Валерий Залкин

Composer, lyricist, singer and arranger. Valery Zalkin is a performer from Ukraine, who became famous thanks to the hits "Одинокая ветка сирени" ("Lonely branch of lilac"), "Осень" ("Autumn"). A beautiful voice, a special manner of performance, a sought–after theme - the singer's popularity was based on these three whales. His creative career was short-lived, but in a few years the singer managed to give listeners some wonderful songs. Childhood and youth : The exact place of birth of Valery Zalkin is unknown. There was an entry in his passport – Kadiyivka, Ukraine. It is unclear what kind of Kadievka the passport office employee had in mind. The fact is that in Ukraine until 1978 there were two Kadiyivka, one of them was located in the Luhansk region, in the late 70s it was renamed the city of Stakhanov. There is a village of Kadiyivka, which can still be found on the map of the Khmelnytskyi region. At the same time, some biographers claim that the birthplace of Zalkin was the city of Donetsk. Reliable information about the place of his birth, parents, is now impossible to find. The beginning of a musical career : It is also unknown in which locality Zalkin's childhood and youth passed. He himself counted out his creative biography from Kharkov, where he arrived in the early 80s of the XX century. A talented young man independently learned to play the piano, and became the founder of a musical youth collective. All this happened in the factory dispensary, where a company of young workers gathered to improve their health. The musicians gave their group a non–standard name - "Scoundrels". The band began to perform concerts in the surrounding villages. One day a real tragedy happened to their vocalist, he broke his voice. Valery replaced the soloist, and from that time on he began to perform all the compositions from the repertoire of the collective. The group "Scoundrels" did not last long, but when it broke up, Zalkin was not left without a job. He was immediately called to VIA Madrigal, which performed classical music. In the Kharkov collective Zalkin worked as a bass guitarist. Stages of musical career : Almost ten years have passed like this, and all these years Valery Zalkin has been harboring a dream of developing his own, individual creativity. He was no longer satisfied with working in VIA. Valery went his own special way. He rented rooms in various cultural houses for rehearsals with invited musicians according to his own repertoire. Zalkin paid off with the organizations that owned the Houses of Culture in a special way - he prepared programs for them that were offered by landlords. Valery Zalkin at the concert : Zalkin's songs, recorded on tape, were distributed by the local company "Posad" throughout Ukraine. In 1996, the employees of the Moscow firm "Master Sound Records" got acquainted with Valery's compositions and immediately offered him a lucrative contract. In the summer of 1997, Zalkin's first record was released. Music lovers immediately remembered and loved the songs of this musician. Their special attitude was caused not only by the long, shrill, pitiful vocals, but also by sensual melodies. Zalkin's song "Autumn" immediately became a hit. The compositions "Lonely branch of lilac", "Night Rain" were also very popular with music lovers of all ages. Valery performed soul-touching songs about unhappy love, and it always found a lively response from a multimillion army of listeners. For quite natural reasons, the popularity of his songs began to fall. For two years, the company "Master Sound Records" intensively engaged in the promotion of the artist, and then stopped investing money in this business. Zalkin himself continued to work at the plant until its closure. When the company stopped working, Valery left for Moscow. Continuation of a musical career : It was not easy to get a job in the capital. Zalkin worked on construction sites, then became a teacher of the children's vocal studio at the capital's House of Culture. The salary was meager, the musician had to earn extra money as a caretaker of a recording studio. Here he arbitrarily recorded "A Lonely branch of Lilac", after listening to which the studio director allowed Valery to work at night on recording the album. Valery Zalkin in the ensemble "Куклы Напрокат" ("Dolls for rent") : In 1999, Zalkin founded the teenage ensemble "Dolls for Rent". A talented team, which included several young girls, performed the songs of their leader. After participating in a music competition on TV-6, Zalkin's group gained extraordinary popularity. But Valery had many detractors, in the song "Tears were dripping ..." the channel's management saw the propaganda of pedophilia. He was summoned for questioning, audio and video materials were seized. With the help of lengthy explanations, Zalkin managed to prove his innocence. His team continued its work. The result of the activity of the musician and the group he created were three records: "Songs", "Tea-help out" , "Believed". The youth ensemble managed to give 24 concerts in Germany, was going on tour in Russian cities. But the leader, because of the tragic death of his mother, suddenly left the team, abandoned music forever, and left the capital. There were rumors that he, having distributed all the money to the poor, went to wander around Russia on foot.