As
I've mentioned in one of my former posts, I started being interested
in the „King
of Russian pop-music“ Philipp Kirkorov again. So it was just a matter of time when the samples of his music found on his website or
those few dozens of his videos on YouTube would stop being sufficient
for me and I'll have to search for some records of his full concert,
as I did with the others artist of my interest (such as Mylene
Farmer, Garou, Eros Ramazzotti or Tina Turner). Of course I had to
consider the fact that for me there's no chance to attend some of his
shows personally at the moment, as well as had to accept the sad
truth that his musical outputs are beyond the reach of the official
distribution in our country. So I was really lucky to find on YouTube
a record of Philipp Kirkorov's full concert show „DruGOY“ from 2011 (performed in Moscow's Kremlin), that in fact was an
introduction to his concert tours all around Russia (and some
countries in the neighbourhood) that are lasting almost countinuously
until now, updated with new songs from time to time. A link to
the video you can find here – considering the length of the show
(almost 2:45 hours) I recommend a full download, especially if you have
a poor internet connection.
So
there was a record of the show „DruGOY“ available for me, with
some basic informations found on the web, such as „the most
expensive and fanciest concert show in Russia of all times, expensive
costumes, a precise choreography, 3D effects“. The rest was up to
myself to deduce, e.g.: if someone is able to travel all around
Russia with the same show for past three years and even go back to
the places he has already visited, the show must be pretty good and
have something more to offer to the audience. There's no equivalent
to this in our country, neither musicals, nor solo artists can't
afford this. The length of the show itself may be surprising as well
– how did Philipp Kirkorov force the audience to pay a full
attention to the artists on the stage and not get bored for so long?
I was sure that I'm gonna hear a lot of songs that are completely
unknown for me, too – will I like them, or even understand them (I
was still uncertain due to the language barrier)? I need to admit
that when I started to listen to Philipp Kirkorov's music this June I
found the songs sounding very much alike. I took me a while to get my
bearings in them and be able to differ one song from another and
older ones from the newest. So I supposed that these songs will be
well combined to keep the show diverse enough for the audience.
Today,
after I've watched the whole show „DruGOY“ for several times, I can say: yes, the show is diverse really enough. Even despite the
fact that the scene itself is equipped in an interesting, but quite
minimalistic way, as seen from our point of view. But this has its
own logic: Firstly – it seems to me that there's a habit in Russia
for the audience of such events being comfortabely seated over the
whole show. So there's no crowd of screaming fans right in front of
the stage, waving their hands or even throwing flowers or teddy bears
onto the stage. And secondly – the show itself is most likely
supposed to travel all around the country, so it's creators had to
adapt it for this huge concert hall in Kremlin as well as for the
smaller concert halls in such towns like Anapa (with 60.000
inhabitants). So the shape of the stage remains everywhere the same,
like in a theatre, no catwalk sticking up towards the audience, no
ramp that would move the artist over the heads of the spectators, no
sprinkling the audience with water, nor confetti falling on their
heads. But that's no harm to the quality of the show. From the very
first moment Philipp Kirkorov steps on the stage it's obvious,
that himself is the cornerstone of the whole show. Of course, he's
got a lot of brilliant dancers in fancy costumes there, that go
perfectly with his songs. And he's got backing vocalists and a band
there, too. But they are standing beyond the area of the main focus
at the scene. So the show is fully based only on Philipp, his
singing, costumes and his interaction with the dancers and the audience.
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| Philipp Kirkorov singing "Lyubov bez lyubvi" |
From
the first moments of the concert the spectator like me may notice the giant leap that Philipp Kirkorov has made in the presentation of
himself as an artist and musician since 1999, when I first heard
about him. He gained a lot of experience in acting, for which he has
a natural and undeniable talent. For those, who do not know it like I
did, just a brief recall: he has been starring in several movies, TV
shows, a Russian version of the musical „Chicago“, and his own
clips could in my opinion be compared to those short movies of Mylene
Farmer – e.g. the songs „Sneg“ (The Snow) or „Mne ne zhal“
(I'm not Sorry). He is taking the benefits of his former studies at the prominent Moscow musical school (Gnessin State Musical College),
too. So there's no wonder that even in the weirdest costumes he is
able to perform as naturally as he is moving without it on the scene.
