Valentina Tolkunova is a famous Soviet (later Russian) singer. Holder of titles and titles, including "People's Artist of the RSFSR" and "Honored Artist of the RSFSR".
The singer's career spanned over 40 years. Among the topics that she touched upon in her work, the theme of love, family and patriotism is especially distinguished. It is interesting that Tolkunova had a pronounced talent - a unique timbre of her voice, which almost exactly matched the sound of a flute.
Biography of the singer Valentin Tolkunov
The actress was born on July 12, 1946 in a family of railway workers. Moreover, several generations of the singer's relatives served in this work. Her homeland is the Belorechenskaya village. However, when the girl was not even 2 years old, her family moved to Moscow. Childhood was not easy. There was not much money, so at first they lived with the whole family in a barrack, until they were given a workers' house near the station.
It was her parents who instilled in the girl a love for music, as they constantly listened to records. Utyosov, Shulzhenko, Ruslanova - these and other masters sounded every day in the Tolkunovs' house. The girl knew the songs by heart from an early age and tried to perform them herself.
From the age of 10, Valentina participated in the choir at the Central House of Children of Railway Workers. Since childhood, the girl had no doubts about her future career. She knew from the very beginning that the artist is her vocation.
Valentina Tolkunova: The beginning of a creative path
It all started in 1964, when the girl entered the Moscow State Institute of Culture. While studying, she began to take an active part in the local orchestra - she worked here for about 5 years. By the way, after a few months, Valentina became a soloist. The main style is jazz instrumental compositions.
Personal and creative life merged together. In 1966, when the girl was 20 years old, she became the wife of the director of the orchestral association. At the same time, she had to switch to correspondence courses in order to participate in the choir's tours.
“It corresponds to the timbre of the flute,” Tolkunova described her voice in this way. She greatly appreciated her time in the choir. She said that it was a great opportunity not only to develop her skills, but also to participate in all the "facets" of work in a professional musical group.
In the early 1970s, the choir broke up and the girl began working with Ilya Kataev, a professional and experienced composer. By this time he was writing music for the film "Day by Day". The music was extraordinary. Here they used such non-standard performance techniques as vocalization, fugue. Therefore, Kataev was looking for a performer for such a recording for a long time. After meeting Tolkunova, he offered her the main vocal role on the record.
One of the main compositions of the film was the song "I'm standing at a half-station". Despite the fact that the song was quite simple, it became one of the most memorable in the singer's repertoire. With this song, the performer performed at the composer's concert. She was later invited to the competition (which was televised). Here the artist took 1st place.
On stage with the masters of the stage ...
From that moment on, Valentina Tolkunova began to sing songs for various films. In some films, she was even invited as an actress, however, only for episodic roles. In 1972, there was a new proposal from Lev Osharin - to sing at an anniversary concert in the House of Unions.
The performance with the song "Ah, Natasha" (author - V. Shainsky) was shown on television. As a result of this, the singer began to gain real fame. On the same evening, Muslim Magomayev, Lyudmila Zykina and other popular performers took the stage. To sing with them on the same stage meant for Valentina that she would become a professional performer, and new heights awaited her ahead.
After some time, an important incident for Tolkunova happened. Pavel Aedonitsky offered to sing the song "Silver Weddings" to Valentina. He originally wrote a composition for another singer who failed to come to the performance.
Tolkunova urgently learned the song and performed it superbly in front of the public. Enthusiastic people accompanied the singer with a standing ovation. As a result, the composition entered the performer's repertoire. It was this song that Valentina always considered the starting point in her career.
1973 was marked by participation in a number of different festivals and competitions. Among them is the famous "Song of the Year", as well as many famous television programs. All this meant that the singer became a real star. In the same year, Tolkunova became a soloist with the powerful creative association Moskontsert.
Continuation of career
Vladimir Migulya in the same year wrote a song for Lyudmila Zykina. He accidentally showed the composition “Talk to me, mom” to Valentina and was delighted with her performance. As a result, another song entered the singer's repertoire. On March 8, the song was for the first time in the rotation of the main radio of the Soviet Union. Immediately after that, thousands of letters began to come to the editorial office with a request to play this song again. Since then, the song has been aired almost daily throughout the year.
In the mid-1970s, a new stage began in Tolkunova's work. And he came thanks to his acquaintance with the composer David Ashkenazy. She worked with him for more than 15 years and called him her main mentor. One of the results of such cooperation was the song "The Gray-Eyed King", which uses the poems of Anna Akhmatova.
A year later, the singer managed to become part of the Olympic Games held in Canada. She became part of the creative team, which was aimed at supporting the athletes. A year later, Boris Yemelyanov (a famous composer) presented Valentina with the song “Snub Nosies” as a birthday present.
Soon the singer learned it and performed it at several concerts. The song became a hit, and the singer became a real star. In 1979, she received the title of Honored Artist. Then the singer began a series of first solo concerts with hits from past years.
Themes in Tolkunova's songs
The list of topics that the artist touched on in the songs has also expanded. Several composers wrote her songs on military-patriotic themes. These songs caused difficulties for the singer. It seemed to her that her voice was not enough for these songs to be somehow different from other compositions about the war.
"If there was no war" became one of the main songs in the singer's career. It was even included in the list of famous military songs of the 1990th century. This composition was included in the XNUMX album, which was dedicated to the theme of war.
Despite the fact that the theme of patriotism and war embraced the work of the singer in the 1980s, another theme stood out clearly. This is love, the fate of a woman in society and her personal experiences. In the songs of the singer there were many new heroines - in love and unhappy, happy and cheerful.
The performer demonstrated completely different characters thanks to her voice. At the same time, every woman that Tolkunova showed to the listener was waiting for her happiness - that's what distinguished creativity. Sadness and strong longing, mixed with faith and hope for a brighter future.
During the 1980s, Tolkunova successfully released new songs, traveled with concerts throughout the country and abroad. Since 1985, cooperation with Igor Krutoy began. In the 1990s, he recommended that she change her image in order to adapt to the "new trends", but she refused.
In 2010, the singer still continued to record new songs and perform at various concerts, including those dedicated to the Victory.
