop singer. Natalya Valerievna is from an ordinary Moscow family. The father gave his daughter a love of music and the first basics of musical art. He taught her to play the guitar.

Natalia was great at composing songs and singing them. Her first listeners came to school evenings and gave the aspiring singer a well-deserved ovation. So, even in childhood, Natalya found her calling and firmly walked towards her goal.

Natalya Gulkina began touring as part of Mirage

Natalia Gulkina's musical career was polished in the capital's jazz studio. Here the singer was taught acting skills and her vocals were improved. In the studio, the performer met her colleague Svetlana Razina and through her met Andrei Lityagin, who at that time was little known as a composer.

The meeting with Lityagin turned out to be fateful. Soloist Margarita Sukhankina just left the group, having chosen the path of an opera singer. Meeting Lityagin's request, Gulkina accepted his offer and took the place of lead singer in the Mirage group.

The team went on tour throughout the country. Their success was enormous, people gathered in entire stadiums for Mirage concerts. “Mirage” with Natalya Gulkina was welcome anywhere in the Soviet Union.

Their leader Lityagin did not want to recall the group from the tour, because they brought in considerable income. At the same time, it was time to update the repertoire of performances, and Natalia is touring. So he invited the former lead singer of the group, Margarita, to perform new compositions.

But Gulkina flatly refused to open her mouth to Sukhankina’s soundtrack. Having told her manager that she considered this to be an ordinary fraud, Natalya Gulkina left the team.

Natalia Gulkina: “Now you can’t force me to sing Mirage songs!”

Photo by Artem Geodakyan Natalia Gulkina, without exaggeration, can be called a super-star of domestic disco of the 80s and 90s. Then the songs she performed as part of “Mirage” and “Stars” were heard on all the dance floors of the country. In the late nineties, Natalia disappeared from the big stage for some time. However, in 2005, with the revival of “Mirage”, Gulkina’s name is gaining its former strength. In 2011, despite the success of the project, Natalia makes an unexpected decision to leave the group and engage in solo work.

I learned from a personal conversation about what made her leave the popular duet with Margarita Sukhankina and start over from scratch, about conflicts with former colleagues, studying with Alexander Gradsky, the desire to perform at Eurovision, about new songs and moving away from pop music. with the singer. Photo by Artem Geodakyan.

Natalia Gulkina arranged a meeting in her office in an apartment in a residential building. The first thing that caught my eye was an impressive collection of miniature shoes, boots, boots and other shoes made of ceramics, glass, wood and various other materials. However, as it turned out, the number of pairs of Natalia’s concert shoes is hardly inferior in number and diversity to this collection.

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When we arrived, Natalia was still rehearsing with her dancers, and Artyom and I managed to look around her dressing room. Sequins, pins, hats, rhinestones - in a word, chic, sparkle, beauty! And at this time, strange phrases were heard from behind the door where the rehearsal was going on: “I don’t want to humiliate myself...”, “... I’m not yours!” After listening, we realized that these were snippets of song lyrics.

Finally, Natalia was free and invited us to the meeting room, if a meeting room can be called a room reminiscent of a club interior, with mirror balls, white leather sofas and the “GN” logo (Natalia Gulkina - in case anyone hadn’t guessed).

— Natalia, two years ago you decided to leave Mirage. And this is not the first time you left the group. Once in the late 80s you already left it, and then created a new team, “Stars”. What is the reason for your departure? Was it difficult for you to work in an all-female group or did you want to start a solo career?

- There is nothing accidental in life. Everything should take its course. Probably the first time I left Mirage was because I had to try my own strength. And circumstances in the group developed that pushed me to this decision. Then several members of the group went on tour at the same time, which, naturally, I could not like. In addition, I learned that I earn less than other soloists. I thought it was unfair and left. By that time, I was already quite popular, so it turned out to be easier for me to start my new path. At first, when I left Mirage, being naive and absolutely ignorant of legal issues, I continued to perform the songs that I sang as one of its soloists. But they quickly explained to me that I had no right to sing them. I didn’t worry too much about this, but went ahead and wrote the song “The Sun is Burning,” which was immediately picked up by various radio stations. It soon became a hit and I started touring the country with it. Then a new song “I Believe and Love” appeared. And then at the “Sound Track” Lenya Velichkovsky came up to me. He said that he had a lot of interesting material and invited me to watch it. We met. He sang something to me, played something. I liked his music, and we recorded the album “The Little Prince” with him, which also included my song “The Sun is Burning”. This album became very popular, and it was then that the name of Natalia Gulkina began to appear.

