Before his death, Eduard Khil confessed his love for the Israeli singer. Son of Eduard Khil: there were many strange circumstances in the death of his father Excerpts from the book

My mother then jokingly even called my father Trollemon... At the age of 78, Eduard Khil began to be invited even more often to give concerts in youth clubs - the new generation was eager to personally meet Mr. Trololo, whose song 45 years ago received 2 million views on the Internet all over the world. to the world. Glory in last time smiled at him - from virtual space. Not everyone can leave at the peak of popularity...

(Eduard Khil. Alder earring).

My father did not use a computer or the Internet, so he did not immediately understand why there was such interest in his person in 2010: they again began to invite him to appear on television, to do interviews for newspapers and magazines. My son Edik and I decided to enlighten our “Trololo”. The grandson ran into his grandfather’s kitchen: “While you’re peeling potatoes here, the Americans have made a parody of you!” Let’s go show you!”

In the popular animated series “Family Guy,” a waiter, based on Eduard Khil, serves beer while singing “Vocalise,” and all the bar’s visitors unanimously pick up the cheerful melody. In fact, the composition “I am very glad, because I am finally returning home,” written back in 1966, has always been liked by foreigners. Dad even joked at concerts in different countries: “And now I will sing a song that will be understandable in your language.” And in the process it turned out that the words there were only interjections, understandable to everyone: “Tro-lo-lo!” yes "Ho-ho-ho!"

In addition to the cartoon, we found several more videos where dad’s style was parodied. He laughed at how “the song goes around in circles because round earth"...And when we turned off the computer, I noticed: “I don’t understand where this Internet of yours is,” I pressed a button, and it’s not there!” And he returned to the kitchen to continue peeling potatoes.

Eduard Anatolyevich treated both fame and creative failures with irony: “To me, all this is like a mosquito bite - I am a child of war.” I only realized what he meant when I read my father's diaries.

Once my dad showed me a thick notebook and said with a thoughtful smile: “When I’m gone, maybe you can write a book from it.” I myself was still in school at the time, but I remembered his words. And last year I came across that diary... Dad kept notes all his life: individual leaves were even hidden among the notes. And I presented these diaries in my book of memoirs about Eduard Khil, which will be published soon.

...The general carriage was filled with crying children. Little Edik repeated to the beat of the wheels: “Ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma...” When the Germans approached Smolensk, he and all the pupils kindergarten evacuated. But no one told the parents where, these kids were orphaned at once. That's how dad got into Orphanage. First I ended up in Penza, then near Ufa. Hard times began - bombings, famine. My father remembered how one soldier turned over a tray of seeds that she was selling at

Grandma station - the children rushed to peck them like birds. (“I have never experienced greater happiness in my life!”) The guys ate everything they could get their hands on—roots, quinoa, berries... And when someone died, they themselves wrapped him in a sheet and buried him.

And, as expected, Edik had a hard time in the orphanage. For some reason, the teacher skeptically noted that the surname “Hil” is similar to the German one, and therefore: “You will play Hitler in school play! Dad, of course, was offended and refused. But he never refused to sing! Children from the orphanage came to the local hospital, where in thin voices they called on the dying cripples: “Get up, huge country!” It was there that he once and for all became imbued with compassion for people. So when my mother miraculously found him in 1943, the first question

Edika said: “Did you bring bread? Divide into 15 parts” - that’s how many guys were in their group. He remembered about others, although he himself already had dystrophy. The mother had to carry her son in her arms - he did not even have the strength to walk.

It happened that another journalist carefully looked at my father’s face and asked the question: “Eduard Anatolyevich, do you still have a mark on your nose from the war?” “And then! The bullets were whistling in front of him!” — Khil readily agreed. In fact, this was a trace from another childhood trauma: Edik had not yet reached the table when he reached for borscht and knocked over the hot pan on himself. Almost died from burns... But don’t disappoint the reporters!

— How did Eduard Anatolyevich get to Leningrad? After all, that’s where your parents met?

“Dad had a vivid imagination—he also drew beautifully. I compare: my son Edik, whom we named after his grandfather, is now 15 years old. And my father left Smolensk at this age and went to enter the Mukhinsky School. I wanted to become an artist. But he’s still just a child! Uncle Shura lived with him in Leningrad. He accepted his nephew, but when he heard that he needed to study for 7 years, he objected: “I won’t last you that long - go to a printing college!”

Judging by the concert programs that dad saved, in Leningrad he led an eventful cultural life: theater, opera, ballet... “I looked with all my eyes and ears and imagined myself in the place of a baritone, and sometimes even a bass,” said Eduard Anatolyevich about that period. At home, of course, I was already rehearsing - to Chaliapin's records. So after college

entered the preparatory department of the conservatory. Here he studied for two years and then was transferred to the first year of the Leningrad Conservatory without exams.

Shortly before this, he went to the Smolensk cemetery - he knew that there was a dilapidated chapel with an icon of the Blessed Xenia. “I asked Ksenyushka for admission, because the competition was huge. It turns out she responded,” said the father.

“Without love, there are no songs, no children,” Dad derived a formula for himself. And try to disagree with him: more than half a century on stage - and all these years next to his beloved wife!