As a spectator I can see clearly how much this artist has worked on
himself over his 25 years long career to get straight to the top of
the musical scene, stay here for all these long years and even
move this top a nice bit upwards. He is very distinctive nowadays,
but without any negative obtrusion. He's only showing perfect
performances according to his own ideas, almost day by day, everytime
somewhere else all around Russia (from this you can see how devoted to his job he has
to be). Only the reactions of the audience stay the same, although
the need of hystericall screaming from adoring fans might slowly went
away, since Philipp is going in his 50's. Now there are the bouquets
on their turn instead. An unbelievable amount of bouquets everytime
and everywhere, as seen from my Czech point of view, e.g. only in this concert show in Kremlin Philipp takes them at least three times
during the whole evening and they still keep heaping at the front of
the scene in the end of the show. He even uses a tricycle with a
trailer to gather them, but they simply can't fit in.
But
let's go back to the show in Kremlin. A quick look at the playlist
can confirm us the fact that the leading motive of Philipp's songs is
still the love – either the one that a man is willing to gain or that is
somehow beyond his reach, as in songs „Gibnu ya“ (I'm Dying) or
„Bez tebya“ (Without You), or the relation that has already ended
or is going to it's end – like in „Sneg“ (Snow), „Ya
otpuskayu tebya“ (I Let You Go), „My tak nelepo razoshlis“ (We Broke So Ridiculously), „Zhestokaya lyubov“ (Cruel Love) or „Mne
ne zhal“ (I'm Not Sorry), or just like the relationship that
happily continues - „Ya prosto schastliv“ (I'm Just Happy), „Ya
tak lyublyu tebya“ (I Love You So Much) or „Ya za tebya umru“
(I Will Die For You). How to express it at the stage without slipping
into banality? Philipp Kirkorov chose a simple way: he works with the
„dynamic“ and „static“ part of the show. A dynamic one –
that are these changing costumes of himself or his dancers,
miscellaneous choreography, visualisation or video-effects, fireworks
etc. And a static one – that is always his most perfect performance
by each song, his most perfect showing of emotions he sings about,
but without any overacting. The structure of his songs is usually
quite uniform, with two strophas, two choruses and an instrumental
part that flows into a graded finish – all of this simplifies the
choreography as well as the dramaturgy of the whole show and even
helps the spectator with the orientation in what's on its turn now.
Speaking
about the choreography itself, the spectator may notice one thing
that is rather uncommon: Philipp even at the songs played in faster
tempo managed to avoid the frantic running all around the stage
connected with squeezing of liters of sweat from himself, smearing his
make-up off and sweeping hair, as well as the hopping of the
dancers in „Spartakiad“ style, when everyone moves the same as
the others. I hope that the times of such choreography will be kept
in his past, so he could choose the opposite way: the faster song,
the slower and for details and precision calling moves. The dancers
are divided either to couples or to mixed groups, from which every
single group makes its own choreography, cooperating with the rest
or with Philipp himself from time to time. That's why e.g. the
performance of the song „Ya etu zhizn za tebye otdam“ (I'll Give
My Life For You) rather reminds of a lesson of yoga or pilates, run
by dancers in bikini-styled costumes in a surroundings of amazingly
realistic waterfalls, with Philipp singing in front of them. It seems
to me that the main purpose of this kind of a choreography is rather to
highlight either a certain gesture, a placement of the dancers at the
stage or their fancy costumes, than to show their brilliant sport
performances that would push the audience into the bursts of applause.
