Diana Arbenina showed rare archival photos of her parents

Biography of Diana Arbenina

Singer, composer, poetess Diana Arbenina (maiden name - Kulachenko) was born into a family of journalists Galina and Sergei in the Minsk region. In 1976, the family moved to another city - Borisov, then to the Magadan region. In 1985, the parents divorced, but remained on good terms. Soon, her mother married surgeon Alexander Fedchenko and Diana had a half-brother, Anton.

There Diana graduated from school and entered the local pedagogical institute at the faculty of foreign languages.

Diana Arbenina began writing songs in high school. Among the first (and famous to this day) are “Frontier” and “I Painted the Sky.” Diana often wrote on behalf of a man. She performed at student parties and apartment concerts.

In 1993, she came to St. Petersburg on vacation and at the art song festival. met Svetlana Surganova. Together they founded the group “Night Snipers,” and Surganova moved to Magadan for six months. And in 1994, Arbenina herself moved to St. Petersburg and transferred to the philological department of St. Petersburg State University, graduating in 1998.

The group “Night Snipers” quickly gained popularity, and in 2008 the first official album “A Drop of Tar/In a Barrel of Honey” was released. A year later, the albums “Baby Talk” and “Canary” were released, in 2001 - “Frontier”, which glorified the group far beyond the borders of Russia.

In 2002, after the release of the albums “Alive” and “Tsunami”, Svetlana Surganova left it and founded her own project - “Surganova and the Orchestra”.

In 2004, the album SMS was released. Soon Arbenina took part in the recording of several songs by the group “Bi-2” from the album “Milk”.

In 2007, the group recorded another popular album, “Bonnie and Clyde,” in 2009, “Army 2009,” and in 2012, “4,” dedicated to Arbenina’s children.

In 2014, she released the album “Boy on the Ball” and performed in Kyiv and supported the Ukrainians, for which she received the cancellation of dozens of concerts in Russia.

In 2020, the album “Only Lovers Left Alive” appeared.

Diana Arbenina writes not only songs, but also individual poems, which she calls anti-songs. The first collection “Catastrophically” was published in 2004, in 2007 “Dream Deserter” appeared, then “Lullaby in a Sniper”, in 2013 - “Sprinter”, in 2020 the book of prose “Tilda” was published.

She is also known as an artist: in 2020, an exhibition of her paintings was held at the Central House of Artists.

In 2015-2017, she hosted the program “The Last Hero” on Our Radio, where she invited famous rock musicians.

In 2008, together with Evgeny Dyatlov, she took second place in the television project “Two Stars”. In 2020, she became a mentor on the show “Battle of Talents,” and in 2020, “You’re Super!”

Since 2014, Diana Arbenina has been the ambassador of the WWF Foundation for the protection of wild animals in Russia.

First steps to success

At first, the first lineup of the Night Snipers group included an acoustic duet of two friends - Diana (vocals, guitar) and Svetlana (vocals, guitar, violin). The first time they performed together was at the Russian Art Song Festival. At that time, Diana lived in Magadan. She had to leave the duet and leave St. Petersburg. She returned to Magadan to study. Her friend and partner Svetlana Surganova followed her in November 1993. The duet of two talents was restored.

For six months they performed at the Imperial casino, also at Magadan University, where Diana Arbenina was studying at that time. Their musical group gained popularity by playing at various evening events, concerts, and apartments in Magadan. That’s when they got their name “Night Snipers.” They also created their first audio recordings, which are a rarity for fans of this group.

Then they took part in the regional round of the Russian music competition “Student Spring 1994”. The band then traveled to Samara to complete the final performance of the tour. Afterwards they returned to St. Petersburg, where they found their electronic line-up and performed at various events, in famous St. Petersburg clubs such as “White Rabbit”, “Tonnika”, “Ambush”, “Romantic”.

Next, the group visited many festivals, one of them known as “Indian Summer”. “Night Snipers” performed at the city’s twelve-hour music show “Russian Modern”.