In the opera Black Domino, dad played the role of the old Lord Elfort; a shaggy beard and bald head added to the student’s age. On the stage there is a ball where he shone future wife. The young ballerina Zoya Pravdina was given the task: to grab Gil by the ear and lead him around so that he would feel dizzy. “He took it, twisted it, and didn’t let go for the rest of his life,” Dad laughed later.

So my parents' first contact took place in opera studio, where conservatory students did their internship. Then they went on tour to Kursk, and in free time both ended up on the city beach. Mom sat on a pebble, turning her face to the sun and closing her eyes in pleasure. And she woke up from a kiss - it was dad who plucked up courage and pressed his lips to hers. As a decent girl, my mother immediately exclaimed: “What are you allowing yourself to do!” However, just six months later they got married.

Dad lived in a student dormitory, he was from a simple family - his mother was an accountant, he did not know his father and was raised by his stepfather. And Zoya turned out to be from a generation of St. Petersburg intellectuals: her mother’s grandfather was the manager of the Imperial Nikolaev Railway, and her father had his own theater studio. Before the revolution, my grandmother lived on an estate in Velsk, where they had servants, tutors, gardeners, nannies... “Bring me some ragged student,” she predicted to her daughter. And one day he comes home, and a student is sitting on the bed with a suitcase, the things in which are a towel and three books.

Mom remembers well how she picked up my father from the dormitory. In the boys' room there was a huge saucepan on the windowsill. I looked in: there was some kind of incomprehensible mess in it. There are cereals, potatoes, and peas... There is an aluminum spoon sticking out in the middle - you can’t turn it around. “Are you eating this?” “If you warm it up, it’s even delicious,” Edik became embarrassed.

The once family apartment on Stremyannaya Street had already turned into a communal apartment - after the war, my mother’s family had only two rooms left. My parents bought a bed frame to put the mattress on. There weren’t even legs - dad had to cut out the buns and nail them on. They rented a piano for practicing... But for the dear ones, it’s heaven in a communal apartment!

There was also no money for the wedding, so the parents signed up on December 1, 1958, then saved money for a month - and only went out for New Year. The registry office was an absurd sight: in the middle empty hall stood

a table on which lay three huge piles of papers - separately divorces, funerals and weddings. Suddenly a woman looked out from behind them: “Well, shall we sign? Whose last name do you want to take? Mom refused: “I won’t be Gil!” “And I won’t be Pravdin,” the father responded. Then the wise worker persuaded my mother to give in: “You are a woman... The family should go under the same last name - who will you register the children with later, have you thought?”

“You don’t understand how much we have grown together over 53 years—into one whole,” my mother tells me. That’s why he doesn’t give interviews - he simply can’t, only a year has passed since his father passed away.

Things have happened to my parents over so many years. Of course, they quarreled and argued, defending different points of view. But more often they joked, lovingly.

Dad knew how to do a lot in everyday life. And since my student days I even learned to cook well. Although he remained an entertainer in this matter: “Sit down, I’ll treat you different types horseradish” - he grew it and grated it himself. Or somehow he came up with “Turkey with El Bufrai sauce” - poured wine over it, rubbed it with secret ingredients, without which no “Elbufrai” would be possible... While tasting, my mother only praised: “Extraordinary!” After all, one must also be able to evaluate such creativity. Another woman might have been indignant: they say, he came up with something incomprehensible - eat it yourself!

When dad became the soloist of Lenconcert, endless tours began. Mom decided to leave ballet and heeded the advice of her elders: “If you want a family, stop doing your personal things and do something common.” And she began to act as an entertainer at her father’s concerts. As a ballerina, she even suggested dance steps to her husband... On tour, it is customary for artists to lead a riotous life; dad joked about this topic: “You will be my wife and mistress rolled into one.”

This way of putting the question, of course, didn’t really please my dad’s fans. Many dreamed of getting it at least for a while. Then all the pop fans gathered near Bolshoi Theater, at the entrance to the Cheese store - this name stuck to the party. At the first concert in Moscow, the dad was represented by Leonid Utesov himself, whom they met at one of the song competitions. Syrikhs decided to confuse young performer, and when Eduard Khil came out and sang, a cat was launched onto the stage after him. Dad sings and understands that all the public’s attention is now given to the tailed competitor. "Then I sat down to this

Mom tried not to show that she was dad’s wife - she pretended that they only had a working relationship. And if one fan called Khil “Dick”, another “Edulya”, a third “Edvardissimo”, then my mother could loudly say: “Eduard Anatolyevich!” As if putting the girls in their place: they say, don’t forget too much!

But is anything hidden from fans? Of course, they were jealous of mom and tried to separate them from dad. One day, after a performance, they crowded into his car: balloons, flowers, cheesecakes... They set off, dad looked around: but in the chaos he had forgotten his beloved wife!

It got to the point that dad somehow returned from a tour abroad, and his pale mother ran out to meet him: “Go into the bedroom and look at the window.” There is a neat round hole in the outer glass: they were aiming at the bed, but the bullet lodged in the frame... Before this, my mother received threatening letters... They called a policeman, but what can he do?

“The cast bullet is homemade, they are used to make it more difficult to identify the criminal. They shot from the roof of the transformer booth opposite the window, at first they trained on champagne corks...” - that’s all the results of the investigation.

