Laskavyi Mai (may also be spelled as 'Laskavyy May', 'Laskavy May', 'Laskavy Mai', 'Laskaviy May'; russian: Ласковый май, lit=Tender May) is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

from

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

founded by Russian songwriter, composer and musician Sergei Kuznetsov. The group's best-known member was

Yuri Shatunov Yuriy Vasilevich Shatunov (russian: Юрий Васильевич Шатунов; September 6, 1973 – June 23, 2022) was a Russian singer, best known as being the frontman of the Russian 1980's band Laskoviy Mai (Ласковый май). ...

, who has subsequently gone on to some solo success. The group disbanded in 1992. Laskavyi Mai once had been called "the legends of the 80–90s". The band has made a comeback since 2009 as a new Russian band under some changed membership of Andrei Razin, Sergey Serkov, Andrei Kucherov, and Sergei Lenyuk.

Career

Laskavyi Mai was formed in the middle of the 1980s when Sergei Kuznetsov decided to create a group of musicians with orphan children from an orphanage in

Orenburg Orenburg (russian: Оренбу́рг, ), formerly known as Chkalov (1938–1957), is the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies on the Ural River, southeast of Moscow. Orenburg is also very close to the Kazakhstan-Russia bor ...

. The group's first album became legendary in the history of the Soviet pop. The style of the group is a mix of Western

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

pop music made on the

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

with plain lyrics and sung with a jazzy voice. The group

Vesyolye Rebyata Vesyolye Rebyata (russian: Весёлые Ребята, which means "''jolly fellows''") was a Soviet VIA (vocal instrumental ensemble) band formed in 1966, in Moscow. It became one of the most successful and best known VIA bands of all time. It ...

was a big rival, with their hit "Rozovye Rozy" (Pink Roses) being nearly as popular as Laskaviy May's "Belye Rozy" (White Roses).

Members

(Russian names in parentheses)

1986–1992 period

;Vocalists *

(Юрий Шатунов) (died 2022) * Andrei Razin (Андрей Разин) *Andrey Gurov (Андрей Гуров) *Anton Tokarev (Антон Токарев) *Viktor Kulikov (Виктор Куликов) *Vlada Moscovskaya (Влада Московская) (died 2006) *Oleg Krestovsky (Олег Крестовский) *

Konstantin Pakhomov Laskavyi Mai (may also be spelled as 'Laskavyy May', 'Laskavy May', 'Laskavy Mai', 'Laskaviy May'; russian: Ласковый май, lit=Tender May) is a Soviet boy band from Moscow founded by Russian songwriter, composer and musician Sergei K ...

(Константин Пахомов) *

Vladimir Shurochkin Vladimir Vyacheslavovich Shurochkin (russian: Владимир Вячеславович Шурочкин; born 12 April 1966) is a Russian singer, musician, one of the former lead singers of Laskovyi Mai (1989—1990). Father and producer of pop ...

(Владимир Шурочкин) *Rafael Isangulov (Рафаэль Исангулов) – also keyboardist *Yuri Barabash (Юрий Барабаш) (died 1996) *Yuri Gurov (Юрий Гуров) (died 2012) *ANNA DORENKO (АННА ДОРЕНКО) (died 2017) * ;Key staff *Sergei Kuznetsov (Сергей Кузнецов) — founder, lyricist, composer, arranger, keyboardist (died 2022) *Vladimir Boyko (Владимир Бойко) – musical director, composer *Alla Goltseva (Алла Гольцева) – lyricist (for Razin, Shatunov, Krestovskiy and other soloists) *Rashid Dayrabaev (Рашид Дайрабаев) – band's first director (died 2013) *Arkady Kudryashov (Аркадий Кудряшов) – band administrator *Anatoly Meshaev (Анатолий Мешаев) composer, arranger *Natalia Grozovskii (Наталья Грозовская) – vocal group "Белые розы" "Belye Rozi" (meaning "White Roses") – after a famous song by the band *Eugene Zakulaev (Евгений Закулаев) – deputy general director of the orphanage ;Musicians *Igor Anisimov (Игорь Анисимов) – main

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

of the first band (1986–1991) *Alexei Burda (Алексей Бурда) –

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s *Alexander Priko (Александр Прико) – keyboards (died 2020) *Evgeny Bychkov (Евгений Бычков) – keyboards *Sergei Kulagin (Сергей Кулагин) – keyboards *Arvid Yurgaytis (Арвид Юргайтис) – keyboards (died 2004) *Mikhail Sukhomlinov (Михаил Сухомлинов) – keyboards (died 1993) *Vyacheslav Ponomarev (Вячеслав Пономарёв) –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Igor Safiullin (Игорь Сафиуллин) –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

