RUSSIA/FILE: Popular Soviet singer Eduard Khil, who became a recent Internet sensation known as 'Mr.Trololo', dies in St. Petersburg aged 77 following a stroke

Record ID: 864917

  • Title: RUSSIA/FILE: Popular Soviet singer Eduard Khil, who became a recent Internet sensation known as 'Mr.Trololo', dies in St. Petersburg aged 77 following a stroke
  • Date: 4th June 2012
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - MARCH 19, 2010) (REUTERS) CLOSE ON WEBSITE, ' YOUTUBE ' TYPED YOUTUBE WEBSITE SHOWING MANY CLIPS FEATURING EDWARD KHIL , CURSOR CLICKS ON ONE AND BRINGS UP START OF CLIP, SEEN WITHIN YOUTUBE WEBSITE
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • City:
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVA1XP3FK3MP65J9LEHNC1OCJZE8
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A Soviet pop singer, who reached world fame in 2010, when his clip of a 1976 song went viral becoming the latest Internet craze, died on Monday (June 4) in a St. Petersburg hospital.
    Nearly two million people have watched a clip uploaded on Internet, in which Khil, a famous Soviet-era baritone, performed a simple, merry, repetitive melody without words while grimacing and gesturing dramatically. He earned the nickname "Trololo man" because of the repetitive vocals in his song.
    "Trololo-man"? OK, let it be so. How would they know in America who Eduard Khil is? They nicknamed me 'Trololo', well, may be now I should take a stage name 'Mr.Trololo'," Khil told Reuters in a 2010 interview.
    The "vocalization" or wordless song, which became an unlikely Internet hit in 2010 was originally composed by Arkady Ostrovsky with words.
    The handsome baritone Khil was one of the most popular singers in Soviet times. Older generations knew many of his songs by heart, which could be heard on radio and television daily. But not many people abroad knew about him, though he had toured Europe and the United States in the 1980s, performing mainly for the Russian immigrant community. Khil's fame and singing career faded in the early 1990s.
    That all changed in 2010 when the original clip went viral and spawned parodies of the song--including one by Academy Award-winning actor Christoph Waltz--and thousands of newly-acquired Khil fans around the globe, who urged the singer to go on a worldwide concert tour with his revived hit.
    Khil who was 77, died of complications from a stroke.
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