— It seems that Edward Gil was quickly accepted into their ranks by pop luminaries...

— Rank people's artist Eduard Khil received only at the age of forty, but by this time his songs flowed from every open window in the Union. Dad sang a duet with Lyudmila Senchina, Alla Pugacheva, Edita Piekha, Maria Pakhomenko, Maya Kristalinskaya, Valentina Tolkunova... And Klavdiya Shulzhenko became, in a sense, his mentor... When Khil was still studying at the conservatory, Klavdiya Ivanovna gave a concert in their Opera House studios. Dad managed to arrange to watch the performance directly from the prompter's booth. “I didn’t see the audience - and it seemed that she was singing for me alone,” my father recalled. “And at some point she came so close that I reached out my hand and reverently touched the hem of her dress.” After a while, they already met on the same stage, and Eduard Anatolyevich greatly amused Shulzhenko with this story... But at that moment, the father realized the main thing for himself: “She didn’t sing so much

National fame came to my father after performing at international competition in Sopot in 1965. Since then, many venerable composers trusted him with their songs. In the early 70s, dad performed the hit “The ceiling is icy, the door is creaky...” And not a single “Blue Light” could do without Eduard Khil - the main indicator of the rating of a Soviet artist in those years.

It’s interesting that for another popular song, “How Steamships See Off,” my father himself came up with the chorus - on the train, while he was traveling to Moscow for recording. Composer Arkady Ostrovsky asked him: “There’s a gap between the verses, maybe you can add something of your own?” And dad said: “Water, water, water all around.” The author of the words, Vanshenkin, hearing such freedom, was at first indignant, but when he received his first fees and recognition from his colleagues, he quickly came to terms with it.

Also in Soviet time Dad set a kind of record in glorification different professions: he sang about pilots, and about sailors, and about lumberjacks... Some songs were written to order for a specific event - the anniversary of some plant... And they were never heard anywhere else. I recently found a disk with such rare music and played it for my father. He didn’t remember the melody, he hardly recognized himself in it, but the name of the song was typical of Soviet lyrics - “March of the Leningrad Crane Builders.”

I didn’t notice that dad suffered from star fever. He didn’t compete with anyone: “There’s enough room for everyone on stage!” An artist I know painted a portrait of him: his father is standing at the bureau, and he has such a lively smile... We decided to hang the picture in the living room. Dad said about this: “Do we have a cult of personality in our house? That I will, like Lenin, look from the wall..."

Dad could easily talk to any passerby. Or even exchange a few humorous phrases with the local homeless people, who also recognized Khil and always smiled at him. "Hello! How are you? What are you drinking, guys? - “Try it yourself!” - “I can’t - it’s work.” - “Well, it’s always like this...” By the way, Eduard Anatolyevich had another legend for journalists: they say, I don’t drink because alcohol harms my voice... But this is not about that now: he saw everyone as just people, even at government concerts in Khil was not at all worried about the Kremlin.

However the mighty of the world This required special treatment. Furtseva twice deprived her father of his salary because he did not accept her invitation to speak at the Palace of Congresses, and removed Khil from all broadcasts for a year.

Yuri Gagarin was very fond of Eduard Anatolyevich and once at a military concert he asked him to perform the song “How good it is to be a general.” The father sings and sees: people in uniform are leaving the hall - they took those verses personally. And then he was summoned to the Army Political Directorate: “You’re taking a year off from radio and television.” But no one forbade singing! Khil traveled around the country with concerts and did not feel deprived... Then at one reception he ran into Gagarin and told him how much trouble his request had caused. The cosmonaut stood up for his favorite performer and personally explained to the Political Directorate: “This song makes fun of Italian generals, not Russians.” And Eduard

Khil was rehabilitated. Brezhnev even came to the next concert, sang along all the way, and after the performance he said: “We need to reward Khil.” Dad told this story to Dmitry Medvedev when he presented him with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland - only in 2009 did the award find its hero.

Dad told how he was once forbidden to sing Bulat Okudzhava’s song “Take your overcoat, let’s go home”: they say, what does “let’s go home” mean? From the war? This is propaganda of desertion!

At home, dad also sang constantly, but in the mid-70s, an unusual silence suddenly settled in our apartment: Eduard Anatolyevich arrived from Yugoslavia with a sore throat, nodules formed on the ligaments - there was a lack of closure. And my father had to undergo an operation, after which he spent a long time recovering. He didn’t speak, didn’t sing, and didn’t even listen to music - after all, a singer’s “instrument” is mobilized with any melody. It was not clear how soon he would be able to go on stage... But he still smiled and explained himself to us with gestures. I was only 10 years old, and I couldn’t even imagine what was really going on in his soul.

“Life is striped: now you go to the fair, then back from the fair,” - this is how my father spoke philosophically about failures.

— During Soviet times, did foreign business trips improve your family’s financial situation?

- For Soviet man a one-time trip abroad was already happiness, and dad traveled almost the whole world. He talked about foreign tours and invariably exaggerated everything: “This is simply fantastic! Colossal! The steak was enormous! Huge! On a huge plate! This can never be eaten by one person!” Each time his stories acquired new details.