Then the day of the city approached. On this occasion, a group concert was organized in Gorky Park, which, by the way, television crews from the American MTV came to film. They invited “Mirage” with Tatyana Ovsienko, and the group “Fairy” with Svetlana Razina, and me. Until that moment, our group did not have a name at all. We were announced as Natalia Gulkina - “Ex-Mirage” or simply Natalia Gulkina. And then we grabbed our heads - what to call ourselves? There can’t be two “Mirages” or a “Mirage” and an ex-“Mirage” on stage. They began to come up with some names on the fly. And at this time the MTV film crew enters the dressing room. I am introduced to them as a Russian star, or rather, a star of the USSR, and let them ask what I have, since I am a star. And my husband, now deceased, Kostya Terentyev, suddenly begins to tell them that I have my own train, on which my group and I travel throughout the country. And that we also have a plane. And how he went to lie! I am terrified. What is he talking about?! And he just wanted to show that we are no worse than their stars.

And suddenly one of us has an idea, what if we call our group “Stars”. At first I doubted that we would call ourselves stars - that we are so cool, or what? And then someone said what does cool or not cool have to do with it. There is also the Moon and stars. And they are already shouting to us: “Your way out! How to announce?!” Well, we waved our hand: “Announce Natalia Gulkina and the “Stars” group.”

After “The Little Prince” we recorded the album “Disco”, which turned out to be even more popular. This is the advantage of individual work - a creative person has the opportunity to open up. If we talk about me, then if I had not left Mirage then, most likely, I would not have sung anything new. After all, nothing has changed there to this day, everything is the same.

— There was a new song “Just a Mirage”, which you performed with Margarita Sukhankina. With her, in fact, the second birth of “Mirage” began.

— This is a song from my album. I wrote the poems, and Vadik Zolotykh wrote the music. So the song is mine and, thank God, no one can stop me from singing it, unlike the Mirage songs, which I don’t perform now. In general, in 2004, I initiated the revival of the duet of Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina. We paid the composer money for the right to perform his songs. After some time, he suggested taking the entire name. And then we began to be fully called “Mirage” and recorded a new album.

And if we return to the topic of my last departure from the group two years ago, then this time I left simply because I was forced to do so. Margarita did not want to be an equal in the team. There was a struggle for leadership. In all the interviews that we gave together at that time, it is very clear how she always speaks in the first person: “I, I, I.” Sometimes I didn’t have the opportunity to get a word in. Even our director was surprised why I was silent. What was I supposed to do? Intrude into the conversation? Everything was done to make me feel uncomfortable in the group. So that I was forced to leave.

— Did you survive?

- That’s right, we survived. The moment came when I gathered the entire management and said that a conflict situation had arisen in the team. Margarita behaves in such a way that it becomes impossible to work with her. In addition, I considered the biased attitude of the producer, who singled out Margarita, and for some reason “pushed” me into the shadow, to be unfair. I asked to resolve the situation so that personal relationships in the team would not be projected onto professional ones. They promised to try to solve everything. I, in turn, said that I was ready to endure the current situation for another year so as not to let anyone down, and then, if nothing changes, I would be forced to leave the group.

I believed that within a year the management would somehow be able to sort everything out. And if a normal working environment had been restored in the team, I would not have left. But, as I found out quite recently, immediately after this conversation, instead of trying to resolve the conflict, they immediately rushed to look for a replacement for me, contacting Razina through Sokolov. They apparently decided that Rita could not be remade; in addition, they figured that she sang the entire second album of “Mirage” and, thus, came to the conclusion that it would be easier to part with me.

So, that conversation took place in the summer. And already in the winter, during my vacation, I suddenly learn from the band’s musicians that they were all informed about my departure. That is, not even a year has passed. At the same time, no one from the management even bothered to inform me of the decision made. It turns out that everyone was called to the carpet in turn and told: “Gulkina is leaving the group,” and they immediately asked: “Are you going to run after her or what?”

