Tsoi, Anita Sergeevna

Relatives

Anita Tsoi's grandfather, Yun San Hym, immigrated to the USSR from Korea in 1921 and became a farm laborer at age 14. In 1937 he was deported to Uzbekistan , where he became chairman of the collective farm ^[5] . There he married a young Anisieh Egay, and he had four children.
Anita's mother, Yun Eloiza Sankhymovna, was born in 1944 in Tashkent . She graduated from Moscow State University and later became a candidate of chemical sciences ^[6] . Anita's father, Sergei Kim, left the family, so she was raised by one mother. Parents divorced when she was two years old ^[7] .

He was, and then, when he learned that his mother would have a girl, not a boy, he left the family. There was a time when I really wanted to find him. And I found it. I don’t know, probably it would be better if we didn’t meet - I thought that my dad would be happy and would say the words that I wanted to hear from him: that he needed me, that he loved me. But instead, he said the only sentence: “If I knew who you would marry, I would not divorce your mother. Let your husband get me a job. ” And that’s all. Illusions about relations with his father collapsed, and we parted. But I dream that one day he would come and say that he needs me, ”Anita admitted.

- ^[8]

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Childhood and Youth

Mother named the girl in honor of the heroine of the French novel Romain Rolland "Enchanted Soul" Annette Riviere ^[9] . From a very early age, Eloise Sankhymovna revealed her talent for music in her daughter and, as the artist herself says, her mother played a huge role in her musical development. Anita began attending classes on playing the violin, piano, flute and guitar ^[9] .

“The most powerful and vivid impressions are associated with my mother and music, more precisely, the sounds of the piano. I really liked to listen to the classical works that my mother played on the piano, while composing my lyrics to them. Already at two years old I visited the conservatory, my mother took me to museums and theaters, and although I myself do not remember much, but somewhere inside those feelings still live. And what’s very important, I always felt in my mother support for all my fantasies and ideas. ”

- ^[10]

The future singer was sent to study at school number 55 in Kuzminki . In the same school, Kristina Orbakaite , the daughter of Alla Pugacheva , studied in a parallel class. In grade 3, she had already begun writing songs about dogs, cats, toys, and a parody of teachers. She studied at a music school in the violin class for only 2 years, because, according to her, the teacher beat her with a bow and even broke her arm ^[7] . According to the singer, her appearance and regular attacks on ethnic grounds caused her not to have many friends in her school years.

"... they poked me all the time at school, in kindergarten, even in the queue for sausage - my nationality, called names."

- ^[11]

She graduated from the Law Faculty of Moscow State University , the school in the class of violin and piano, as well as the variety faculty of the Russian Academy of Theater Arts (RATI) in vocals and the faculty of pedagogy and psychology of preschool education of MGZPI.

At the age of 19, she married Sergei Petrovich Tsoi , who was just starting to work in politics, has a son Sergei (July 19, 1992) ^{[12] [13]} .

Musical career

She began her musical career in 1986. In 1990-1993, she sang "Singing Angels" in the Choir of the Korean Presbyterian Church. She entered the Vocal Department of GITIS and began to earn money to record her debut album.

In 1991, Choi participated in the festival, which was dedicated to the future unification of Korea. The festival was held in North Korea . Choi, in a national Korean costume, sang a song dedicated to Kim Il Sung about her love for him and the desire to have children (at that time 79 years old) from him. She got the first place. Kim Il Sung gave her a badge with his image - this is the highest award for foreigners. However, the singer on the skirt broke the lightning, and she buttoned the skirt with an icon. She was expelled from North Korea during the day, and now Choi’s entry is forbidden - “for abuse of the face of Comrade Kim Il Sung” ^[7] . This ban has been lifted at the moment.

I asked my husband to help her get on the scene, but he refused, asked also to arrange a secretary for her, so that she could make money for the album herself, also refused. With a friend, Oksana Tarbonovskaya, she traded at Luzhniki Stadium and earned $ 40,000. I came with money to Soyuz to record an album and make a video, but this money was not enough. I recorded only 2 songs with a guitar for $ 5,000, I liked the songs and started to produce it. Under the contract, she was supposed to sing at concerts for 3 years and give “Soyuz” almost all the money she earned. Then the husband intervened, and the Union had to change the contract. She started to work. During the year, Anita recorded a completely authorial album of 12 songs, 90 percent of the songs dedicated to her husband ^[7] .

