Konets Filma (Конец фильма; “end of the film”) is a Russian rock band. Active since 1998, when it was founded by Russian natives of Estonia, it currently includes Evgeny Feklistov (Евгений Феклистов; vocals, acoustic guitar, songwriter), Pyotr Mikov (Пётр Миков; guitar), Aleksey Pleshchunov (Алексей Плещунов; bass guitar), Aleksey Denisov (Алексей Денисов; drums) and Stepan Tokaryan (Степан Токарьян; keyboards, backing […]
Katyn (Katyń) is a Polish historical drama released on September 17, 2007, that depicts the Katyn Massacre of 1940. The story views the events of the massacre through the eyes of the mothers, wives, and daughters of those executed by the NKVD. At the time of the story, it was unclear to the general population of Poland […]
TSA (short for Tajne Stowarzyszenie Abstynentów, or “secret society of abstainers”) is a Polish rock band regarded as precursors of heavy metal in Poland. The band was founded by guitarist Andrzej Nowak and bassist Tomasz “Whatfora” Zatwarnicki. While the band was founded in 1979, it has only been active during distinct periods since—1979 to 1989, […]
Siranush Harutyunyan (Սիրանուշ Հարությունյան) was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1987 into a family of entertainers. Professionally, she goes by a shortened version of her first name, Sirusho (Սիրուշո). Both Sirusho’s parents hold the title of Honored Artist of Armenia – her mother was one of Armenia’s most popular singers in the 1980s and 1990s, […]
Jamala was born in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, where her ancestors were sent to from Crimea in one of Joseph Stalin’s bloody ethnic deportations. Her father, an ethnic Crimean Tatar, was a choir master. Her mother, an Armenian whose roots trace back to the now-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, was a pianist. Jamala’s musical education thus started from […]
Alla Yurievna Perfilova, better known by her stage name, “Valeria,” is from the small town of Atkarsk in the Saratov Oblast in Russia’s southwest. Raised by a family of classical musicians, she studied music her whole life. After graduating high school, Valeria moved to Moscow and entered the prestigious Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow. […]
A Moscow native, Natalia Illinichna Ionova, better known as Glu’koza, was first a child actress working in television. Among other projects, she shot a few episodes of the still-popular kids’ show Ералаш (Jumble; Yeralash). She was discovered in 2002 by the record producer Maxim Fadeev on the set of the Russian war movie Триумф (Triumph). […]
Sataney Setgalievna “Sati” Kazanova, was born in a small village in Kabardino-Balkaria, which lies in Russia’s Caucuses Mountains, along the border with Georgia. When she was 12, her family moved to the regional capital of Nalchik, where she began to seriously study music. Sati continued her studies in Vocals at Kabardino-Balkaria College of Culture and […]
Irakli Pirtskhalava was born in Moscow to a Georgian family. While he dreamed of playing soccer, his mother insisted that he go to music school. Irakli was just five years old at the time. At 13, he left music and played soccer, still a passion for him, for two years but realized. However, he was […]
Dima Bilan was born in Karachay-Cherkessia, a republic in Russia’s Caucasus region. He entered a specialty musical school in the fifth grade, where he studied primarily the accordion. He also took part in several youth contests in Karachay-Cherkessia and in Moscow. He entered the prestigious Gnessin Musical Academy in 2000. He met his future producer, […]
Traveling throughout Poland now is a group of musicians who come from a rather unusual background. The band, Paragraf 64, is comprised entirely of current prison inmates that combine metal with hip-hop. They are part of a service program aimed to rehabilitate prisoners through community service. I had the opportunity to see this band perform […]
Russia, 1917, WWI. This is the story of the 1st Russian Women’s Battalion of Death, formed by the Russian Provisional Government in late May of 1917. When the revolution takes place in Russia during the third year of WWI, the country faces a political crisis leading to the collapse of the Russian army. The Provisional […]