The debut of the Night Snipers team took place abroad for the first time in 1993. The group took part in a student festival in Denmark. Afterwards, one of the informal publishing houses “Spi Ded” published the first author’s collections of poetry by Diana Arbenina and Svetlana Surganova: “Fleabag” and “Target”.

Personal life of Diana Arbenina

In 1994, Diana married the leader of the Winter Animals, Konstantin Arbenin, but they soon divorced. She needed a St. Petersburg registration, and a colleague and friend agreed to help.

Then, according to rumors, she met with the second lead singer of the group, Svetlana Surganova.

In 2010, Diana Arbenina gave birth to twins Artem and Marta in the United States, but did not say who their father was.

Arbenina does not flaunt her personal life.

Photo by Diana Arbenina: PersonaStars

Popularity

The group “Night Snipers” gained its first popularity on the Internet thanks to journalist Willy Pshenichny. He posted several of the band's songs on his website. With the support of the musicians of the Kuzya Band, the Night Snipers managed to record their musical works in famous studios in St. Petersburg.

The group's music was distributed on cassette tapes. Their first album was unofficial, released as a live version.

The first official album of the group “Night Snipers” was recorded in 1998 at the St. Petersburg Zoo under the title “A Drop of Tar in a Barrel of Honey.” It was released on cassette thanks to the group administrator R. Sungatullin.

The second release of songs was included in the official album “Baby Talk”, which was released in 1999 and included concert and new studio recordings.

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First team

The Night Snipers group acquired its first electronic composition in February 1997. They continued to perform both acoustic and electronic-sounding concerts. The composition of the Night Snipers group at that time consisted of musicians from various rock bands. This:

• D. Dulitsky – lead guitarist of the musical group “Vacuum”;
• Yu. Degtyarev – rhythm section, member of the group “SKA” (“Union of Commercial Avant-Garde”);
• A. Ivanov – guitarist of the St. Petersburg group “Vacuum”;
• The main members of the group are D. Arbenina and S. Surganova.

  

First tours and tours

In 2000, the group went on tour to Germany, where they recorded their next album, “Frontier”. The song “31st Spring” from it ends up on Nashe Radio. Thanks to this, in the fall of the same year the group became popular, gained all-Russian fame and signed a contract with Real Records.

In 2001, “Night Snipers” went on a tour of Russia and the CIS countries. Their concerts were shown and broadcast on famous TV channels and radio. Then, at the Barmeley club in December 2001, during a performance, a new album, “Live,” was recorded in video and audio formats.

In 2002, the composition of the group changed significantly. A. Ponomarev becomes the new producer instead of I. Kopylov. In 2002, the next album “Tsunami” was recorded in the city of Kyiv. “Night Snipers performed with him in Israel. And in December 2002, as already mentioned, Svetlana Surganova left the group and founded her own musical project called “Surganova and the Orchestra”. After Svetlana left, the group received its second name among fans - “Diana Arbenina and the Night Snipers”.

Over the long years of the group's existence, keyboard players appeared in 2003. A. Samarin came first, A. Sadykov joined a little later. Their arrival helped to achieve a more expansive and powerful sound for the band both in recording studios and on stage.

The most ambitious performance of the musical group “Night Snipers” took place on February 23 at the arena of the Luzhniki sports complex. In May 2003, the next album, Trigonometry, was recorded at an acoustic concert. Its release took place in October. On this occasion, a concert was organized at the Gorbunov Palace of Culture. Its tenth anniversary group Fr.

Current team

Today the Night Snipers group consists of four people:

1. Diana Arbenina;
2. drums - Dmitry Gorelov;
3. lead guitar - Denis Zhdanov;
4. bass guitar - Sergey Makarov.

The group has achieved great success in realizing their ideas and creativity. They have hundreds of thousands of fans all over the world. Ten studio albums. They released more than ten video clips. Diana Arbenina and the Night Snipers group attended various events. They played on the same stage with famous bands. Participated in large projects. All videos and photos of the “Night Snipers” group can be found on the official website of the group.

