Ra Ra Ras Putin Lover of the Russian queen!

[topum]

So I am back in London. Yeah, the New Year is way bigger in Moldova than Christmas when it comes to non-church stuff from what I have seen (and drank).

One of the towns not far from the village where we were based in Moldova is getting ready for some serious New Year celebrations in their central square where their Christmas market is. None other than Boney M themselves will be on stage singing jingle bells to the people on the 31st around midnight (among the busy line up of more "regionally famous" bands and singers). I understand they are still wildly popular in the former Soviet Union (one of their leading dudes even died in St Petersburg I was told).

You see, the mayor of this town is a twenty-something Israeli billionaire (yeah I know) who is married to a Russian popstar (this is Moldova, baby!) ten years his senior and who is currently under a house arrest because of the ongoing investigation into the theft of one billion dollars of EU loans from the Moldovan banking system (for Moldova it is huge) in which he apparently was heavily involved and some very damning phone recordings have been released to support it.

So to cheer up the people in the town he reigns over (probably one of the poorest towns in Europe, the country is the poorest in Europe after all) he decided to throw a really good party for them. I kinda get it I have to say. Everything is so completely fucked and there is no hope for even a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel whatsoever that "fuck this, let's drink and party" is not a bad choice at this stage.

Here is the mayor's wife, Russian pop diva Jasmin with Putin for no reason really except that a little bit of Putin is a must for any conversation these days and everything in the world apparently is because of him so I thought he should be here as well (everything is more fun with Putin!).



And here is Jasmin with her husband who is the mayor and apparently a huge Boney M fan:



Yeah, fur and leopard print are mandatory there if you want to "make it".

And to top it off, let's hear the first lady of our provincial town sing, shall we?

Still has quite a bit to go to touch Carla Bruni but then this is not Paris either.

Comments

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Why thank you for the earworm I have now... LOL (from the Boney M song)

Yes, they were on tour a few years ago when the guy died in St. Petersburg. Apparently he hadn't felt well but did the concert anyway. A heart attack later in the evening if I remember right. They had changed some of the female singers over time but he was still the original one that did all the deep voices.

I have a connection to Putin as well. In the before time, he was with the KGB in Dresden. Nobody knew him at the time though. That was only found out later. He still speaks German.

[topum.livejournal.com]

Now everyone is making me regret I did not stay and just ask everyone fly over there for the New Year instead of coming back ).

Yes, I have heard that Putin speaks German and has always had a soft spot for Germany and the Germans and that played a part in his "special relationship" with Angela Merkel apparently which they enjoyed a while back and which is anything but gone now of course.

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's quite sad actually. Back in 1990 I really had hoped the world had come to its senses and the Cold War was over. And now there is a new one. How did it come to that?

She also still speaks Russian very well which we all had to learn in school. I think she even studied in Moscow or something.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I can't quite pin down why, but she makes me think '1980's Eurovision winner'.

[topum.livejournal.com]

Yes, except I don't think she would have stood a chance of winning it. Now, this is a studio recording where her voice went through countless machines to make it sound like it is (and it is still not much). I have heard her live concert recordings here and if someone singing like this asked me for advice, "don't give up your day job" would be my best take. Or find a billionaire husband, that would work too.

I was told though that she was a star before she married the guy and I got some respect for the girl who could not sing but made it in Russia's brutal show biz market on her own. But then I was told that she was married to a Russian billionaire before this Israeli one and that one paid for her to be made into a star in Moscow. Apparently this is a common thing in Russia, women who marry oligarchs often want to be singers and their husbands bankroll their "careers" and pay the best musicians to write songs for them, best directors to do their music videos and national TV channels, etc to show them 24/7. Most of these women have a horrible taste, can't sing at all and just want to do some weird panto in shiny miniskirts which makes them look like a cross between a clown and a 70s German porn star. This circus has a very bad impact on the music scene in Russia because the real raw young talent is held back to make way for these bored housewives and their awful swarowsky crystals encrusted crap. Young talented musicians cannot get airtime there.

[maadmike.livejournal.com]

"This circus has a very bad impact on the music scene in Russia"

Not this but the piracy, that the owner's rights are not protected.

[topum.livejournal.com]

You have to become at least somewhat known before you get to worry about piracy. And many volunteers from Russia we had here told me that young talent (which I have no doubt Russia of all countries must have a lot) cannot even get a shot at it because all the air time is bought up by the old "mafia" that wouldn't retire and these girls of the oligarchs and the producers with their "sexy" videos that look like they are from the 80s.
Piracy is a bitch but you can still make money via live concerts.

What they told me kinda made sense to me and perhaps could explain the absence of Russian bands and singers truly famous globally, which is strange given Russia's size and rich musical history and in stark contrast with the classical music scene where many Russians are true global stars.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Well maybe : I always found the choice of Eurovision winners fairly baffling! But yes, clearly overproduced to the point where her actual voice has vanished.

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe that you passed up the opportunity to hear Boney M (who?) in the Moldavian marketplace! :-)

I mean, just from reading your LJ, I am totally in love with Moldavia! :-)

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ybv4DOj-N0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otna9Pe3jWg

You won't believe it from watching these clips but it's a German band actually. Or at least the producer who put them together and composed the songs was.

[topum.livejournal.com]

I am hooked and full of regret that I didn't stay!