Let's
say a few words about the costumes. Philipp himself is a separate
chapter in this – he changes his costume about 5 times throughout
the whole show, keeping up mostly the combination of various
embroidered jackets or cloaks with the pants, that are supplemented
with high boots, coloured scarf or caps in both civil or soldierlike
style. But he isn't affraid to wear shorts or kilt as a supplement to
the jacket, e.g. for the songs in the rhythm of Balkan disco at the
end of the show. The costumes of the dancers are even more variable –
speaking about the masks covering their faces (either in kind of
„Batman“ style as in the start of the show, or reminding of the
carneval in Venice at the tango „Gelosia“). The dancers can even
personify some regular jobs, such as a teacher, a sailor, a soldier,
a maid, a dustman etc., as showed in songs „V etot chas“ (In This
Hour) or „Znoynye nochi“ (Hot Nights), too. So to say, the luxury
keeps turning with the simplicity and fogyism. And the same applies to
the properties on the stage – the range goes from the device that
turns Philipp upside down at the start of the show, over the
fireworks at the front of the stage or placed on chandeliers (song
„Koroleva“ - „The Queen“), up to the simple wooden doors
(song „Gibnu ya“ - „I'm Dying“), the giant sofa („V etot
chas“ - „In This Hour“) or the giant suitcase („Znoynye
nochi“ - „Hot Nights“). The video-effects screened on the stage
follow this trend, too: from the simple ones like moving clouds
(„Verni mne muzyku“ - „Give Me Back The Music“), a sailboat
on the sea („Poleteli“ - „Let's Fly“) or a silhouette of a
castle („Zhestokaya lyubov“ - „Cruel Love“) up to the
complicated ones, such as imitated snow or real rain by the song
„Sneg“ („The Snow“). But there are few songs that break this trend – e.g. „Vernite mne krilya“ („Give Me
Back My Wings“) is performed only with Philipp standing alone in
front of a closed curtain. And of course I need to mention the
element that keeps passing through the whole show and connects all
the songs together – although I'm not quite sure whether I understood it correctly (due to the language barrier). It's that
shining ball of light (as shown in the logo of the show), most likely
of a magical character, that has the power to fulfill a man's wishes
and that is given to Philipp (as a young boy) at the start of the
show from the entity symbolizing the God. As the show continues
Philipp keeps returning to this God with the ball and talks with him
about his dreams, work, purpose of his life etc. and is being sent to
the stage over and over again. So let's summarize it all together:
there's a lot to watch in this show.
Philipp's
interaction with the audience may be taken as another level of the show. As I've mentioned before, there's no hystericall dancing under
the stage nor throwing various object towards the stage. But this
doesn't mean that Philipp wouldn't communicate with the audience –
on the contrary, there's no problem for him to walk amongst them
while singing, take bouquets from them, let himself being kissed on
cheeks from daring fans, or react on his close friends that are
sitting amongst them... So the camera notices the presence of
Philipp's father (a well-known singer Bedros Kirkorov), as well as
the presence of more people from the circuit of Philipp's
closest relatives and friends – his former wife and pop diva Alla
Pugacheva and her husband Maxim Galkin, Alla's daughter and another
famous singer Kristina Orbakaite (who was even dedicated one new song
by Philipp, simply called „Kristina“), Philipp's good friend and
a famous singer, too, Nikolay Baskov, with his girlfriend.... There
are even two female guests of Philipp that are performing during the
show – at first it is a well-known singer Ani Lorak from Ukraine,
that sings a duet „Gimn nezbyvshimsya mechtam“ („Anthem to unfulfilled dreams“) with Philipp, and later a young Russian
soprano opera singer Aida Garifullina with a very interesting version
of the duet „Golos“ (The Voice). And the audience is
encouraged by Philipp himself to some spontaneous reactions, too,
such as singing the chorus of the song „Zhestokaya lyubov“ (Cruel
Love) or dancing at the bonus songs that has Philipp taken from
Romanian-German DJ Shantel - „Sadagora Hot Dub / V sadu Edemovom“
(In the garden of Eden), „Disko Boy“ and „Disko Partizani“.
These songs are even performed as a highlight of the whole
show, as showed both on videos captured from the stage by Philipp
himself as well as on those from the fans.
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| Philipp with Kristina Orbakaite |
So
what I'm gonna say to a nice end? It's clear enough that I haven't
been disappointed with this show. As I wrote before, I don't care
whether the songs that Philipp Kirkorov sings are his own or taken
from someone else. I even didn't care whether was he singing on
playback or not – but I noticed it at least 5 times during the
show. But this was quite acceptable – e.g. after the long block
of songs that Philipp sang live, or during his walks in the auditorium. Now I can say I understood all of the „why?“ or
„how?“ that I've had in my mind before watching the show - „Why
would anyone want to see a 3 year old show, that he / she has
probably already seen before?“ and „How does Philipp Kirkorov
force his audience to pay attention to him all the time?“. His shows, his music, that is a flow of concentrated
emotions. And as he is so devoted to music and to the audience and
worcoholic, he doesn't let his audience to take a rest by a single
song that they wouldn't love. They all are simply so precisely made
and performed. So I started to believe (and hope) that there are
still many challenges ahead of this artist and that he could even
beat this show. Actually, I've heard the news that during the show in
Kaluga just a few days ago Philipp himself has been talking about the first hints of his
new show that will follow this one... so let's see!
