On December 1st, all eyes in Russia turned to Pesnya goda — the prestigious Song of the Year Festival. The glamorous event which signals the start of the holiday season went down with a bang inside Moscow’s Olympic Stadium — the glorious venue that was home to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Russia’s most popular and prominent pop stars worked the red carpet and the stage. And naturally that meant Eurovision powerhouse — the man himself — Philipp Kirkorov was on hand to pick up some hardware. He walked away with not one, but four awards for his work throughout the year 2018.
Among Eurovision fans, Mr. Kirkorov is perhaps best-known as the genius behind many of the most successful songs in recent years, including Ani Lorak’s “Shady Lady” for Ukraine, Dimitry Koldun’s “Work Your Magic” for Belarus, Moldova’s “My Lucky Day” and last but certainly not least, Sergey Lazarev and the slam dunk tune “You Are The Only One”. But he is also a very popular singer in his own right, and his songs have topped the Russian charts countless times before.
His latest single “Mood Color Blue” took home three awards. Playful, in-your-face and ultimately quite viral, the music video — and indeed the remix of the track, called “Mood Color Black” — can be seen as a tribute to young Russian rappers.
It may look a little odd to those who are not familiar to his flamboyant style. But you don’t mess with Kirkorov. Not for one minute. He has proved himself a force to be reckoned with and he has shown Russia and the world just that.
But Kirkorov didn’t stop at three awards for his singing. He also nabbed one more prize for his composition of the Russian version of “My Lucky Day”, which, as we all remember, gave Moldova its third top ten placing in Lisbon earlier this year. He’s a talented man and he has the awards to prove it, y’all!
The Song of the Year festival marked its 47th edition in Moscow last Saturday. It has established itself as one of Russia’s most beloved holiday traditions. Everyone who performs at the festival is considered a winner and is called so by the media, regardless of whether they bring home awards or not.
Former ESC stars including Alsou, Dima Bilan, Alla Pugacheva and most recently, Ani Lorak, have already had the honour. And for those who wonder why our ultimate crush, Sergey Lazarev, is not on that list, the reason is that he has been hosting the festival for the past 11 years alongside Lera Kudryatseva, a TV-presenter, actress and singer.
A star-studded night with a happy ending for Mr. Kirkorov? We think it’s in order to congratulate him on an amazing year.
That face tho…
What is Sergey doing with his right hand?
Wow!! From looking at those outfits it looks like this event has out-camped Eurovision if that’s actually possible.
“My Lucky Day” is fourth Top 10 entry for Moldova (after 2005, 2007 and 2017). Not to mention that they were 11th in both 2012 and 2013 and 12th in 2011. Half of their entries achieved left side of the scoreboard.
I bet people who watched his performance in ESC 1995 never would have guessed how mega famous he is
… he’s so weird what’s his appeal? maybe it’s a russian thing and i dont get it hahaha
Veteran singer-turned producer with a career spanning decades and still have public recall after all these years. Any longtime artist would probably kill to have that kind of recognition. 🙂
it,s not prestigious, nobody watches it and nobosy cares about it in Russia, it is just formality of 1 channel where they celebrate most awful russian pop