The flight attendants always had some imported items on board... And one day dad won five bottles of perfume on a bet. She and the composer Solovyov-Sedy flew to a festival in Brazil. And the subject of the dispute was precisely his companion. “You definitely know this man,” Gil said about him to the flight attendant. She didn’t believe it, and then dad sang his composition: “Not even a rustle can be heard in the garden...”

Dad usually went on tours abroad with a suitcase of his food:

soup in bags, canned food, a boiler... I saved my daily allowance - 2.5 dollars to buy gifts. He brought me foreign toys: figurines of Indians, cars on springs, which we didn’t have yet. The children were gossiping behind my back: “Dimka Khil has a whole cupboard of chewing gum at home!” Dad also took Russian souvenirs there - nesting dolls and small painted samovars. He even managed to exchange one of them for a good suit.

By the way, Eduard Anatolyevich often designed and sewed stage outfits for himself. And having arrived in Brazil, he became the first Soviet artist who moved away from a formal suit - it’s hot there, and he willfully put on light scene T-shirt. Of course, at first I received a reprimand from a party worker - but then it stuck.

Dad brought boots from Sweden and only at home noticed that both were on his left foot.

Six months later he returned to Stockholm, and the store not only exchanged his shoes, but also gave him shoes for his wife as compensation. And one of the musicians decided to save money - he bought white summer boots for $2, which instantly fell apart when walking... “It turned out that the boots were for the dead!” - the father burst into laughter. Of course, many things amazed him abroad: in Sweden he saw a man who had been released from prison on a week's vacation. And one day one of the musicians bought canned food with cats and dogs painted on it, and they all tasted it, noting that “here the animals are fed better than sometimes our people.” We even went to a striptease in Paris. The Russian group sat in the first row, and Khil hid behind a column and, pretending to be a KGB officer, barked from the darkness in an iron voice: “Russians, get out!” And he had fun watching how our people jumped up and ran around... Only the next day he admitted to the musicians that it was he who had played a prank on them. There was also a funny incident: “I saw two women fighting right in the middle of the street. I take a closer look: wow, the girls - huge heels, short skirts, disheveled hair... I come closer - and these are men!” — Khil described his meeting with transvestites.

In Colombia, he almost died untimely... The small plane with passengers began to shake - it began to lose altitude, the cabin was filled with smoke... They did not stand on ceremony with the passengers: the steward shouted that there was a fire in the tail. The nuns in the chairs next to their father began to pray loudly. It turned out that among the travelers there were two

French pilot: one rushed into the cockpit to bring the plane out of a dive, the other to the source of the fire... They say that at such moments your whole life flashes before your eyes. “The earth was approaching... And I had the feeling that I was watching adventure film", Dad said. On the way back, Eduard Anatolyevich accidentally met his rescuers at the Paris airport and took a photo with the French crew as a souvenir.

— There is a well-known story about how in the early 90s Eduard Khil went to work in Paris and was almost planning to emigrate there... Did you visit him there?

“Eduard Khil didn’t even have the thought of emigrating. At one time he was invited to both Australia and America to live and work - his father did not need this. A visa to France was only given for a couple of months. Dad went there several times. One summer, my mother and I decided to visit him... We were walking around the city: there was garbage everywhere... “Yes, if you come to Paris, you’ll go crazy!” - we look at each other. It turned out that our visit coincided with a garbage workers' strike. What about Versailles? Is it possible to compare it with Petrodvorets? It happens that a copy is better than the original. Mom went down to the subway: only Arabs. “Where are the chic French men in fashionable scarves?” - she asked her father. “And they’re all in cars!” - he explained.

Dad rented a studio apartment quite far from the center of Paris. It was strange for us that the bathroom, toilet, and kitchen all fit in one tiny room. "How in prison cell! - Mom clasped her hands. And my father sometimes returned here already in the morning: he worked at night, saved money on a taxi, and after the performance he walked through the whole city.

The popular emigrant restaurant “Rasputin” turned out to be made in the best traditions of the red light street: burgundy curtains, low ceilings... At the entrance, the face of a historical character seems to warn: “If you go in, you won’t come out!” There are cobwebs in the corners. Nevertheless known fact: Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Becaud, Mireille Mathieu and even Francois Mitterrand came there to listen to dad. By the way, my father said that Mireille Mathieu approached him and asked the question: “What are you doing here?” It’s one thing to see crowds of thousands, and quite another to sing while people eat. Mathieu could not understand why a world-famous artist was not so appreciated in his homeland.

And he failed to earn any fabulous fees in France. The owner of the restaurant, Elena Afanasyevna Martini, was disingenuous, as if she was not aware that she was hosting a legend. Soviet stage. “So you are in the Union famous singer? If I knew, I would pay you more,” she told dad when he was leaving.

In France, someone warned Eduard Khil that in just a week all Soviet money would turn into paper. And he and his mother had good savings in their savings books - they could buy a Zhiguli... Dad called us: “There will be a collapse, hurry up and buy anything, even nails!” But we didn’t believe him - we thought someone was playing a prank on him. And they lost everything... Another person would have raised such a cry that they did not listen to him. And dad just sighed sadly: “Eh, but I told you...”

