In the Soviet Union were pop stars, it is a fact. However, due to the specific nature of the pop in the USSR popular artists for a long time were more role models, by certain ideals, and not stars in the modern sense of the word. But sooner or later this situation had to change - changing society, varied music, there must have been somehow mutate and celebrity. One of the first representatives of this popular music and, accordingly, one of the first true Russian pop stars was Yuri Antonov.

The road to success: in Tashkent, Berlin and Minsk

Yuri Antonov was born on February 19, 1945 in Tashkent, where at that time was his mother Natalia .  His father, Mikhail, had fought in the service of a separate brigade of marines .  Soon after the war, the mother with Yuri Mikhail Vasilyevich came to Berlin, where he served for several years in the military commandant's office .  Here, in the capital of the German Democratic Republic, in 1948, Yuri Antonov was born sister, Jeanne M. .  Shortly after the birth of her daughter Anton's family decided to settle in the Belarusian town of Molodechno .  There are mainly spent his childhood and the future singer and composer, and here he became interested in music seriously and permanently .  More or less serious interest in Antonov's music took shape at the age of 14, when he learned to play the accordion and ran the amateur choir of the local railroad .  Then he enrolled in a music school, which he graduated in 1963, class of folk instruments .  Then it was waiting for the distribution to the position of teacher of music in one of Minsk schools, but Yuri was not going to bind their lives with music pedagogy, where he was more interested in creative .  Especially since he was invited as an instrumentalist in the Belarusian State Philharmonic .  Here he worked for a year, until drafted into the Soviet Army, after his return from which again worked at the Belarusian Philharmonic and created there own first team .  Soon, a talented musician and artist managers have noticed the popular Leningrad VIA "Singing Guitars" and in 1969 was invited to join the team Antonova .  From that moment began the history of the All-Union popularity Yuri Mikhailovich .  It quickly became clear that the young man from the provinces of Belarus has the rare gift of creating unconditional hits that fall upon the soul long haul .

The first song, which brought fame to Antonov, was the song "There is no more beautiful than you." In 1970 Antonov successively changed several music groups (VIA "good youth", a group of "Highway", a group of "Airbus"), but as a part of each of them, he creates a hit for a hit, each of which is more popular and more popular - " The roof of my house, "" The Sea "and many others.

All-Russian All-Union fame and nostalgia

But the zenith of his fame, the peak of its ascent to Olympus national love Yuri Antonov has already reached in 1980, in their first half, until both rose powerful and sweeps away everything in its path rock movement. The most fruitful period of his work coincided with the time of cooperation with a group of "Arax" (1979-1982 years). Plates Yuri Antonov these years disperse millions of copies - sold about 20 million copies, the parameters of modern show-business means multi-platinum status. In addition, the popularity of the works of Antonov added and the feature film "Take care of women", for which Anthony wrote, in modern language, the soundtrack; after viewing the paintings, many of the song "went to the people" - "Take care of women", "Our life," and so on. Due to the phenomenal success of Yuri Antonov could be quite legal, it was almost unthinkable in the Soviet Union, Rublev millionaire.

However, even in the period of greatest success Antonova career has not been without difficulties .  Despite the huge popularity of the singer and composer, heads of culture refused to award him the title of Honored Artist .  In protest, in 1982 Antonov three years left Moscow and stopped the concert activity, having left at the invitation of his friend Mahmoud Esambaev .  When the Antonov returned to the capital, the yard was already quite another time mastodons Soviet music were no longer of interest to a broad mass of spectators, social and political changes have generated new idols .  However, Yuri Antonov had survived, and this time, in the mid-1990s, when the "old guard" again came into force, but this time within the framework of the Russian show business, he was again in demand: for example, his songs are constantly included the number of participants in the gala concert "Song of the Year" in the late 1990s - early 2000s .  In addition, Yuri Antonov finally received official recognition, becoming in 1997 the People's Artist of Russia .  All in all, his record about 30 LPs issued which has sold about 50 million copies .  Yuri Antonov was thrice married, has a son and daughter, now lives near Moscow .

Alexander Babitsky

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