Mykola Gnatyuk is a Ukrainian (Soviet) pop singer widely known in the 1980s-1990s of the 1988th century. In XNUMX, the musician was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR.
The youth of the artist Nikolai Gnatyuk
The performer was born on September 14, 1952 in the village of Nemirovka (Khmelnitsky region, Ukraine). His father was the chairman of the local collective farm, and his mother worked as a primary school teacher.
In his youth, the boy went to study in the city of Rivne, where he entered the Pedagogical Institute. Here he was trained in the musical and pedagogical direction. So his life was inextricably linked with music. In parallel, the young man entered the musical ensemble "We are Odessa".
Here he began to hone his vocal skills and successfully took part in the performances of the ensemble until he left for the army. A year after the start of the service, the young man was taken to the army ensemble. He sang in a new group for a year.
After the army, the young man studied at the studio of a very famous and legendary music hall in Leningrad. At the same time, Nikolai had a unique opportunity to perform on tour with VIA Druzhba. It was the oldest team among all Soviet VIA.
To popularity through television
In addition, Gnatyuk had a unique opportunity - a television recording (which happened by chance) together with the orchestra of Rostislav Babich (a famous Soviet conductor and composer).
On this program, the TV people were convinced not only of the musical talent of the performer, but also that he perfectly fits the television format - both in voice and appearance. The performer began to be regularly invited to programs. He performed such hits as "The Girl from Apartment 45", "At the Merry Maple", etc.
The musician gained wide popularity thanks to a number of competitions in which he participated and won. In particular, he received the 1st place in 1978 at the competition of pop artists, which was held in Ukraine. A year later, he entered the All-Union competition. Here he did not get the 1st place, but he took the 6th position among all applicants and became well known to the public, including foreign ones.
Thanks to participation in the all-Union competition, Nikolai Gnatyuk got to international festivals and pop song contests - first in Germany, then in Poland. At two festivals, he managed to get the Grand Prix - for the songs "I'm dancing with you" and "Drum Dance". This happened between 1978 and 1980. The success was consolidated by the composition "Bird of Happiness", which was released in 1981.
Funny case with Alla Pugacheva
During the festival in Poland (in the city of Sopot), Gnatiuk had an interesting story related to the prima donna Alla Pugacheva, who was on the jury of the festival. According to Nikolai, due to the fact that Pugacheva wanted to “impose” only her music on everyone, she decided to get rid of him at the festival - to do everything so that he did not take part.
Pugacheva organized a party at which they planned to bring Gnatyuk to the desired state and put his further performance in jeopardy. It was supposed to take place in the morning. However, the plan was not destined to materialize.
The performer came to the party, but in its midst quietly left the room and went to his room. In the hotel he rested and the next morning he successfully sang songs, taking 1st place at the festival. So, Alla Borisovna failed to stop the increasing popularity of the young singer.
Mykola Hnatiuk: Career Development
Since 1980, the performer began to change VIA and bands literally one after another. Starting with VIA "Malva", he created his own team "Benefis". Then he began to collaborate with the Crossword group (a very famous band that performed jazz-rock compositions). It is noteworthy that it was together with the second group that Nikolai released the first disc. It was translated hits from French chansonniers.
After that, Gnatyuk again moved from one VIA to another, participated in orchestras and various groups. Only in 1985 did the premiere of the second release take place with the participation of Nikolai. It was a record of VIA "Labyrinth". However, by this time, interest in the musician's work had noticeably decreased. Television workers even less often began to call the performer for programs.
Artist in the 80s
At that time, the number of television broadcasts was directly proportional to the fame of any musician. Gnatyuk recorded new songs on his own, tried to create a new hit, but to no avail. The middle of the 1980s was a turning point on the Soviet scene, the time of the emergence of new trends. This led to the departure from the stage of a number of famous pop singers - Martynov, Obodzinsky. The hard time did not make Hnatyuk leave his musical career.
He was still in search, looking for ways to return to the big stage. And this happened in 1987 with the song "Raspberry Ringing". She became a real hit, returning the musician some of its former popularity. The following year, the composition "White Shutters" was released, thanks to which the musician gained a new wave of popularity. It was after these events that Nikolai received the honorary title of People's Artist.
Such a flowering of popularity and interest in his personality made it possible to quickly record and release two full-length records. They came out within one year and received very good reviews from the public. However, due to a number of family circumstances, he ended his career for 5 years. The musician left for permanent residence in Germany, and returned only in 1993.
The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the fact that the musician decided from now on to “bet” on Ukraine (which is logical, given that this is his homeland). After the release of a number of Ukrainian-language songs, he became popular again. But not in the expanses of the Union, but only in Ukraine. From that moment on, he began releasing solo albums, participating in various TV shows and concerts.