I rarely saw my dad truly angry. I remember when I was a boy, I didn’t want to eat porridge - I sat and picked at the plate. Maybe my father remembered the hungry war years, but he suddenly shouted: “Are you going to eat or not?” - and slammed his fist on the pull-out shelf of the buffet so that it crumpled. I had to repair it later.

— In the last decade, Eduard Khil appeared on stage with you and your grandson - was he involved in educating the shift? You also wrote music for him as a composer - one might say, you opened a family business?

“Dad was on the road all the time, my parents left me with my grandmother. But musical abilities noticed in time... I started performing with my dad at the age of 10 - if you remember, there was such a song “Tic Tac Toe”, and my son

Edik went on stage with him at the age of 6 and sang “I want to become a captain.” Both Edik Jr. and I grew up in musical family. I sang purely and was sent to a boys' choir school. The same story repeated itself with his son - now Edik sings in the choir, plays the piano, and conducts serious works.

When my dad recorded my songs, sometimes I had to argue with him if our views on the manner of performance did not coincide. Sometimes he agreed, sometimes he did it his way. But if he got angry, he quickly walked away.

We didn't like to sing along to a soundtrack. But there were events where it was impossible otherwise. And so at one fair I go on stage, and a careless sound engineer puts on a recording not with my voice, but with my father’s... There is nowhere to go - I sing. At the same time, out of the corner of my eye

I see: the older and younger Ediki are dying of laughter near the stage. And once, for my dad, the Beatles were played as a soundtrack. They mixed up the recording... “Country of phonogram!” - he made a diagnosis in such cases.

And as for " family business“—you can now get more for one performance than for several concerts during the USSR. But we still made large acquisitions infrequently...

Dad loved to be in nature, at the dacha. He dreamed of his own plot for a long time. When I was little, every summer we rented a house on the Gulf of Finland, then my dad was given a state cottage to use. And here is also the paradox of that time: there was money, but my father was not allowed to buy a dacha. And when the government changed and they finally offered to buy that same cottage, we were already building our own dacha, in a real village.

Dad enthusiastically began planting trees, finding out what was crossed and how...

The villagers adored him. Dad playfully scared the little one, pretending to be Barmaley: the children ran away screaming. And then the same guys went for a walk with huge dog- and the father was already running away from them into the house: “What if he bites?” — was afraid of big dogs.

In a dilapidated hut across the street lived a woman with a sick son. Yura was already approaching forty, and he behaved like a child - a real holy fool. And no one took care of him: the dirty, overgrown guy hardly spoke - he just mumbled. But Eduard Anatolyevich felt sorry for him, and Yura felt it: when he saw him on the path, he ran to him with a wheelbarrow to bring his bags. One day dad brought this Yura to our site and said to mom: “Bring a basin of water, soap, scissors...” He washed him and cut his hair. “Take off your rubber boots!” - “Bo-bo!” - Yura shook his head. It turned out that the legs were worn down to wounds - so the father also disinfected them!

— It seems that Eduard Anatolyevich was always cheerful and cheerful. Did anything foretell trouble last June?

“The disease took him suddenly... No one could have imagined it - after all, Eduard Khil was gushing with energy. And as Mister Trololo, he was again invited to England, Brazil and other countries. Two days before the stroke, my father spoke with enthusiasm about the upcoming trip to Baden-Baden... Hope glimmered until the last.

...One day Khil forgot the words on stage, then Mark Bernes came up to him and advised: “If you don’t know what to sing, whistle.” And for a long time creative life Dad learned to whistle artistically... And in our village we have a lot of nightingales - they fly to the branches of a tall elm and sing. My father called that tree “a hotel for nightingales.” As soon as he heard their trills, he immediately picked it up, you couldn’t tell the difference... And a whole flock of nightingales flocked to his funeral. She sang for a long, long time.

source-http://7days.ru

Brezhnev even came to the next concert, sang along all the way, and after the performance he said: “We need to reward Khil.” Dad told this story to Dmitry Medvedev when he presented him with the Order of Merit for the Fatherland - only in 2009 did the award find its hero.

He didn’t speak, didn’t sing, and didn’t even listen to music - after all, a singer’s “instrument” is mobilized with any melody. It was not clear how soon he would be able to go on stage... But he still smiled and explained himself to us with gestures. I was only 10 years old, and I couldn’t even imagine what was really going on in his soul.

“Life is striped: now you go to the fair, then back from the fair,” - this is how my father spoke philosophically about failures.

- During Soviet times, did foreign business trips improve your family’s financial situation?

For a Soviet person, a one-time trip abroad was already happiness, and dad traveled almost the whole world.

He talked about foreign tours and invariably exaggerated everything: “This is just fantastic! Colossal! The steak was enormous! Huge! On a huge plate! This can never be eaten by one person!” Each time his stories acquired new details.

On tours abroad, dad usually went with a suitcase of his food: soup in bags, canned food, a boiler...

Photo: from the personal archive of D. Khil

I saved my daily allowance - 2.5 dollars to buy hotels. He brought me foreign toys: figurines of Indians, cars on springs, which we didn’t have yet. The children were gossiping behind my back: “Dimka Khil has a whole cupboard of chewing gum at home!” Dad also took Russian souvenirs there - nesting dolls and small painted samovars. He even managed to exchange one of them for a good suit.

