In Memoriam: Buranovskiye Babushki singer Natalya Pugacheva dies aged 83

A performance at the Eurovision Song Contest takes just three minutes. But it frequently represents months of work and years of dreaming. In the case of the Buranovskiye Babushki — the Russian choral group that melded folk and pop at ESC 2012 — the timeframe was much longer. All of its singers were elderly at the time they performed in Baku. But they brought a warmth and sincerity that few could match.

The cornerstone of it all was Natalya Pugacheva. You may not know her by name, but you’d know her by sight. She was the shortest singer of the group and the one who, during the bridge of “Party for Everybody”, carried a tray of baked goods, arms extended as if to nourish the world. She’s passed away aged 83.

Alexander Brechalov, the leader of the Russian federal region of Udmurtia, announced the sad news on Twitter on Saturday.

He wrote: “The national favourite, Pugacheva Natalia Yakovlevna, the soloist of Buranovsky Babushki, has passed away. My condolences to family and friends.”

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That the region’s head of government would announce the news suggests how central she was to the fabric of Udmurtia, a region west of the Ural Mountains. The group rose to prominence well before Eurovision by covering pop songs — from “Yesterday” to “Let It Be” to “Hotel California” — in their own unique way. Sure, their popularity stemmed partly from the fact they were grannies. But on some level it was also about inspiration — people living their best life and doing what they could with what they had. And these ladies had joy, humour and, above all else, warmth in spades.

At the Russian national final, they faced stiff competition from the iconic duo of Dima Bilan & Julia Volkova — singers with far bigger followings and far more wealth — and had to contend with a panel of sneering judges. No bother. The women sang “Party with Everybody” with conviction and glee. They seemed to push away their haters using their walking sticks.

Here’s how we reviewed the song ahead of Eurovision.

I love a good Susan Boyle moment—and the Buranovskiye Babushki gave me six of them during the Russian final. Re-watching the YouTube video, I can’t help but melt when I see the pure joy on the babushki’s faces as they dance (very slowly) and repeat “boom, boom” with smiles as wide as Siberia. The smug, almost scornful looks of the jury make the granny’s victory even sweeter. 

The song itself isn’t spectacular. I’m not going to be playing it at my daughter’s wedding. But I might just turn it up during the after party! Eurovision has never been about the best song. It’s about the best act. And this one comes with attitude, spunk, spirit, and the belief that you can keep on moving no matter what your age.

For Natalya the celebrity that came with Eurovision brought rewards that few can understand. Entering the public eye helped her find the grave of her father — a soldier who disappeared while fighting the Nazis in 1942. She was only six years old at the time. After the group’s selection to sing for Russia, volunteers got to work, eventually locating him in a mass grave in the village of Malaya Vereika in the Voronezh region.

“I sobbed,” she told reporters. “So many years, so many winters, I didn’t know.”

After making the connection, she wanted her mother, who had long since passed, to have closure too, if only in the spiritual sense. She took a handful of soil from her mother’s grave and mixed it with soil from her father’s so they could once again be together.