The history of the popular musical group began in August 1998, when the first video clip for the track “Not Given” was filmed. The founders of the group were the composer and arranger Pavel Yesenin, as well as the producer, author of poems Eric Chanturia.
The first line-up, which worked until 2003, included vocalist Mitya Fomin, dancer and singer Timofey Pronkin, fashion model and vocalist Oksana Oleshko. The young team received a memorable name with the light hand of Alisher, the famous image maker and friend of the producers.
The band's first video
It seems incredible, but the participants only met each other on the set while working on the video clip for “Not Given.” Subsequently, they admitted that at first they could not find a common language, as they turned out to be completely different in everything.
The plot of the clip turned out to be suitable - the young people and the girl in it each go their own way and at the end intersect. So their life paths connected in a creative team called Hi-Fi, which made them famous throughout the country, and for each other the guys soon became friends.
There were no scandals between the members of the group. The video clip was filmed in St. Petersburg under the direction of directors Alisher and Chanturia.
First performance and album
For the first time, the general public saw the Hi-Fi group in 1998 at the grandiose music show "Soyuz", and already in February 1999, the premiere of the debut album "First Contact" took place, which included 11 songs, where the authors were the creators of the group. Next, they shot one of the most striking and memorable clips for the famous track "Homeless Child", which blew up the charts.
The team did not enjoy the popularity of the first hits for long, almost immediately starting hard work on the second album. Having received the name "Reproduction", it was released in the second half of 1999 and collected not only new works, but also Pavel Yesenin's author's remixes for compositions especially beloved by the audience.
From the new album, three songs appeared, among which was the unconditional hit "Black Raven". For him, the group received their first prestigious Golden Gramophone award, repeating their success a year later (in 2000) with the song “For Me”.
Who performs hits?
The Hi-Fi group is notable for the fact that none of its members has anything to do with the material they perform. This is a completely producer project, where the members of the team play a clearly defined role.
One of the founders of the group, Pavel Yesenin, admitted that until 2009 he performed absolutely all the songs with his voice, since he did not like the vocal data of Mitya Fomin at all. Initially, the producer himself planned to be the frontman of the group, but then he decided that the touring life was not for him, so he took a dancer from the previous team in which he was a soloist for this place.
Thus, for many years Mitya was just a beautiful picture, and revealed his vocal potential in a solo project. Questions about who was the performer arose precisely in 2009, when Fomin began to sing his new songs in a different voice.
Mitya in an interview said that he always sang himself over a phonogram, if it suddenly turned off at a performance (which happened more than once), he did an excellent job.
"Golden time" group Hi-Fi
In 2000, another hit "Stupid people" was released, which became the main track in the next album "Remember", released in early 2001.
At the end of the same year, the Hi-Fi group delighted fans with a novelty - a dance remix collection D & J REMIXES. Famous masters participated in its creation: Max Fadeev, Evgeny Kuritsyn, Yuri Usachev and other authors.
In the spring of 2002, the cult hit "Secondary School No. 7" ("And We Loved") was released, which became a real anthem for absolutely every prom in Russia, and also brought another statuette "Golden Gramophone" to the group's piggy bank.
A year later, the last song “I Love” was released, after which the composition of the team underwent significant changes.
Group Changes
In 2003, fashion model and vocalist Oksana Oleshko could not stand the busy tour schedule and decided to leave the stage forever, opting for a measured family life.
A few weeks later, she was also replaced by professional model Tatyana Tereshina. For the first time, the audience saw her on stage after the release of the new song "The Seventh Petal".
In 2004, for this track, the band received another Golden Gramophone. In 2006, Tatyana decided to leave for a solo project, and in her place the producers found an excellent replacement - a graduate of the jazz department of St. Petersburg University of Culture Ekaterina Lee.
And again change
In January 2009, Mitya Fomin, who was tired of being Yesenin's "singing head", was replaced by Kirill Kolgushkin, and the group immediately released a new hit with a colorful clip "It's time for us." The actual frontman of the team was the former permanent member of the group, Timofey Pronkin, who was in the background.
A year later, in February 2010, Ekaterina Lee left the group, later becoming a member of the updated composition of the Fabrika group, replacing Sati Casanova. At the casting held by the producers, Olesya Lipchanskaya won, who worked until the end of 2016.
In April 2011, Kirill Kolgushkin also made an unexpected announcement that he was leaving the Hi-Fi group, and in February of the following year he was replaced by Vyacheslav Samarin, who became the author of several songs, but left the group in October 2012.
At the end of 2016, the Hi-Fi group temporarily turned into a duet consisting of Timofey Pronkin and the new soloist Marina Drozhdina.
The revival of the group Hi Fai
In the midst of spring 2018, an epoch-making event happened - the first and "golden" line-up of the Hi-Fi group again appeared on the stage of the Olimpiysky sports complex, this time as invited guests of the concert program of the Hands Up! group.
At the same time, Mitya Fomin told the intrigued press that new songs had already been recorded, and an announcement about upcoming filming appeared on the band's official Internet resource. Since then, the resurrected Hi-Fi line-up has continued to perform and tour.
Hi-Fi group in 2021
The Hi-Fi team with the participation of Pavel Yesenin released the single "Pair of decibels". The "fans" of the group warmly accepted the musical novelty, but expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that they would like to hear even more of Pavel's vocals.