The first solo album “Flight” was released in 1997. According to the version of the national musical award “Ovation”, with the record “Flight”, Choi became “the loudest discovery of the year” (1998) ^[14] . Soon the documentary film "Anita Tsoi's Lessons", shot by Yuri Grymov , was released.

In 1998, the second record, The Black Swan, was released, and in 1999 a major solo concert, The Black Swan, or Temple of Love, took place. This performance was perceived as “The Best Show of the Year”, and Tsoi received the second “Ovation” for her beginning career.

In the same year she traveled to the USA to record the English album “I'll Remember You”, where she was offered to work as a solo artist in the circus Cirque du Soleil and which Tsoi refused ^[15] .

In 2003, he recorded his third dance album, 1,000,000 Minutes, which was presented at the Elevator Club. In June 2003, Anita was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation . By this time, the singer had completely changed her stage image and musical style. In 2005, the large concert show ANITA was held in the Rossiya Concert Hall. In the same year, Anita signed a contract with Universal Music , under whose brand a DVD-record of a successful show was released.

I tried to get to the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song “La-La-Lei”, but in the semifinals of the Russian national qualifying round I took 7th place.

By 2007, together with Universal Music, Anita Tsoi recorded her fourth Russian album, “East”. The artist moves to a new stage style of manga - anime . In the fall of the same year, the singer supported the new album with the show "East", held at the concert hall "Russia in Luzhniki". Over two days of concerts in Moscow, more than fifteen thousand people attended this show, approximately twice as many as the ANITA show. Later, a recording of the last live concert is released.

The ANITA and East shows were recognized as one of the best concert solo programs in Russia and were broadcast on Channel One ^{[16] [17]}

On April 8, 2010, the singer performed with her solo program “THE BEST”, where she performed both her earliest songs and new works from an unreleased album with the working title “Depth” ^[18] . The singer refused large-scale scenery and magnificent costumes; many of the songs performed at this concert were performed in the style of pop rock and had an autobiographical character ^[19] .

2010 for the singer was also marked by her debut in opera. Anita at the casting for the musical Beauty and the Beast meets the opera star Lyubov Kazarnovskaya ^[20] , after which both artists decided to perform together. In June 2010, the premiere of the opera show "Dreams of the East" was successfully held at the Moscow House of Music , in which Tsoi played the role of both a singer and the director of the event ^{[21] [22]} .

September 30, 2011 in Moscow, and October 5 in St. Petersburg, the premiere of a new show by Anita Tsoi “Tvoya_A”, dedicated to the release of the fifth Russian album of the same name, took place. Anita took the world of the Internet and social networks for the idea of ​​the show. More than 300 people from five countries participated in the preparation of the program: Russia, Hungary , Holland , and Germany ^[23] .

In 2012, Anita took part in the one-on-one music transformation show . ”, Where she took 4th place in the final according to the results of the audience voting. In the project, she portrayed: Tina Turner , Timati , Beyonce , Lyubov Kazarnovskaya , Lady Gaga , Edith Piaf , Alla Pugachev , Diana Ross , Victor Tsoi , Shakira and Tamara Gverdtsiteli , and in the final - Georg Ots . The footage with Anita Tsoi in the show "One to One!" Was included in the clip "Probably this is love."

October 27, 2016 in Moscow and October 29 in St. Petersburg, the premiere of the tenth anniversary show "10 | 20". The name stands for simply: tenth anniversary show, 20 years on stage.

On June 17, 2018, singer Anita Tsoi, with a combined choir of 150 children, presented the song “The Win”, written for the FIFA World Cup, at the Fan Festival in Rostov-on-Don ^[24] .

Vocals

Anita Tsoi is known for her recognizable, deep “velvet” vocals ^[25] . The singer herself estimates her voice as “low, hoarse and with drive” ^[26] . Despite this, it is known that the artist from her youth was gifted with a low and rare timbre of voice, which was immediately noted by such outstanding artists as Lyubov Kazarnovskaya and Nina Dorliak ^[27] . The latter also gave young Anita vocal lessons ^[27] .

Creative activity

During her musical career, Anita Tsoi has repeatedly changed her musical style and stage image. So, in 1997, she began her creative career as a performer of rock music, later abruptly switched to dance and rhythm and blues , and by 2006-2009, the singer formed a style in which the main role was played by heavy guitar riffs, percussion instruments and electronic musical arrangement. In 2010, the singer returns to the style of pop rock . The artist is the author of words and composer of most of her songs [2] ^[26] .