By the way, Eduard Anatolyevich often designed and sewed stage outfits for himself. And when he arrived in Brazil, he became the first Soviet artist to move away from a formal suit - it was hot there, and he willfully put on a light T-shirt on stage. Of course, at first I received a reprimand from a party worker - but then it stuck.

Dad brought boots from Sweden and only at home noticed that both were on his left foot.

Divide into 15 parts” - that’s how many guys were in their group. He remembered about others, although he himself already had dystrophy. The mother had to carry her son in her arms - he did not even have the strength to walk.

It happened that another journalist carefully looked at my father’s face and asked the question: “Eduard Anatolyevich, do you still have a mark on your nose from the war?” “And then! The bullets were whistling in front of him!” - Khil readily agreed. In fact, this was a trace from another childhood trauma: Edik had not yet reached the table when he reached for borscht and knocked over the hot pan on himself. Almost died from burns... But don’t disappoint the reporters!

- How did Eduard Anatolyevich get to Leningrad? After all, that’s where your parents met?

Dad had a vivid imagination - he also drew beautifully. I compare: my son Edik, whom we named after his grandfather, is now 15 years old. And my father left Smolensk at this age and went to enter the Mukhinsky School. I wanted to become an artist. But he’s still just a child! Uncle Shura lived with him in Leningrad. He accepted his nephew, but when he heard that he needed to study for 7 years, he objected: “I won’t take you that long - go to a printing college!”

Judging by the concert programs that dad kept, in Leningrad he led a rich cultural life: theater, opera, ballet... “I looked with all my eyes and ears and imagined myself in the place of a baritone, and sometimes even a bass,” Eduard Anatolyevich said about that period . At home, of course, I was already rehearsing - to Chaliapin's records. So after technical school I entered the preparatory department of the conservatory.

Here he studied for two years and then was transferred to the first year of the Leningrad Conservatory without exams.

“Without love, there are no songs or children,” Dad derived a formula for himself. And try to disagree with him: more than half a century on stage - and all these years next to his beloved wife!

In the opera Black Domino, dad played the role of old Lord Elfort - the student's shaggy beard and bald head added to his age.

On stage is a ball where his future wife shone. The young ballerina Zoya Pravdina was given the task: to grab Gil by the ear and lead him around so that he would feel dizzy. “He took it, twisted it, and didn’t let go for the rest of his life,” Dad laughed later.

So my parents’ first contact took place in the opera studio, where conservatory students were practicing. Then they went on tour to Kursk, and in their free time they both ended up on the city beach. Mom sat on a pebble, turning her face to the sun and closing her eyes in pleasure. And she woke up from a kiss - it was dad who plucked up courage and pressed his lips to hers. As a decent girl, my mother immediately exclaimed: “What are you allowing yourself to do!” However, just six months later they got married.

Dad lived in a student dormitory, he was from a simple family - his mother was an accountant, he did not know his father and was raised by his stepfather. And Zoya turned out to be from a generation of St. Petersburg intellectuals: her mother’s grandfather was the manager of the Imperial Nikolaev Railway, and her dad had his own theater studio. Before the revolution, my grandmother lived on an estate in Velsk, where they had servants, tutors, gardeners, nannies... “Bring me some ragged student,” she predicted to her daughter. And one day he comes home, and a student is sitting on the bed with a suitcase, the things in which are a towel and three books.

There's an aluminum spoon sticking out in the middle - you can't turn it around. “Are you eating this?” “If you warm it up, it’s even delicious,” Edik was embarrassed.

The once family apartment on Stremyannaya Street had already turned into a communal apartment by that time - my mother’s family had only two rooms left after the war. My parents bought a bed frame to put the mattress on. There weren't even legs - dad had to cut out the buns and nail them on. They rented a piano for practicing... But for the dear ones, it’s heaven in a communal apartment!

There was also no money for the wedding, so the parents signed up on December 1, 1958, then saved money for a month - and only went out for the New Year. The registry office was an absurd sight: in the middle of the empty hall there was a table on which lay three huge piles of papers - separately divorces, funerals and weddings.

Their lives came together in their youth. Eduard Khil and Zoya Pravdina together passed the test of fame and oblivion, retaining not only their feelings, but an amazingly joyful perception of the world. They were always there: Mr. Trololo, known to the whole world, and his guardian angel, his endless happiness.

Romance of student tours

They met in student years. Eduard Khil studied at the conservatory and dreamed of becoming opera star. He sang in literally all performances. Zoya was a ballerina.

During a student tour in Petrozavodsk, young artists big company relaxing on the beach. Beautiful Zoya was flirtatiously doing gymnastics when someone literally flew up to her from behind, kissed her on the cheek and ran away to a safe distance. The young ballerina immediately jumped to her feet, shouting: “How dare you!” There were a lot of people around, she was indignant rather for them, not for herself. She honestly admitted to herself that this kiss was not at all unpleasant to her.

With his kiss, the young singer achieved the most important thing: he attracted the attention of a girl he liked.

Both of them remembered these tours with bright joy, long conversations, romance and the happiness of recognizing each other.

“He took it, twisted it and didn’t let go for the rest of his life.”