*Igor Igoshin (Игорь Игошин) –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

engineer (died 1992) *Sergei Lenyuk (Сергей Ленюк)- drums ;Technicians *Oleg Andreev (Олег Андреев) –

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

*Alexander Egunov (Александр Егунов) – sound engineer *Vladimir Hozyaenko (Владимир Хозяенко) – sound engineer *Pavel Tomov (Павел Томов) – sound engineer

2009 reformed band members

* Andrei Razin (Андрей Разин) *Sergei Serkov (Сергей Серков) *Andrei Kucherov (Андрей Кучеров) *Sergei Lenyuk (Сергей Ленюк)

Discography

* White Roses/Tender - 1 May (russian: Белые розы/Ласковый май — 1) (1988) * Autumn is slowly leaving/Tender - 2 May (russian: Медленно уходит осень/Ласковый май — 2) (1988) * A little about myself/Old Forest (russian: Немного о себе/Старый лес) (1988) * Broken Love (russian: Разбитая любовь) (1988) * 8 March (russian: 8 марта) (1989) * Pink Evening (russian: Розовый вечер) (1989) * On the roof (russian: На крыше) (1989) * Goodbye Baby (russian: Гудбай, беби) (1989) * Tender Summer (russian: Ласковое лето) (1989) * Fairy Shore (russian: Сказочный берег) (1989) * October Album (russian: Октябрьский альбом) (1989) * Stupid snowflakes (russian: Глупые снежинки) (1990) * Matryoshka Masha (russian: Машка-матрёшка) (1990) * Naughty girl (russian: Озорная девочка) (1990) * Come back (russian: Возвращайся) (1990) * Island for two (russian: Остров на двоих) (1990) * Close the door on me (russian: Закрой за мной дверь) (1991) * Chance Encounter/Younger Sister (russian: Случайная встреча/Младшая сестрёнка) (1992) * The Best (russian: Лучшее) (1996) * CPR (russian: Искусственное дыхание) (1996) * Legends #1 (russian: Легенды #1) (2000) * Legends #2 (russian: Легенды #2) (2000) * Legends #3 (russian: Легенды #3) (2000) * Star (russian: Звезда) (2007) * All hits (russian: Все хиты) (2008) * New songs (russian: Новые песни) (2016)

Feature film

In 2009, Russian film director Vladimir Vinogradov released his film titled ''Laskovyi Mai'', a biographical drama film about this band's career. ;Cast (in alphabetical order) *Vyacheslav Manucharov as Andrei Razin *Vasiliy Belokopytov as Nach. Okhrany *Dmitriy Blokhin as Chairman of the Kolkhoz *Danila Chvanov *Ekaterina Fedulova as Lilya *Raisa Konyukhova as Mariya Gorbacheva *Maksim Kostromykin as Maksim *Maksim Litovchenko as Sergei Kuznetsov *Viktoriya Matveyeva as Mother of Viti *Aleksandr Nekhoroshikh *Marina Oryol as Katenka *Sergei Romanovich *

Raisa Ryazanova Raisa Ivanovna Ryazanova (russian: Раиса Ивановна Рязанова; born 31 October 1944 in Petropavlovsk) is a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. She has performed in more than sixty films since 1969. She won the State Prize ...

as Direktrisa Detdoma *Petr Skvortsov as Kolya *Nikita Slepchenkov *Vladimir Steklov *Inga Strelkova-Oboldina *

Viktor Verzhbitsky Viktor Alexandrovich Verzhbitsky (russian: Виктор Александрович Вержбицкий) born 21 September 1959, in Tashkent, Soviet Union (now Uzbekistan) is an Uzbekistani-Russian film and stage actor. He is well known for playi ...

Lyudmila Zaytseva Lyudmila Vasilyevna Zaytseva (russian: Людмила Васильевна Зайцева; born 21 July 1946) is a Soviet and Russian film actress, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1989) and laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1983). Her movie ...

as Grandmother Andrei Razin

References

External links

IMDb.com: ''Laskoviy Mai'' film page
* * {{Authority control Soviet pop music groups Musical groups established in 1986 1986 establishments in the Soviet Union Russian boy bands