In
the Czech version of this blog post I addressed the next paragraph to
some of the Russian journalists again, especially to those that are
still unsatisfied with Philipp Kirkorov's performances or to those
that are even trying to judge his audience and fans. But I don't want
to sound so negative all the time speaking about them. As I'm getting
more informed about their reactions towards Philipp I can see that
they are not all the same and that lots of them even have only the
best experiences with him. Some of them even share their memories on
him at his younger age and the earlier part of his musical career,
what is a big plus for all the fans (especially for us from abroad).
And what I really enjoy are all these direct reactions from Philipp's
fans themselves. As you might noticed Philipp's summer tour with this
show „DruGOY“ turned into autumn one, leading him into the cities
he hasn't visited this year yet, such as Nizhny Novgorod, Samara,
Kaluga or Yekaterinburg. And the reactions of his fans from here are
just awesome – to state it simply, they are sharing their photos,
videos and words of praises on him right at the moment he gets down
from the stage after the show. And it's almost the same everywhere he
is: „You are awesome, Philipp! Keep on singing! Come to our city
again! I've already visited your concert for 5 times and I'm gonna
come again! I wish you a good health and good luck in your personal
and professional life! Take care, Philipp! I love you since I was a
kid and saw you on TV! That bouquet of roses coloured like a
Bulgarian flag is from ME!“ Or even better: „If someone told me
in the morning that in the evening I will be dancing on Philipp
Kirkorov's music, I would laugh right in his face!“ or „Actually,
my husband from Boston didn't like Philipp's music as I do, so I took
him on his live show – he watched it with a great astonishment and
now is his favourite song 'Poleteli'!“. It must be really great to
have such a fandom, the more if you realize that the cities these
praises are comming from are located hundreds of kilometers far from
each other. And these fans, just the ordinary girls, boys, men and
women from all over the Russia, keep the show from the palace of
Kremlin alive for so long up to these days.
Playlist:
Ты все увидишь сам / Ty vse uvidish sam (You'll See Everything On your Own)
Новый герой / Novyy geroy (New Hero)
Любов без любви / Lyubov bez lyubvi (Love without love)
Я отпускаю тебя / Ya otpuskayu tebya (I Let You Go)
Снег / Sneg (Snow)
Верните мне криля / Vernite mne krilya (Give Me Back My Wings)
Гибну я / Gibnu ya (I'm Dying)
Единственная моя / Yedinstvennaya moya (Only Mine)
Птица в груди / Ptitsa v grudi (Bird in a Chest)
Я такой нежзный / Ya takoy nezhnyy (I'm So Gentle)
В етот час / V etot chas (In This Hour)
Знойные ночи / Znoynyye nochi (Hot Nights)
Моя звезда / Moya zvezda (My Star)
Гимн незбывшимся мечтам - дует с Ани Лорак / Gimn nesbyvshimsya mechtam - duet with Ani Lorak (Anthem To Unfulfilled Dreams)
Я так люблю тебя / Ya tak lyublyu tebya (I Love You So Much)
Три счастливых дня / Tri schastlivykh dnya (Three Happy Days)
Полетели / Poleteli (Let's Fly)
Верни мне музыку / Verni mne muzyku (Give Me Music)
Я ету жизнь тебе отдам / Ya etu zhizn tebye otdam (I'll Give My Life For You)
Мы так нелепо рарошлись / My tak nelepo razoshlis (We Broke So Ridiculously)
Жестокая любов / Zhestokaya lyubov (Cruel Love)
Мое личное дело / Moye lichnoye delo (My Private Thing)
Gelosia
Дива / Diva
Голос - дует с Аидой Гарифуллиной / Golos - duet with Aida Garifullina (The Voice)
Королева / Koroleva (The Queen)
Я за тебя умру / Ya za tebya umru (I'll Die For You)
Без тебя / Bez tebya (Without You)
Я просто счастлив / Ya prosto schastliv (I'm Just Happy)
В саду Едемовом / V sadu Yedemovom (In the Garden of Eden)
Диско-бой / Disco Boy
Диско Партизани / Disco Partizani
Кристина / Kristina
Просто подари / Prosto podari (Just Give)
Мне не жаль / Mne ne zhal (I'm Not Sorry)
Струны / Struny (Strings)
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| A poster announcing the show "DruGOY" in Nizhny Novgorod |
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