Nadezhda Kadysheva – Wide River
Надежда Кадышева (1959), a cross between Dolly Parton and the Zangeres zonder Naam. See that photo on Wikipedia, English or Russian; more bio and portrait on 24 СМИ and Узнай всё. She hails from Tatarstan or Tatarstan, and was lucky enough to pose for a picture with Putin. Here, she sings about nights, likely with someone else.
Sleeper
Широка река, глубока река – the river is wide and deep.
Не доплыть тебе с того бережка – you can’t swim from that shore.
Flying won’t work either. She would do it (Полететь бы мне), but alas, there are no wings (да вот крыльев нет).
The chorus, irresistibly stirring despite herself, like in the best sentimental country ballads:
Постучалась в дом боль незваная,
Вот она, любовь окаянная,
Коротаем мы ночи длинные
Нелюбимые с нелюбимыми.
Uninvited pain knocked at the door,
Here it is, cursed love,
We while away the long nights,
Unloved with the unloved.
A visual spectacle: a 2016 edit by Татьяна Натяга.
DJ Timoha (2018) might have been better off leaving it alone. A fun attempt is the mix with 50 Cent (2014). There’s also a choir version (2018), a playback attempt for TV (2015), and a performance in traditional costume (2013).
Track on Spotify.
Most of the music here can also be found in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in order of posting).
Also check out
Best Russian Music and
Russian Song Lyrics.
More
Music
Anyone who wants to present Russian music cannot ignore Zemfira. Popular and mainstream – millions of records sold – but also distinctly idiosyncratic. The music is usually accessible (we categorize it under Pop), but the attitude is rock.
Raw Anti-Putin punk from
Nizhny Novgorod /
Нижний Новгород. Loosely based on ‘Maggie’ by The Exploited.
From the green city of
Zelenograd /
Зеленоград. Dreamy indie-folk with a melancholic undertone. Created by
Mikhail Rodionov (1992).
The alarm blares (Ревёт тревога), the road awaits (ждёт дорога). They are many (Их немало), we are few (нас немного). We are in an unjust world (Мы в несправедливом мире) tin wolves in the shooting range (Жестяные волки в тире).
The word offret is Swedish and means ‘sacrifice’; the band Offret is Russian and makes heavy music. The link between the word and the band: a
1986 film in Swedish by the Russian Andrei Tarkovsky.
A band from Saint Petersburg that makes a kind of post-punk/indie-pop. Not for long yet, so not much material yet. However, they already have a few very successful tracks with original music videos. До свиданья, дорогая is the
Russian title for the film
The Goodbye Girl (1977), but it has nothing to do with it.
