The Buranovskiye Babushki team has shown from their own experience that it is never too late to make your dreams come true. The group is the only amateur group that managed to conquer European music lovers.
Women in national costumes have not only strong vocal abilities, but also incredibly powerful charisma. It seems that young and provocative artists will not be able to repeat their path.
The history of the creation and composition of the Buranovskiye Babushki group
The musical amateur group was born in the village of Buranovo (not far from Izhevsk). The ensemble included the indigenous inhabitants of the village, who have been retired for a long time, but still love music, dance, and creativity.
The main organizer of the team is Natalya Yakovlevna Pugacheva. She is the mother of four children, grandmother of three grandchildren and great-grandmother of six great-grandchildren.
At an advanced age, the woman underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Interestingly, Natalya Yakovlevna became the oldest participant in the international Eurovision Song Contest.
In addition to the charming Natalya Yakovlevna, the Buranovskiye Babushki group included: Ekaterina Shklyaeva, Valentina Pyatchenko, Granya Baisarova, Zoya Dorodova, Alevtina Begisheva, Galina Koneva.
The head of the team is Olga Tuktareva, who is listed as the director of the local House of Culture. Olga translates modern songs into Udmurt, so the group's compositions are always interesting to listen to.
In 2014, Elizaveta Zarbatova passed away. Elizaveta Filippovna was the author of the song "Long-long birch bark and how to make an aishon out of it."
It was this musical composition that became a ticket to participate in the international Eurovision Song Contest.
For the first time, they started talking about the Buranovskiye Babushki group when she performed at the anniversary concert of Lyudmila Zykina. Later, the ensemble was under the wing of the producer and director of LLC "Lyudmila Zykina's House" Ksenia Rubtsova.
From that moment on, the Buranovskiye Babushki group became not only an ensemble of the “people”, but also a commercial project. One can relate to this fact in different ways. Fans of this news from the grandmothers did not decrease.
Oksana made some changes not only to the repertoire, but also to the composition of the group. The ensemble included vocalists from other groups, where Rubtsova was previously the leader.
Oksana told reporters that it was a forced measure. The fact is that it was difficult for the Buranovskiye Babushki group to tour because of their age.
In addition, fame “fell” on the group like an avalanche. Many young performers wanted to perform under this brand.
Rubtsova did not begin to dedicate the first soloists about changes in the composition. Grandmothers learned about everything from the Internet. The first soloists asked Rubtsova for permission to perform, because they wanted to restore the church in their native village.
Then it became known that they did not have the right to use the name "Buranovskiye Babushki" and soundtracks of songs without the permission of Oksana Rubtsova.
At the same time, the updated line-up abandoned the accumulated repertoire of their predecessors. The ensemble performed new musical compositions, only the song "Veterok" and the track "Party For Everybody Dance", which made the ensemble mega-popular, remained from the former repertoire.
The first soloists of the group, despite the ban on using the name of the group, continued to perform under the creative pseudonym "Grandmothers from Buranov".
In addition, the performers managed to realize the dream they aspired to - they built a temple in their village. "House of Lyudmila Zykina" invested financial assistance in the construction of the temple.
Music group Buranovskiye Babushki
The ensemble's repertoire consists of Udmurt and Russian folk songs. Cover versions performed by the Buranovskiye Babushki group on songs by Vyacheslav Butusov, DJ Slon, Boris Grebenshchikov, Dima Bilan, The Beatles, Kino, Deep Purple are very popular.
Despite the fact that the group included by no means young singers, this did not prevent the grandmothers from traveling half the world with their concerts. And if the tour schedule was shifted, it was only because the soloists had to do housework.
In 2014, the Buranovskiye Babushki group presented a video clip for the song "Veterok" especially for the Olympic Games in Sochi.
The music for the team was written by Alexei Potekhin himself (a former member of the Hands Up! group), the words were written by the team leader Olga Tuktareva.
The team at the Spasskaya Tower music festival performed on the same stage with the inimitable Mireille Mathieu. After performing the composition "Chao, Bambino, Sori", the soloists admitted that it was very difficult to sing in French.
In 2016, the soloists of the Buranovskiye Babushki group surprised fans of their work by releasing an electro-house composition with young countrymen from the Ektonika group. The guys were responsible for the music, and the grandmothers for the words.
For the World Cup, the group presented the OLE-OLA video clip, which was released in 2018, which turned out to be very colorful.
In it, grandmothers sang, danced, even made several balls to each other. The commentators joked that they were not ashamed of the video, but they had to blush for the Russian national football team.
Participation of the group in the Eurovision Song Contest
Several times the Russian ensemble tried to conquer European listeners. The debut was quite successful.
In 2010, the Buranovskiye Babushki group performed on the big stage with the composition "Long-long birch bark and how to make an aishon out of it." Grandmothers managed to take the 3rd place of honor in the Russian qualifying round.
In 2012, the team again decided to try their luck. For the jury, the grandmothers decided to perform the song “Party For Everybody” (Party For Everybody).
The composition of the soloist was performed in Udmurt and English. This performance was much more successful than the previous one.
The performance of the Buranovskiye Babushki group was highly appreciated by European listeners. The group was second only to the Swedish singer Loreen in terms of the number of votes.
European listeners were captivated by the group's sincere performance. She left her glamorous and young competitors far behind.
This European music lovers have not yet heard. The team completely changed the idea of singers, the modern sound of music and how an artist should look on stage.
Three years later, the soloists of the group turned to Polina Gagarina, who had the honor to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest, with advice.
Grandmothers said that they believe in Gagarina and sincerely wish her victory. The most powerful songs from Polina's repertoire, they called the tracks: "Cuckoo" and "The performance is over."
Buranovskiye Babushki group now
The Russian team, despite the many labels that have been put on them, is alive and continues to delight fans with songs, video clips and concerts.
Grandmothers dispel stereotypes about folklore music and, in the good sense of the word, shock the audience with stage outfits.
The main hit of 2017 was a video in which the band's soloists play the main theme of the famous computer game Mortal Kombat. The video clip was filmed specifically for the Russian TV channel TNT-4, which sent the recording to the Promax BDA UK-2017 contest.
It is interesting to know that this is the most prestigious award in the field of telemarketing. In 2017, the TV channel won all the main prizes in the nomination "Best promo in a foreign language". The video clip with the participation of the Buranovskiye Babushki collective received an honorary bronze.
In the same 2017, a new clip "Vol Aren" was published on the band's official YouTube channel. According to the good old tradition, the performers performed the hit Jingle Bell in Russian and English. Especially for the New Year, the singers presented the provocative composition "New Year".
Dmitry Nesterov contributed to the "promotion" of the Buranovskiye Babushki group. Together with his grandmothers, Dmitry recorded several musical compositions that became absolute hits.
We are talking about the tracks: "I'm 18 again", "We wish you happiness", "New Year", "Hello".
In 2018, the band's discography was replenished with the album "Granddaughter". The musical group continued to perform. In 2019, the group traveled to almost every corner of the Russian Federation.
It is noteworthy that the performances of grandmothers are attended not only by the elderly, but also by young people who also like the hits of the ensemble.
The Buranovskiye Babushki group does not ignore journalists. On YouTube video hosting, you can find ten worthy interviews, thanks to which you can get acquainted not only with the work of the team, but also with the personal biography of the soloists.
The band has an official website where you can see the latest news or arrange a concert. New compositions and video clips of the band also appear there.
