Song of the year

The Song of the Year festival was coined in 1971 by Nina Grigoryants, editor-in-chief of the Central Music Programs of the Central Theater, Viktor Cherkasov, director of the Central Music Programs of the Central Theater, and Yuri Silantiev, conductor of the Central Symphony Orchestra, as a kind of song contest: preliminary songs were aired during the year issues of which the best songs sounded in the final concert.

The history of the festivals went through a kind of “ liberalization ”, coinciding with the history of the country. At the first festivals, songs were selected strictly according to ideological principles, were coordinated in art councils, met high moral standards, singers possessed vocal skills and high-level performing skills. Many songs sounded without a soundtrack, accompanied by an orchestra (1971-1976). During the Perestroika period, ideological prohibitions began to be lifted. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, it was decided not to hold the festival at all and to replace it in the broadcasting network with the program “Ostankino Hit Parade” ^[1] . However, the efforts of the leading Angelina Vovk ^[2] in 1993, he again revived. During the turbulent 1990s, the festival became a “restaurant”, distracting viewers from experiencing economic devastation. In the current period, the festival has become primarily a large-scale television show, a kind of business project in which not only the artistic or moral value of the songs, the performing skills of the participants, but their commercial popularity became important.

All participants who reached the final are considered “winners” (until 1991 - winners), festival diplomas are awarded to songwriters. For 46 festivals, two participants reached the finals the most times (a record 43 times): 92 songs were sung by Sofia Rotaru (1973-2017, except 2002) and 70 songs by Lev Leshchenko (1971-2017, except 1989, 2005, 2007) ^[3] . Joseph Kobzon (1971–2017, except 1987, 1989, 2005–2007, participated in 46 finals), Valery Leontyev (1981–2017, except 1982 participated in 36 finals), Valentina Tolkunova , Laima Vaikule , Igor Nikolaev are also significant in the history of the festival. , Philip Kirkorov , Irina Allegrova (25 each ), Edita Pieha (22), Alla Pugacheva (21) and others ^[3] .

At 45 festivals in the finals over 2200 songs were sounded, and only seven were performed “encore” (twice), contrary to the rigid framework of the television broadcast, in view of the stormy delight of the audience in the hall:

• “Know what kind of guy he was” (1971, Spanish Yuri Gulyaev ^[4] )
• “The song of the crocodile Gena ” (1972, Spanish Seryozha Paramonov and the Big Children's Choir of the All-Union Radio and Central Television ^[5] );
• “For that guy” (1972, the spokesman Joseph Kobzon , “encore” was performed by Lev Leshchenko ^[6] )
• “You are my melody” (1973 Spanish Muslim Magomayev)
• “Song of the Distant Homeland” (1973 isp. Joseph Kobzon)
• “Hope” (1975, Spanish Muslim Magomayev ) ^[7]
• “When the gardens bloomed” (1977, Spanish Anna Anna Herman , video recording lost) ^[8] ;

The most important hosts of the festival were Angelina Vovk and Evgeny Menshov (18 times, in 1988-2006), professional announcers and journalists of the Central Television of the USSR Anna Shilova and Igor Kirillov (1971–75), Svetlana Zhiltsova and Alexander Maslyakov (1976-1979) also held festivals. ), etc. Since 2007, the festival has been conducted by Lera Kudryavtseva and Sergey Lazarev .

From 1971 to 1991, the finals were held in the Ostankino concert studio, in 1985 in the Dynamo sports palace, in 1993-1997, 1999-2003 and in 2005 in the State Kremlin Palace , in 1998 in the concert the hall of the Cosmos Hotel, in 2004 - in the State Central Concert Hall of Russia since 2006 in the Olimpiysky sports complex (gathering up to 22,000 spectators).

From 1971 to 1999, the abbreviation of the festival looked like "Song-71", "Song-72" and so on. Since 2000, the festival has come to be known as the “Song of the Year” with the prefix of all four numbers of the year.

Since the fall of 2004, the festival’s monthly broadcasts ceased to be released, due to the scandalous departure of the ARS company together with Igor Krutoy from Channel One ^[1] , the festival was broadcast in the early days of 2005 only on the Muz-TV channel . As a result, since 2005, "Song of the Year" ceased to exist as a song festival and began to be released only once a year on New Year's holidays as the "New Year's festival" or "the main concert of the country."

In 2005 - broadcast on NTV ^[9] . Since 2006 - on the TV channel " Russia ".

In Ukraine, the tradition of holding the Song of the Year festival is supported by Inter TV channel ^[10] , and in Belarus by ONT .

• The official page of the program on the website of the TV channel "Russia"