Creation

Along with concerts as part of the “Night Snipers” group, Diana Arbenina regularly holds solo acoustic performances, including annual December apartment parties in Moscow, participates in collective events and concerts, such as “Own Track” (collective concert in memory of Vladimir Vysotsky), “In Memory Bulat Okudzhava" (concert of bard songs in Peredelkino), publishes his own books of poetry.

In 2002, Diana took part in the recording of the musical theme for the TVS reality show “Behind the Glass. Now you are in the army"; in the fall of 2002 - in the dubbing of the Russian translation of the cartoon "Elysium" (the character is a girl officer Nyx).

In 2004, Arbenina released a collection of poems and texts “Catastrophically”[2].

In 2005, Arbenina participated in the combined project of the Bi-2 group “Odd Warrior,” and in 2006 she recorded backing vocals for two tracks on the Bi-2 group’s album, “Milk.”

In 2007, Arbenina’s book “Dream Deserter” was published, which included a large number of poems published for the first time, song lyrics, prose, as well as photographs of the author. In early 2008, an audio version of The Dream Deserter was released, entitled The Dream Deserter: I Speak. On this record Diana reads her poetry solo[2].

In 2008, Arbenina’s book “Lullaby in a Sniper Style” was published, and on July 8, 2009, on Diana’s 35th birthday, a solo performance “Motofoso” took place, staged by director Nina Chusova[2].

In 2009-2010, the Night Snipers group published its own official magazine, Gavroche[2].

In April 2012, Arbenina’s poetry collection “Auto-da-fe” was published[20].

In December 2013, a collection of poems and prose from different years, “Sprinter,” was published, and in 2014, the book “Stalker”[2].

In 2013-2016, Arbenina was a columnist for the Russian Pioneer magazine and a participant in the Pioneer Readings [ source not specified 597 days

].

In 2014-2016, in addition to concert performances in cities of Russia and the world, Arbenina held creative meetings with university students [ source not specified 597 days

].

In 2020, Arbenina made her debut on the theater stage, playing the role of Bagira in the play “Generation M” by Konstantin Khabensky’s studio[2].

In 2015-2017, Arbenina hosted her own program “The Last Hero” on “Our Radio” [ source not specified 597 days

].

On April 21, 2020, the first personal exhibition of Diana Arbenina’s paintings opened at the Central House of Artists in Moscow and lasted until May 9[21][22].

On June 14, 2020, Arbenina performed in St. Petersburg as a headliner at the FIFA World Cup Fan Fest in Russia immediately after the Russia-Saudi Arabia match[23].

Discography

During the existence of the rock group “Night Snipers” the following albums were recorded:

• “The Second Bullet” (unreleased album, 1995),
• “A drop of tar / In a barrel of honey” (1998),
• "Diamond Briton" (single, 1999)
• "Baby Talk" (1999),
• "Canary" (1999, released 2008 on vinyl),
• "Frontier" (2001),
• "Alive" (2002),
• "Tsunami" (2002),
• “Trigonometry” (live album, 2003),
• "SMS" (2004),
• "Simauta" (single, 2005),
• “Trigonometry-2” (live album, 2005),
• "Koshika" (2006),
• "Bonnie & Clyde" (2007),
• “South Pole” (single, 2009),
• "Army 2009" (2009),
• "The Last Patron" (DVD, 2009),
• “Army tour. Finale" (DVD, 2009),
• "Kandahar" (single, 2010),
• "Motofoso" (DVD, 2011),
• «» (2012),
• "Fiesta" (single, 2013)
• "Acoustics. Songs as they are" (disc 1. "Shadows in Paradise", disc 2. "Between Us") (2013),
• "Boy on the Ball" (2014)[24],
• “Only Lovers Will Survive” (2016)[25],
• “Wake Me Up” (single, 2017),
• “Choi” (single, 2017)
• “Sad People” (single, 2018),
• "Instagram" (single, 2018)
• "Crowns" (single, 2018)
• “If not weak” (single, 2018)
• “I can fly without you” (OST “Mistresses” 2019)
• "Ringtone" (single, 2019)
• “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (2019)
• "O2" (2020)

