My Favorite 8 Russian Songs

Russian is definitely a difficult language to learn. Without any exceptions. Thanks to my Russian friends and ex-gfs, and since I lived in Moscow for around 5 years; managed to learn and speak the language pretty well. Besides a rich literary culture (Pushkin, Chekov, Tolstoy & Dosteovsky), Russian musical heritage is extremely rich as well – with lots of talented classical composers from the Romantic and post-Romantic Era. Perhaps the most famous of them was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s compositions – ballets, symphonies etc. are still considered to be some of the most intellectual and finest pieces ever written.

During the time I lived in Moscow, 2001-2005; Russia and Moscow in itself was going through a post-Communism shift to Modernization and Liberalization of Government policies and world views. Thus, a new crop of extremely talented Russian singers had come to the fore-front. Here’s a list of some of my most favorite Russian songs.

That’s me and my friend (who introduced me to Splin’s songs) going shopping in December 2004. It is day time and -30 degrees outside… been snowing for 5 days in a row 🙂

Warning: Some of the singers are exceptionally beautiful, so don’t go by their looks exclusively. Besides being extremely talented, most Russian women are intelligent, extremely hard-working, very sensitive to thoughts/words/actions, ‘quick to be take offense and hard to forget’ types. But deep down, they are most caring people on earth – which I have had the opportunity of coming across having lived and working so closely with so many different kinds of people from so many different cultures across the world.

Without further ado, here’s my favorite 8 Russian songs:

1. Valeriya (Валерия): Called ‘Russian Madonna’… extremely talented. One of my favorite singers of all time. She’s given so many superhits in her life, we will loose count 🙂

2. VIA Gra (Виа Гра): One of the most talented Russian pop groups. Mostly the girls are Ukrainian, but they live in Moscow, as far as I know. This is one of their biggest hits!

3. Alsou (Алсу): She has numerous hits both in Russian and in English. This is one of her early songs, and love it. The lyrics is so good. Romantic! Alsou is Tatarka, which means she’s from one of the former Republics in Russian Federation, but anyways, we love to consider her to be Russian. 🙂

4. Zhanna Friske (Жанна Фриске): One of the most popular pop singers in Russia today. Some of her older hits are superb as well. Extremely good listening early in the mornings 🙂

5. Serebro (Серебро): One of the best female rock groups to come out of Russia in modern times. This is one of their biggest hits; they sang this one in English as well. Excellent clip as well!

6. Valeriya & Stas Peha (duet song): Absolutely lovely duet by Valeriya & Stas Peha. One of their biggest hits in modern times. The lyrics of the song is extremely touching as well. 🙂

7. Splin (Сплин): This is definitely one of the best Russian rock bands of all time. Each and every word of the song given below is so touching, can’t say. One of my good Russian friends gave one of Splin’s CDs to listen to, and the first time I listened to this song, it absolutely blew my mind. Sung by one of the most talented Russian rock singers of all times, Aleksandr Vasilyev (Александр Васильев), this is Russian rock at one of its finest. Lyrics in English is given in the clip.

8. Valeriya again.Another excellent song.

Finally, this post is dedicated to someone very special. Someone whom I love, care about and miss every minute. Someone who doesn’t speak when she’s happy, but speaks up when she’s very angry with me! Someone special, my Russian zaika!)))