The young singer Anita Tsoi was first recognized by the public in the late 1990s when she heard her first pop-rock single “Flight” and the “piercing” ^[28] song “Mom”, which Anita herself composed in her youth and dedicated to orphans. The singer receives the Ovation Award as the “Biggest Opening of the Year” with these two tracks and her first album, Flight, in 1997, released by Soyuz. The song “Flight”, as well as several other tracks from the album, were written in the style of the “ Cinema ” group, since Anita was a big fan of the work of this group:

“Since my youth I have been the most ardent admirer of his work ( Viktor Tsoi ), and I dedicated my first song of my own composition,“ Flight, ”with which I entered the big stage more than ten years ago,” the singer says.

- ^[11]

A year later, Choi releases new tracks. Songs such as “Far” and “I'm not a star” were included in the rotation of the country's largest radio stations. A remix was made on the track “Return” in 2009 and this song became the key to the charity concert tour “Remember that life goes on”. The same song in 2010 became the opening track for the new series of the war years “ Second ” ^[29] . In 1998, the singer released a new album entitled “The Black Swan”, after which Anita Tsoi was referred to in some media as “The Black Swan of the Russian stage”.

The singer releases new songs to the media market five years later. By this time, Anita abruptly moves to dance music and R&B. Choi is releasing into the rotation the songs “Is this Love?” And “To You Alone”, which in the future fell into the charts of the largest radio stations in Russia. Later, the song “1,000,000 minutes” was released, which took second place in the TopHit general music chart ^[30] . Soon, the singer’s new album, entitled “1,000,000 minutes,” which the music critics described as “something completely new, dynamic,” goes on sale ^[31] .

Over the next four years, Anita continues to release new songs, but over this period she has not released a single album. The singer called the reason for the high level of piracy in the Russian media market during these years ^[32] . On the air of radio stations such compositions as “Absolute game”, “Lover”, “This is love” and “Weather is us” are released. In 2006, the single “To the East” appeared, for which Anita Tsoi received her first Golden Gramophone award, despite almost nine years of creative activity. In honor of this, at the presentation ceremony, Choi performs this song and simultaneously performs an air acrobatic number ^[33] . In 2007, the singer released a new track, “Sky,” which brought the singer a second statuette of the Golden Gramophone and in fact became the singer’s most successful single in her entire musical career ^[34] . In 2007, under the brand name of the famous company Universal Music , the album "East" was released for sale. Combinations of heavy guitar riffs, electronic arrangements are present in almost every song on this album. Arthur Malakhov from Billboard gave the album a positive assessment, commenting that

“Most of the songs on it (in the album) are saturated with some kind of oriental restrained wisdom. The not yet mysterious, but far from frivolous texts only reinforce the feeling of Anita's remoteness from the Russian plywood pops, and the frequent identification of the heroine of songs with nature only reminds of the eastern philosophical tradition. ”

- ^[35]

Anita Tsoi and Universal Music , in support of the Show Business with Conscience charity program, announced the transfer of all proceeds from the sale of this album to orphanages ^[36] .

In the fall of 2009, Anita Tsoi announced her return to pop rock.

“In the mid-90s, when I came on stage, I wrote songs in line with ballad pop rock - and for me it was very harmonious at that time. And it took more than 10 years for me to finally understand that there is nowhere to run and change for myself, my own essence, including music, is wrong. This is my inner state, rock and roll lives in my soul 24 hours a day, ”the singer says in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

- ^[37]

The artist has already released new tracks, such as “Lip-tape”, “Remember”, “Run away, run”, “Broken love” and “Tvoy_A”, ballads written in the style of pop rock [3] . At the same time, returning to the musical origins of her career, Anita began to actively use the Internet, in particular, social networks to communicate with fans, as well as to transmit information about the latest events in her life and musical activity. This could not but affect her work, and the influence of Internet technologies on modern society is practically becoming the main concept both in the single “Tvoya_A”, which clearly shows the presence of the World Wide Web theme and in her new concert show in support of the new album “Tvoya_A” ^{[38] [39]} .

The new album "Tvoya_A" went on sale in late September 2011, its main concept was the world and the device of social networks on the Internet. A similar idea, combined with the predominance of “basic” instruments, such as a guitar, percussion instruments, violin and piano, was positively received by critics. The international agency SputnikMusic gave the album four out of five stars (excellent), commenting that:

Within pop rock and ballad songwriting, Anita Tsoi was able to express a whole system of social networks through her own autobiography and life experience.