And I didn’t even suspect anything. As it turned out later, at this time Sveta Razina was already rehearsing with all her might. Essentially, I was “gone.” Moreover, it is rude and ugly.

And how much dirt they poured after me! And that I am capricious, and that I disrupt concerts, and I left without warning anyone, forcing the management to take Svetlana Razina instead of me. Yes, I have never missed a single concert in my life!

I was amazed when in one of the programs Andrei Lityagin even used obscene language against me, saying that without the songs of “Mirage” no one needs me. Of course, he was beeped, but he said the word. And this is a man who considers himself an intellectual and is proud of his two higher educations.

By the way, I didn’t have any conflict with him at all, so his behavior extremely surprised me. After all, he himself consoled me when one day I called him in tears and told him about another incident with Margarita. He asked me to take things more simply. He gave the example of people who continue to go to work, despite the fact that their boss terrorizes them. But Margarita was not my boss at all. And for that matter, it was I who invited her to the group. I also called Lavrov, the current producer of Mirage - he was once my director at Stars. And Lavrov has already pulled Lityagin up. And it is unknown where all this trinity would be now, where Margarita would sing, if one day I had not called Margarita with an offer to perform a duet. I'm not asking for any gratitude for this, but what prevented these people from parting with me in a civilized manner? After all, if they behaved like human beings, then we could even organize some kind of joint performances. Why not?

Now the group no longer closely resembles the former Mirage. In general, I believe that its collapse is the fault of the producer, or rather his lack of professionalism. The person did not have enough experience to resolve the conflict. The fact that the group appeared again was a revival of the youth of those people who once met, danced, and fell in love to this music. Many, despite their age, ran to discos again, memories came flooding back to people. To destroy this project was the same as depriving people of the opportunity to return to their youth.

— Do you still have the right to perform any Mirage songs?

“I’m now forbidden to perform even those Mirage songs that I performed as a soloist.” Yes, you can’t force me to sing them anymore. After they told me that I am nothing without them, I will not fulfill them on principle.

— At corporate events, don’t they ask you to perform anything from that repertoire?

“They don’t ask at all, everyone has figured it out a long time ago.” This happens extremely rarely, and I do not hesitate to explain from the stage why I do not perform these songs. And immediately all questions disappear.

— Do you sing anything from “Stars”?

— From “Stars”, of course, I sing. And from the new album. I have a two-hour concert that goes by in one breath. After the concert, people applaud while standing. Therefore, I feel absolutely normal. They thought that I would die right away. Instead, I released a new album under the symbolic title “On My Own.”

And here it has completely reached the point of absurdity. I have my own page on YouTube. And suddenly I receive a notification that I do not have the right to post on it recordings from as many as 26 years ago, on which I perform Mirage songs. And so I was forced to remove all the recordings in which I performed Mirage songs, including those made by fans at concerts and then posted on the Internet. I had to do this, otherwise my YouTube page would have been blocked, just as Svetlana Razina’s was blocked, by the way. And I have a lot of my own songs there.

Why all this was done is unclear to me. As if they seriously wanted to erase history. Well, you can remove memories of me as part of Mirage from the Internet, but how can you erase this from people’s memories? Or how to erase love from the hearts of fans? The main thing is not clear why they suddenly started all this two years after I left the group, and not when Margarita Sukhankina and Svetlana Razina were sitting in television studios and washed my bones together.

— It’s strange that Svetlana Razina also spoke out against you. After all, you were friends even before “Mirage”, you visited a music studio with her, it was she who recommended you as one of the soloists in this group.

- Yes, that’s how it was. But, firstly, Svetlana and I had not communicated for a long time, and secondly, I think she was offended that I then called not her, but Margarita Sukhankina, with a proposal for cooperation. But I proceeded from the fact that at that time only Margarita and I were the real performers of the Mirage songs. Sveta had the right to perform several Mirage songs, since she wrote the lyrics for them, but her voice was not heard on any soundtrack.

