Katya Ogonyok is the creative pseudonym of chansonnier Kristina Penkhasova. The woman was born and spent her childhood in the resort town of Dzhubga, located on the Black Sea coast.
Childhood and youth of Christina Penkhasova
Kristina was brought up in a creative family. At one time, her mother worked as a dancer, in her youth she was a member of the National Honored Academic Dance Ensemble of Ukraine named after Pavel Virsky.
Dad also had a direct relationship to creativity and music. Evgeny Penkhasov is a popular musician who has collaborated with several musical groups. In particular, for some time he was under the wing of the popular Gems group.
When the girl was 6 years old, the family changed their place of residence and moved to Kislovodsk. Here, Christina not only studied at a comprehensive school, but also attended dance and music schools.
The famous songwriter Alexander Shaganov (a friend of Christina's dad) wrote a composition for the young girl, even helped make a demo recording at a local recording studio.
The first musical "flight" of Penkhasova was not successful. Despite this, the girl realized that she wanted to devote her life to music.
Christina studied well at school. But due to the heavy workload, some subjects were very difficult for her. The teachers were indulgent towards the young talent, since Penkhasova “pulled out” the school at festivals and competitions.
After receiving the certificate, the girl moved to the very heart of Russia - Moscow. Producer Alexander Kalyanov and poet Alexander Shaganov created the 10-A collective. They invited Kristina Penkhasova to the role of vocalist.
In the 10-A group, listeners and fans remembered the main vocalist under the creative pseudonym Christina Pozharskaya. In addition, the girl worked with the famous group of Mikhail Tanich "Lesopoval" as a soloist and backing vocalist.
It cannot be said that thanks to her participation in groups, Christina was very popular. A few more years passed before the peak of her creative career.
However, it was then that the singer gained invaluable experience - Christina learned to stay on stage, developed her own style of presenting songs and managed to form the image of Katya Ogonyok.
The creative path and music of the singer Katya Ogonyok
In the mid-1990s, the Soyuz Production studio announced a casting call. The producers were looking for a new face for their new project. Christina became a participant in the project and won 1st place. Actually, this is how a new chansonette appeared in the world under the pseudonym Masha Sha.
As part of this project, the singer recorded several albums. We are talking about the collections "Misha + Masha \u1998d Sha !!!" and "Masha-sha - Rubber Vanyusha." The records came out in XNUMX.
Their features are texts of low quality on erotic themes. The author of the compositions was Mikhail Sheleg. After the release of the collection, Christina dramatically changed her repertoire. Then she performed under the pseudonym Katya Ogonyok.
Since 1997, the girl has collaborated with producer and composer Vyacheslav Klimenkov. It was under the leadership of Vyacheslav that Katya Ogonyok presented the album "White Taiga".
It was a successful work, which was continued in 1999 by the mini-collection "White Taiga-2". The compositions of these collections are written in the signature style of Russian chanson for Katya Ogonyok.
The theme of the songs
Most of Katya Ogonyok's songs dealt with the theme of prison life. Also in the singer's repertoire there are songs about love, life's problems and loneliness.
In a short period of time, the performer managed to gain popularity among chanson fans.
Katya Ogonyok was loved for the ardent presentation of songs, characteristic of a young and passionate woman. The secret of the singer's popularity lies in the fact that she is one of the few performers who sang in the chanson genre.
And if you remember that mostly men who are over 40 years old sing chanson, then against their background the female voice stood out very much.
In 2000, the singer's discography was replenished with albums: "Call from the Zone" and "Through the Years". A little later, the singer released several collections of the most popular songs.
Since 2001, Katya Ogonyok's albums have been released annually: Road Romance, Commandment, Debut Album with covered early songs, Kiss, Katya.
The last collection in the singer's discography was the album "Happy Birthday, Sidekick!", Which was released in 2006.
Popularity in the Soviet Union
Katya Ogonyok has gained popularity not only among Russians. Her compositions were very popular among music lovers of the former Soviet Union.
The singer was invited with her performances to many countries where former compatriots lived - to Israel, Germany, the United States of America.
However, she was never destined to perform in the USA. All the fault was "bureaucratic" delay "".
In 2007, Katya Ogonyok started working on a new collection, but, unfortunately, she was never able to present it. The album "In My Heart" was released in 2008, after the death of the singer.
Personal life of Katya Ogonyok
Katya Ogonyok was officially married once. The girl got married when she was only 19 years old. Katya's first husband was a childhood friend, whom she waited for from the army.
After the guy served in the army, he proposed to Katya. The couple lived only one year together. Then they separated for a while, and a year later they officially divorced.
After the divorce, Katya Ogonyok did not have a personal life. She had fleeting romances. She lived in a civil marriage, but she simply did not want to waste time on official relations.
The last husband of Kristina Penkhasova was a former boxer in the past Levon Koyava.
In 2001, the singer gave birth to a daughter, whom the couple named Valeria. In the future, Lera followed in the footsteps of her mother, and even dedicated one of the compositions of her repertoire to her.
With Levon, the singer was a truly happy woman, which she repeatedly admitted to journalists. Koyava was an ideal man for her, in which kindness, courage and strength were organically combined.
Death of Katya Ogonyok
Katya Ogonyok died on October 24, 2007. The cause of death was heart failure and pulmonary edema. The cause of death, according to experts, was cirrhosis of the liver.
Despite the fact that the performer was admitted to the hospital after an epileptic attack. The woman suffered from epilepsy since childhood.
The funeral of the beloved singer was in Moscow, at the Nikolo-Arkhangelsk cemetery.
To install a posthumous monument on the grave of the famous chansonette, which many "fans" called the "queen of Russian chanson."
Dad Kristina Penkhasova had to organize a charity concert in 2010, which was held in one of the institutions of Krasnogorsk.