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

You didn't know them before? I thought you did since you quoted the Rasputin song.

Sound of my childhood in the Seventies ;) I'm old.

Check youtube, there may be more. These were just the first two I grabbed and I didn't want to spam. But yeah, I can see this being some kind of party! Maybe you can play the songs at your own party at home for your guests LOL

[topum.livejournal.com]

I am 29 and I heard the Rasputin song I think but I am not into music that much and I didn't really know who sang it. I think I heard about Boney M too. I googled them a bit after I was told about them performing in Moldova. Everyone in Moldova knows them. Everyone. Also when I came back home and told everyone here, all of them also knew them. They are now kicking my ass about coming back and not having them fly over there for the New Year instead for some surreal Boney M and Russian diva fuelled Moldovan New Year fun bankrolled by an Israeli billionaire from his prison cell ). My brother even wants us to fly there tomorrow, haha but he has had a couple of whiskeys by now ).

[dieastra.livejournal.com]

Well, who knows whether it would be worth it. They may only sing two songs at midnight or something? The rest of the concert of the Russian singer does not sound too appealing...

Maybe just catch a proper full concert somewhere else at another time? They're really busy touring it seems.

Well, I had a nice evening listening to long forgotten songs so thank you for that!

[maadmike.livejournal.com]

"Well, who knows whether it would be worth it. They may only sing two songs at midnight or something? The rest of the concert of the Russian singer does not sound too appealing..."

Absolutely!

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

I cannot believe that you passed up the opportunity to hear Boney M (who?) in the Moldavian marketplace! :-)

I mean, just from reading your LJ, I am totally in love with Moldavia! :-)

[topum.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't believe it but now everyone here is kicking my ass that I should have stayed and have them fly over there for the New Year instead of coming back.

[maadmike.livejournal.com]

Amazingly insightful overview. This Russian singer is a mediocre but she has several top hits. The corruption is.... yeah, tremendous everywhere and it is higher where the country is richer, doesn't it? The Putin...yeah, is a super star, everybody likes him even Borat Obama couldn't forget to remind him about himself before to become a history...
But it is interesting how the post Soviet countries are living for decades by themself and at the same time together with Russia... like in one boat, with one fate...

[topum.livejournal.com]

Moldovans are an unusual bunch. Culturally they are fully plugged in into both Romania and Russia. So they "get" everything Romanian and it is "ours" to them. And the same goes for the Russian stuff (they also view it as "ours"). However, Russia is something completely foreign for Romanians and Romania is something absolutely foreign for Russians I understand. So Moldovans are truly at the crossroads between the two and fully plugged in into both of these cultures (which themselves see each other as "foreign" though).

[maadmike.livejournal.com]

I can assure you this could be said about all post Soviet Union countries, seventy years together... is a long term.
And even before that was Russia and all these countries were part of it, like Finland... so we have many in common.

[topum.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. I guess all of these countries feel related to Russia but not all of them have their Romania like Moldovans do. They feel at home in both cultures (both of which are not actually their country's) which themselves consider each other foreign and this is unusual I think.

I don't think Finland feels that connected to Russia culturally these days though. I think they are way closer to us in Scandinavia than they are to you guys nowadays.

[maadmike.livejournal.com]

"I don't think so. I guess all of these countries feel related to Russia but not all of them have their Romania like Moldovans do."

I had ment that mostly all the countries of old Russia were somehow the parts of other empires like the Armenia, Bulgaria had an opportunity to became the part of Turkish empire. All the countries of our South had been in Turkish empire and they have the heritage of living together. Long before all the Russia was part of the Mongolian empire and some part were even in Polish empire.

"They feel at home in both cultures (both of which are not actually their country's) which themselves consider each other foreign and this is unusual I think."

In Russia everything at culture is extremely mixed. Russians could feel if we wish that we are part of any neiboring nation or any country...

"I think they are way closer to us in Scandinavia than they are to you guys nowadays."

I wasn't in Finland, so couldn't say but again Russia is seventh part of our planet lands, it is difficult even for me to associate myself with some part of it...

[topum.livejournal.com]

We will soon be blaming the extinction of dinosaurs on Putin. Apparently he already appoints US presidents and decides whether UK will stay in the EU or not apparently. This is getting a bit ridiculous.

[maadmike.livejournal.com]

It is more than strangely, I am reading constantly western news which are trying to show Putin as a dictator, as a lier but all they actually doing is making him more and more popular...

[meowmensteen]

Haha I was just listening to this earlier today:



I had no idea it was a cover and was thinking, "Hmmm...I didn't know topum was into Viking metal." when I read your subject line. Now that I think of it, it does make more sense as a song from the the 70's.

[topum.livejournal.com]

This is actually quite good ).

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

He is cute. =)

[topum.livejournal.com]

The billionaire mayor or Putin? )

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

Oh god, dear god not Putin! LOL The mayor. :-) Lucky girl.

[topum.livejournal.com]

And he is ten year younger then her and a billionaire. You will also be happy to know that he is a Jewish boy (she is a Jewish girl too). They have two young kids together and she also has a grown up 20 year old son from her first marriage (also to a billionaire, they seem to be her type haha).

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

Mazel tov to them then. She seems like the gold digger type of woman. :p

[topum.livejournal.com]

She prefers "lucky girl" I think, haha.

[undeadpeach.livejournal.com]

Lucky is putting things mildly. lol