Books

• “Fleabag” (1996, poems, paintings)
• “The Goal” (1996, lyrics, paintings)
• “30 songs of the Night Snipers” (2002, notes, chords, lyrics)
• “Patrontash” (2002, lyrics, poems, paintings)
• “Catastrophically” (2004, lyrics, poems, paintings)
• “Deserter of Sleep” (2007, lyrics, poems, prose, paintings, photographs + audiobook)
• "Sniper Lullaby" (2008)
• “Auto-da-fe” (2012, lyrics, poems)
• “Sprinter” (2013, poetry, prose)
• "Stalker" (2014, lyrics)
• “Running” (2017, lyrics, poems)
• "Tilda" (2017, prose)

Songs for cinema

Participation in television projects

• In 2004, Diana Arbenina participated in the team television game “Fort Boyard” with Leonid Yarmolnik and Oksana Fedorova. She was on the team with Alexey Mikhalev, Elena Korobova, Mikhail Zelensky and Maxim Pokrovsky.
• In December 2007 - April 2008, she participated in the television project “Two Stars” in a duet with Evgeny Dyatlov. The couple took second place and received Alla Pugacheva’s “Alla’s Golden Star” prize.
• In 2009, she participated in the TV show “Great Races” on Channel One [26].
• In 2011, she took the place of coach in the Ukrainian TV show “Voice of the Country” (“Voice of the Country”). Her mentee Ivan Ganzera became the winner of the project. In the second season, Arbenina also acted as a coach and won again: 1st place in the project was taken by her team member Pavlo Tabakov.
• In 2015-2016, she took part as a judge in two seasons of the musical entertainment project “Main Stage” on the TV channel “Russia-1”[27].
• In 2020, she became one of the mentors in the show “Battle of Talents” on the Muz-TV channel[28].
• In 2020, she became one of the jury members in the third season of the show “You’re Super!” on the NTV channel.
• In 2020, she became one of the jury members in the second season of the project “Come on, all together!” on the TV channel “Russia-1”[29].

New albums and achievements

The next album was released in the fall of 2004 under the name SMS. In the same year, Fyodor Vasiliev became the bass guitarist of the group. An important event in the existence of the musical group “Night Snipers” occurred in 2005 - Diana Arbenina became a laureate of the Russian “Triumph” award. Afterwards, the group performed in the “Odd Warrior” project together with “Bi-2” in Japan.

In 2007, the group released the album “Bonnie and Clyde,” which was recorded in Moscow. Shura from the group “Bi-2” participated in the arrangement of the songs. Next, the group goes on tour, visiting more than fifty cities in Russia, CIS countries, and America.

The fifth album, Army 2009, which was released in 2009, was recorded in America. The group hardly performed anywhere; they worked hard to create an album. Then “Night Snipers” gave a concert at the Army 2009 festival.

In September 2012, the group released a new album, “4”. His main hits were the songs “Bunin”, “Google”, “What We Did Last Summer”. The team traveled not only to Russia, but also almost all of Europe, and visited the USA.

In June 2020, “Night Snipers” gave a concert at the Usadba Jazz festival. In July of this year, the group opened the “Invasion” festival. They then went on an autumn tour of Russia. “Night Snipers” took part in charity concerts dedicated to helping children from disadvantaged families. They performed at the Maxidrom festival.

The group’s large discography was presented in the 21st year of their existence, and in February 2020 they released their next album, “Only Lovers Left Alive.” The Night Snipers group includes Maxim Chigirin, who has been the chief stage technician since 2015.

Soon they go on tour, where they present their album in 75 cities in Russia, America and Europe. In 2020, “Night Snipers” visited Israel, Moldova, and Spain. To release the next album for the 25th anniversary of its existence, the group took a short break.