- ^[40]

Dmitry Prochukhan from NewsMusic put the album 7 out of 10, also noting the Internet theme of the album, and commented that “it’s worth recognizing the album“ Your_A ”as the best in the singer’s discography” ^[41] .

Participation in TV projects

During an acrobatic stunt on the show “ Circus with the Stars ” she fell from a height of two meters and damaged her spine, but she completely repeated her number again ^[43] .

Also at risk of failure was the participation of Choi in the show “ One to One! ". After the 9th release of the 1st season, she felt bad, and the next day her temperature rose. The cause was allergic dermatitis , presumably caused by the drug contained in makeup ^[44] . Due to her illness, she had to cancel her performance in St. Petersburg at the Disco Dacha concert and participate in the presentation of the Sound Track Prize. However, the singer returned to the project and reached the finals ^[45] . In 2013, together with Alexei Tikhonov, he participated in the project “ Ice Age. Professional Cup "..

Since January 2016, she was the host of 3 seasons of the project “Wedding Size” on the Domashny TV channel ^{[46] [47]} .

In addition to working in the show industry, the artist is actively involved in charity work. In 2001, she opened her own Anita charity foundation, which in just one year helped more than 35,000 children with congenital disabilities ^[48] .

In 2010, the singer, together with Universal Music, launched the charity program “Show Business with Conscience”: all the proceeds from the album “East” were transferred to orphanages ^[36] .

In 2009, a concert tour was organized in support of the action “Remember that life goes on”, all the proceeds from which were transferred to victims of terrorists and the families of miners who lost their breadwinners in this dangerous job ^[49] .

Also in Moscow, in the concert hall "Barvikha", a large concert of the singer was held. The proceeds from this concert amounted to approximately € 160,000 - this money was transferred to more than 50 children who suffered during the terrorist attack in Beslan ^[50] .

The singer has been engaged in entrepreneurial activity since her youth. Then she regularly went to South Korea , where she bought goods, and then sold them on the market in Luzhniki. Profit from sales was set aside for recording her debut album “Flight”.

On February 7, 2010, on her birthday, Choi opened her center of oriental medicine, called "Amrita" ^[51] .

On October 13, 2010, she presented her own interactive television channel Anita Tsoi TV ^[52] .

• In February 2016, with the next replacement of the passport, Anita Tsoi officially changed her name - from Anna to Anita. ^[53] As the singer said in her interview, her mother wanted to give her the name Anita at birth, but such a name was rejected in the Soviet registry office.
• Anita Tsoi was appointed Ambassador of Korean Culture and Tourism by South Korean President No Moo Hyun during his official visit to Russia in 2004 ^[54] .
• She played one of the main roles in the French musical " Mikhail Strogov " ^[55] . The musical premiered in February 2011 at the Palais des Congres Paris.
• In 2009, she wrote the second national anthem to miners in Russia; the first was created by Soviet musician Vladimir Semenovich Vysotsky . Reviews for the song were very different ^[56] .

This table shows the music performed by Anita Tsoy in different years ^[58] .

• 2005 - Day Watch - episode
• 2007 - Eclipse - vocals
• 2010 - Alice's Birthday (cartoon) - Captain (Korean dubbing)
• 2011 - New Year sms-ka (TV)
• 2012 - Day A (documentary). A film about Anita's stay in Nizhny Novgorod as part of the Tvoy_A tour (author: Alexander Glushkov)
• 2015 - These are our children! (mini-series)

Musical

Social

• Order "Key of Friendship" Kemerovo Region (for outstanding contribution to the development of foreign economic and international relations of the Kemerovo Region and the strengthening of international relations), 2011
• Honored Worker of Kuzbass (charity), 2009 ^[74]
• “Patron” (for active patronage in charity programs), 2004 ^[63]
• Laureate of the International Pillar Competition (for patronage in socio-economic programs for the transformation of Moscow, the revival of Russia and obvious artistic talent), 2004 ^[63]
• “For the restoration of Russia. 21st Century ”(for outstanding services contributing to the strengthening of economic power, greatness and prosperity of Russia), 2004 ^[63]
• “Olympia”, (for an active social position and support for progressive socio-political transformations in Russia). (in the field of charity, sector "Childhood"), 2002 ^[63]

• Anita Tsoi treated the reporters of the Vremya channel with snakes . Journalist Oleg Masters.

• anitatsoy.ru - Anita Tsoi official site
• Reviews on Anita Tsoi albums on the SputnikMusic website
• Biography of Anita Tsoi
• Songs by Anita Tsoi on Yandex.Music