Nina Brodskaya – January Storm
Finding or meeting love (с любовью встретиться) is a difficult problem (проблема трудная). The planet spins round and round (планета вертится круглая, круглая) and flies into the distance (летит вдаль) through the clamor of days (сквозь суматоху дней).
Not easy (нелегко), not easy to love on this planet (нелегко полюбить на ней).
Passing Each Other By
January’s snowstorm rings (звенит январская вьюга) and the rain lashes down hard (и ливни хлещут упруго). Stars race in circles (звёзды мчатся по кругу) and the city noise (шумят города).
People don’t see each other (не видят люди друг друга), pass by one another (проходят мимо друг друга). They lose each other (теряют люди друг друга) and never find each other again (а потом не найдут никогда).
Time Travel
From the film Иван Васильевич меняет профессию (Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession, also known as Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future, 1973). In the movie, Natalya Seleznyova (= Наталья Селезнёва, 1945, portrait/bio here and here) acts as if she’s singing, but the real voice belongs to Nina Brodskaya (= Нина Бродская, 1947, portrait/bio here and here). See «Звенит январская вьюга» и «Бу-ра-ти-но!» Почему исполнительница этих песен эмигрировала в США (tyt.by, 2020).
The actress in the photo is Natalya Kustinskaya (= Наталья Кустинская, 1938-2012, portrait/bio here and here). See What happened to “the Russian Brigitte Bardot” Natalya Kustinskaya (RG.ru, 2015).
Music by
Aleksandr Zatsepin (=
Александр Зацепин, 1926).
Lyrics by
Leonid Derbenyov (=
Леонид Дербенёв, 1931-1995).
More about the
film on
IMDb and
Russian Film Hub.
Clips and Versions
Lyric video and (also quite a time-travel) a TV performance from 1977. Film version on YouTube.
Performances by Nina Bogdanov, Ekaterina Guseva, Sofia Rotaru, and Longa. Zhanna and Vera also provide lyrics. A fun version by Priklyucheniya Elektronikov (2006).
Vanilla Sky
Zvenit Yanvarskaya Vyuga: Italians singing in Russian with Vanilla Sky. The проходят turned into something halfway between Italian and Russian.
English and Instrumental
In the last two, there’s no Russian left. An English version by Even Blurry Videos (2020). Instrumental метал кавер (metal cover) by Vladimir Zelentsov (2021).
Most of the music here is also available in an
R1 playlist on YouTube (in the order of posting).
Also see
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.