In the opera “Black Domino,” Gil played Lord Elfort, whom, according to the director’s idea, the fragile Zoya was supposed to firmly grab by the ear and spin him around. She didn’t get it right on her first try, but it turned out that she captivated him for the rest of his life.

They had been dating for several months when Zoya came to his dorm and simply said: “Let's go home!” He collected the most expensive things in his briefcase: sheet music, two towels and a can of condensed milk. So he crossed the threshold of his chosen one’s house. In 1958, Zoya and Edward became husband and wife.

Twist of fate

In 1960, Eduard graduated from the Conservatory and already began working at Lenconcert. He was going to perform serious opera roles, but Andrei Petrov invited him to sing several songs for the film “The Way to the Pier”. The film itself had not yet been released when the songs were already played. Gil did not plan to become pop singer but these songs did young musician famous, and the singer himself began to relate to pop singing a little different.

A creative union was formed: composer Andrei Petrov and singer Eduard Khil. Later, thanks to the composer, the singer will go to a song competition in Sopot, where he will become a laureate. In the Soviet Union, his fame as a pop star would be firmly established. Tours and long trips began.

Zoya Alexandrovna never thought that she sacrificed herself. She considered their meeting great luck and made a conscious decision to help her husband always and in everything.

Difficult 90s

At the zenith of fame, in the glare of the spotlight, neither Eduard Anatolyevich nor his wife could imagine: very little time would pass and the pop star would end up in Paris, where he would work as a singer in the famous Rasputin restaurant. He will sing at banquets to survive in those difficult times and feed his family. Charles Aznavour and Mireille Mathieu came especially to his performances.

In Paris, he saved on everything. I rented a cheap room in a Parisian hotel, walked an hour to work at a restaurant, bought potatoes and wings, because everything else was quite expensive. And in St. Petersburg they said that he emigrated and even attributed to him an affair with the owner of the restaurant.

Restaurant "Rasputin"

Zoya Alexandrovna knew exactly what was really happening. She also knew that their separation could not last forever. She was no stranger to difficulties, because during the heyday of Eduard Khil’s fame in her homeland, she repeatedly had to endure attacks from fans of the famous singer.

To Eduard Anatolyevich's colleagues, his wife seemed too strict, even harsh. In fact, she was a real guardian angel for him, protecting him from adversity. She created for him the atmosphere in which he could open up.

Triumphant revival

He lived in Paris for several years. Returning home, Eduard Anatolyevich became involved in the project of his son, who by that time had already graduated from the conservatory. Later to creative duo The grandson, Edward II, also joined in.

It was the grandson who discovered: the song, interpreted by Eduard Khil, takes first place in online music parades. It was a 1976 recording of Eduard Anatolyevich performing “Vocalise” by composer Ostrovsky. And again Gil instantly turned into Mr. Trololo, known to the whole world. His fan clubs were created abroad, and invitations to tour followed. But the greatest happiness for the singer was living and creating at home, next to dear people.

Eduard Anatolyevich left on June 4, 2012 after suffered a stroke. Zoya Anatolyevna now lives in order to affirm the memory of a very cheerful, joyful, honest and talented person. And she always feels his presence nearby.

Edward and Zoya Khil lived a long and happy life. We developed our own concept of happiness

Eduard Khil was a great friend " Komsomolskaya Pravda" We often called him for one reason or another and always heard a cheerful, cheerful voice on the phone. The artist lightened the mood with his jokes and jokes and told stories from his life. A little over two years ago he passed away. He did not live until his 78th birthday exactly three months.

There were many strange circumstances that came together in dad’s death, recalls his son Dmitry. - It’s not that dad foresaw or had a premonition of something, nothing like that happened. I may be exaggerating, but my father did several things that were out of character for him.

Strange circumstance No. 1

Shortly before Eduard Khil's illness, he was invited to Baden-Baden in the company of several other Russian artists. After the wordless vocalization “Trololo” became popular all over the world, the singer began to vying with invitations to go on tour. Khil categorically refused such offers - he avoided traveling on an airplane due to pressure changes harmful to his health. At the age of 75, a hypertensive crisis occurred. Doctors discovered a weak heart valve - a possible consequence of a hungry childhood. The artist refused the operation, but began to take the prescribed medication and canceled all flights, although the trips were very tempting, for example, to Tahiti. And he suddenly agreed to go to Baden-Baden. And the wife, who also opposed long-distance tours, supported her husband. They even bought a bow tie together for the performance.

Strange circumstance No. 2

Eduard Khil unexpectedly presented his wife with an antique lamp for her birthday. Son Dmitry said that his father had never made spontaneous purchases before. And then he gave me a gift, as if for the last time. Then he refused to take the very medicine prescribed by the doctor, which he should have taken for the rest of his life without interruption. Said, “I feel great.”

There were several more unusual actions that I don’t want to talk about,” says Dmitry Khil. - They line up in a certain logical chain.

It all ended with a severe stroke. The artist was bedridden, tied to IVs, unable to breathe on his own... He remained conscious, but did not speak. Sometimes the condition of such patients improves, but not in this case.

At some point, I very clearly felt that the point of no return had been passed,” the artist’s son admitted. - It’s hard to explain... Mom hoped until the last moment that he would open his eyes and say something.