After I left, Margarita and Sveta united and began to “be friends” against me. I must say, they did it well... at first. As Svetlana herself said, at first she was received simply wonderfully: they blew away dust particles, gave her clothes, in general, treated her to the highest standard - the only thing was that they didn’t roll out the red carpet. Svetlana told me: “I learned so many interesting things about you, Gulkina. In general, you are enemy number one." But then conflicts began again out of nowhere, and, as a result, Svetlana lasted in the group for only about a year.

But now the only soloist left in the group is Margarita Sukhankina. There is no competition. Surrounded by only men who blow away specks of dust from her. In general, I achieved what I wanted. Now she is her own queen and can be happy.

— What have you managed to accomplish in two years of solo work?

“Despite all the hostility and constant attacks from my former colleagues, in two years of solo work I managed to implement many of my plans and ideas. Firstly, I played in the musical “The Three Musketeers” to the music of Maxim Dunaevsky. She played the role of Queen Anne. Secondly, she starred in several TV series. She also released the album “On My Own” in collaboration with composer Arsen Kasiev. Some time ago there was a presentation of the album, which was attended by many of my friends, fans, and journalists, which was a pleasant surprise.

— At the beginning of the year, you came out with a new song “Falcon” by Andrei Demidov , with which you took part in the selection for Eurovision. Do you think you had a real chance of getting there from the outside, without appropriate support?

- You know, despite the fact that I am already a fully grown woman, at heart I remain the same naive girl. I continue to believe in miracles. Once upon a time, when I was still very young, I picked up a guitar and dreamed that one day I would find myself on stage. A miracle happened and I became a popular singer. Therefore, this time I believed that maybe, having heard my song, they would choose me, especially since the thing is really cool. I will say more, I will apply for the competition next year too.

— How did you feel about Dina Garipova’s candidacy?

— Frankly speaking, as soon as I realized that I was not chosen, I immediately switched to other projects, which, believe me, I have a lot of. Therefore, I simply did not have time to sit on the Internet and study Dina’s work. So I can’t give any assessment on this yet.

— Having performed the song “Falcon”, you tried yourself in the new genre of rock ballad. Do you want to continue experimenting and try yourself, say, in jazz or rock?

— After “Falcon,” I recorded another song by Andrei Demidov, also in the style of a ballad. This genre is generally very close to me. Something like rockopop. Both of these songs are noticeably different in style from my previous works. They contain the theme of an adult woman, some new depth. The second song is also about love, also with very good lyrics, which is important for me. I don’t want to sing anything senseless. There are such words, such music, such energy that it gives you goosebumps.

Speaking of jazz, I once sang jazz. I went to a pop-jazz school. Moreover, as a girl, I studied with Alexander Gradsky in his studio, which was located near the Novye Cheryomushki metro station. I literally grew up listening to his songs and still admire this artist. He has an unreal, God-given gift. In that studio, from the position of a master, he walked around the classrooms and watched how teaching was conducted. Unfortunately, my studies there did not last long, as I was invited to sing as a soloist in a vocal and instrumental ensemble.

And if we talk about experiments, then I’m still more interested in pop-rock, since dance music, or pop music, is rather music for the feet. That's why I love the group "A'Studio" - precisely because their songs successfully combine pop and rock. They have created their own corporate style; you cannot confuse them with anyone else. I also want to create something of my own in this direction, and I have already succeeded in doing something.

— What are your plans for this year?

— Now I’m planning to release my album, where I myself will be the author of the music and poetry. I want to stun the audience. I want to go on stage and accompany myself on the guitar.

In addition, at the moment I am busy staging a play based on music from the album “I Myself.” This is not a musical, because a musical involves many performers, but here I will sing alone. My dancers will be actors. I want to invite a professional choreographer. This will be a musical story told by me in songs. I plan to go on tour around the country with this play... In a word, there are a lot of plans.

- How are you enough for everything!? And sing, and tour, and write songs, and stage plays. Have you at least delegated organizational issues to someone?

- Yes, but I control everything myself. I design the costumes myself. You see, I enjoy it all.

- Do you have time for your family? Do your children complain that you don't pay attention to them?

— My children are like their fathers in character: my son is so calm, and my daughter is a real energizer battery. Like me, they are also drawn to creativity. The son, he is already a grown young man, tries himself on television and writes music. He is also interested in ufology: all sorts of space matters, aliens...

- And your daughter?

