Olga Voronets: biography and the creative path of the famous Soviet and Russian pop singer

Today we would like to get acquainted with the real living legend of the Soviet, and then Russian, stage Olga Voronets. We offer to understand the details of the personal life and career of the famous singer.

Olga Voronets: biography

The future People's Artist of the USSR and Russia was born on February 12, 1926 in the Russian city of Smolensk. Her parents were professional musicians: mother - pianist, and father - an opera singer. Voronets Olga Borisovna comes from a noble family - her grandmother from the kind of ruined Smolensk nobility. When the girl was only three years old, her parents decided to divorce. Olga stayed with her mother, but her father was always very warm and friendly. Since childhood Voronets has shown musical abilities, loved to sing and dreamed of becoming a dramatic actress. However, this dream did not come true: the first invitation to the role in the movie, she was already a sixty-year-old woman. Andrei Konchalovsky invited her to play a rural resident. But Olga Voronets rejected the invitation.

The first steps in the musical career

After finishing school in 1943, Olga entered VGIK (Vasily Vanin's workshop). After some time, she was transferred to the stage department at the Opera Studio in Sokolniki. The concert debut of the future star of the Soviet stage took place in 1947. These were performances on the stage of the Central Militia House. Then Voronets became a member of the vocal group of the Orchestra of Folk Instruments, which was part of the Moscow Regional Philharmonic.

Continuation of career

In 1956, Olga Voronets became a soloist of the Mosestrada. The singer's success was promoted both by the voice of the widest range and by the rich thoracic mezzo-soprano and by the characteristic appearance. At that time her repertoire included exceptionally light pop songs, the authors of which were Soviet composers. And Voronets herself was far from folk art. During one of the concerts, a significant acquaintance of Olga with a trio of bayanists took place in Popkov, Kuznetsov and Danilov. The men began to persuade the singer to try herself and in the Russian folk song. Voronets was interested in this experiment. So, in 1956, in the framework of the International Folklore Festival, held in France, she sang the Russian folk song "Kalinka". Number Voronets was so huge success that since then it was often called only as Olga Kalinka. Thus, the singer has received not only Soviet, but also world recognition.

On top of success

Great popularity in the early sixties of the last century found a song performed by Olga under the title "White Snow" by composer Gregory Ponomarenko. The singer was often invited to perform both on radio and on television. In 1971, Voronets was in the final of the most prestigious festival "Song of the Year". The song "Why do you, the beautiful girls love" by Eugenia Ptichkina and Igor Shaferan fulfilled her song then became a real hit, and also a kind of visiting card of Olga. After this success, the singer repeatedly appeared in the finale of "The Song of the Year". So, in 1973 the whole country was delighted with the song "Adult daughters" by Olga Voronets. In the same year, two more works of the popular singer - "Blossom, the Land of Spring" and "Look in the Blue Lakes" (from the movie called "Shadows disappear at noon") were also brought to the finals. In 1975, the final of the festival was Olga's song "Sweet Berry", in 1977 - "Quiet Cities", and in 1978 - "Dedication" and "Love came." At this time, the peak of the Voronets career falls. Such well-known composers as Feltsman, Ponomarenko, Ptichkin, Tulikov, Muradeli, Gorodovskaya, Saulsky and others composed songs specially for Olga.

Additional information about the singer's career

For a long time, Olga Voronets actively collaborated with the Russian People's Orchestra named after Osipov. The singer toured extensively both through the territory of the Soviet Union (including twice she performed in Kamchatka and six times at the Baikal-Amur Mainline) and abroad (she visited all the states of the socialist regime, as well as in Holland, Denmark, Japan, the United States and On the island of Mauritius). In her hometown of Smolensk, Olga Voronets has for many years been the chairman of the jury of the folk song contest entitled "Voices of Russia".

The personal life of the singer

Olga Voronets, whose biography is rich in various events, was married twice. The first her husband was the accordionist Raphael Babkov. Their marriage lasted 14 years, after which the couple divorced. The second time, Olga married Vladimir Sokolov. Their marriage lasted 30 years until his death in 2012. Voronets does not have any children.

As for the other members of the family, Olga has two brothers. One lives in Moscow, he is an electronics engineer. Another brother (mother of Voronets and her stepfather) lives in Smolensk.

Today the singer is 88 years old. In 2010, she suffered a stroke, and two years later she accidentally fell down the stairs and broke the neck of her hip. Since then, it has become difficult for Olga Voronets to move independently.