VERSION

Many said that after the vocalization “Trololo” became super popular, Eduard Khil did not spare himself. He worked from morning until late at night. Concerts, corporate events, interviews - not every young person can withstand such a pace. So I overworked myself, and as a result I had a stroke.

“This is complete nonsense,” son Dmitry is sure. - He worked and continued to work. He was always often invited to corporate events, and he chose.

AND AT THIS TIME

“Everything is like with dad”

The artist’s son wrote a book about him.

There is already a park named after Eduard Khil in St. Petersburg. The singer loved to walk here. On the eightieth anniversary of his birth, a monument will be erected on the grave at the Smolensk cemetery: a heart with a portrait engraved on it. And his son Dmitry is preparing a book about his dad. It will include notes from Eduard Anatolyevich.

“Papa is the history of our country, our music, both Soviet and Russian,” says Dmitry. - His fame after “Trololo” reached worldwide proportions. But no amount of monuments, concerts, books or street names can bring a person back. Nothing has changed in our house, on purpose. We try to make everything as it was under dad.

Grandson Eduard Khil Jr. is very similar to his grandfather. On September 1, the guy started his senior year, is going to enter the conservatory, and is now studying at a music school. In any case, his life will be connected with music. Edik's good voice, knows his grandfather's songs by heart. And in his easy, humorous attitude towards life, the young man is very reminiscent of Eduard Khil Sr.

EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK

Opposite us, in the yard, lived a famous ballet dancer and the director of the Kirov Theater Georgievsky Mikhail Sergeevich with his wife Galina Dmitrievna. They were both already about seventy years old. But, despite his age, Georgievsky held on and looked very good. He was tall, lean, stately, and not some hunched old man.<...>

Dad always talked to him when they both walked the dogs. We had a big dog Gray, and Mikhail Sergeevich had a small dog Lisa.

Mikhail Sergeevich once, while walking, put in our Mailbox a postcard with poems addressed to dad. These were lines that Georgievsky composed in passing. I’m holding this postcard in my hands now, it’s a kind of greeting from the distant 80s. This is what is written by the hand of M. I. Georgievsky:

When the leaves fall from the poplar -

The oval window of Gil is visible.

We live opposite. Then you'll see

Then I look lovingly and tenderly.

Of course, these are outdated words,

But still true from time to time...

There is a good rumor about Khila -

They honor a good singer and person!

We should marry Gray and Lisa.

But this, alas, cannot be...

We probably need to remember the janitor Masha from the distant 80s. Masha was a small, short, village woman of some unknown age. She tied a colored scarf, put on her threadbare robe, quickly shuffled with a broom and picked up garbage into a huge iron dustpan. Masha lived on the first floor in the middle courtyard. She spoke funny, in a rustic way, but was kind in nature. Her duties included maintaining cleanliness not only in the yard, but also on our “back staircase”.

Why did I remember her? Because dad often stopped and talked to her on the street. He probably liked something so “folk” about her. And they both, each other - each in their own way - had fun in the conversation. And dad laughed heartily, and Masha smiled.

So, one day dad met that same Masha with a broom at the ready in the yard on the eve of his “ anniversary concert" She said hello and asked:

And they often say that there will be such a lover? FAQ is this?

Dad tried to explain that this was a special concert - a round date, a performance where there would be many artists. And Masha answers him and says:

I didn’t understand... what it was! But I’ll wash the stairs for you twice!

Dad loved this one funny story talk about the janitor. He laughed kindly every time he imitated Masha.

Dad had another female friend in the first yard who constantly amused him. Her name was Klara Zinovievna. She was already old, slightly overweight, and her health was already, one might say, far from ideal<...>She spoke with a characteristic “Odessa” accent, always very loudly, one might say, “barking.” Perhaps there was something wrong with her hearing - I can’t say.

Once I witnessed an anecdotal situation. One day dad was walking through our yard, people were walking around. Klara Zinovievna saw him and shouted in her loud voice, so much so that even on Rubinstein Street it was probably heard:

Edinka! Come here quickly! I'll tell you a new political joke! Only you - be quiet! Don't tell anyone...

And Klara Zinovievna loudly began to tell some joke to the whole yard!

Political joke! Can you imagine? In Soviet times, when dad was elected to people's deputies - what kind of jokes are there? political topics! He didn’t know where to go - there were people all around, everyone was looking at him, and Klara Zinovievna, one might say, was “yelling” to the whole yard. Probably, involuntarily, dad remembered his relatives, who, for their humor and love of jokes on political topics, once went to build the White Sea-Baltic Canal named after Stalin. But everything worked out, after all, it was already the 80s.

We moved into this house when things were a little different here. In the central courtyard there was a fountain that worked in the summer. Boys and girls frolicked and ran around him. The yard provided space for children to play and ride a bicycle. No cars for you. In the summer, the yards were empty - all the cars were in the country. Except that in the last yard there was one car parked broken down, apparently some kind of Muscovite. Confirmation of my words can be seen in one of my dad’s video clips. This is the song “Childhood Country” by Yakov Dubravin with lyrics by Igor Talkov, it was filmed in our yard in the early 80s...