— My daughter is in seventh grade at a linguistic school. Sings. He writes poems, fairy tales, short stories, even some detective stories. And very interesting. She has excellent figurative language. She wraps up phrases such as “a light breeze of the breeze disturbed the calm of the green bush, its leaves suddenly trembled... and so on.” She really likes this activity. She says she doesn't want to be a singer, but wants to be a writer.

In a word, my children are also creative personalities, and this makes me very, very happy.

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Natalya Gulkina has written many popular compositions

Gulkina was banned from performing songs from the “Mirages” repertoire by court order, and the girl began to write songs herself. Her composition “The Sun is Burning” immediately became one of the most popular on Russian radio stations. Gulkina’s second hit, “I Believe and Love,” suffered the same fate.

Then fate brought Natalya together with composer Leonid Velichkovsky. Based on the musical material he proposed, Gulkina records a new album. He immediately fell in love with all disco fans. Now Natalia had a new group, which was called “Stars”, and their first album was called “The Little Prince”.

A surprise awaited Mirage fans in 2004. The two soloists decided to unite and sing in a group together. Gulkina and Sukhankina as part of the group released the disc “Just a Mirage” in 2005, and a video for this song will soon be released.

The revived “Mirage” is extremely popular, they win competitions, release new albums, half of the songs are performed by one soloist, and half by another. But in 2011, a conflict arose in the team again due to disagreements and Svetlana Razina became the soloist of “Mirage”.

Natalia Gulkina's son followed in his mother's footsteps in music

Gulkina did not stay in her first marriage for long, but gave birth to her first child, Alexei Gulkina. The son, like his mother, liked a musical career, and he followed in his mother’s footsteps. But Natalya herself says about the music that the young man writes that it is “complex.”

In her second marriage, although Natalya was happy, it also did not last long. Her husband Konstantin Terentyev was her concert director and took part in promoting Natalia in her solo musical career.

The third marriage gave the singer a daughter, Yana, in 1999, whose father was the director and dancer from the show ballet “Street Jazz” Sergei Mandrik. But the relationship still did not last long.

The third marriage was not the last, and it seemed that everything would be fine in the singer’s personal life. She met Sergei Reutov. He worked as a pediatrician and was as young as Mandrik (the singer is ten years older). And again, something didn’t work out; two years later the couple broke up.

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE

Several years of nightmare have sunk into oblivion. Konstantin disappeared from her life, taking all the money and driving away in a brand new foreign car, which they bought just the day before.

This marriage unsettled Gulkina. But she turned out to be an optimist, believing in a bright family future. And she got married twice more.

About a year later, Natalia fell in love with the dancer of her group, Sergei Mandrik.

. He was only 18, the singer 27. Gulkina, who thought that after a huge number of abortions was already infertile, unexpectedly became pregnant and gave birth to her husband’s daughter. Moreover, with her third husband she suddenly fell in love with sex.

– I remember: summer, heat, Seryozha and I were at the recreation center. I wanted to look at the sea from the tower where rescuers usually sit. There was no one there at that moment. Seryozha playfully lifted my skirt... that’s where it all happened. It was so unusual, but I liked it,” the singer smiles. – Probably, this marriage was the most successful - I loved, they loved me and literally carried me in their arms. Perhaps it was the happiest time in my life.

A large-scale show by Natalia Gulkina is dedicated to her 55th anniversary

For her anniversary, the popular Russian singer Natalya Gulkina decided to give a concert. It will be called "Show 55". This is exactly how old the singer recently turned.

As Natalya herself admitted, there have never been concerts of this scale in her solo work. The concert program is planned from time-tested hits and completely new compositions. The performer will surprise those gathered with the brightness of several of her images, while performing live. The singer’s performances will be supported by the show ballet “Stars”.

Currently, Natalya Gulkina is in great demand as an artist. She has many fans, and not only in her native country, but also far beyond its borders. Natalya Valerievna has been engaged in musical creativity for more than 30 years, and friends and devoted fans recently congratulated her on this date, and now pleasant events will happen at the celebration of the singer’s 55th anniversary.

Natalya Gulkina invites everyone to the anniversary concert on March 28, 2019 at 7 p.m. The venue of the concert is the Meridian Center for Culture and Art.