Valentina Tolkunova

Valentina Tolkunova was called the soul of the Russian song and the crystal voice of the Soviet stage. It is interesting that the stage image of the artist (long hair, aristocratic posture, maxi dress and a minimal set of cosmetics and jewelry) persisted throughout her long career.

Valentina was born in the city of Armavir, Krasnodar Territory, but for the first year and a half she lived in the village of Belorechenskaya. Tolkunova's father, Vasily Andreevich, a military railway worker, served there. Mom Evgenia Nikolaevna worked at the railway station. The family came from Transbaikalia, although the father was from the Saratov region. Three years after the birth of Vali, a younger brother, Sergei, appeared, who also became a singer, Honored Artist of Russia.

In 1948, the Tolkunov family moved to Moscow. Valentina grew up not only in a friendly and loving family, but also surrounded by good vocal music. Records of Leonid Utesov, Klavdia Shulzhenko, Petr Leshchenko were constantly played in the house. And Valya learned their songs and sang along with her favorite performers.

In 1956, the girl was accepted into the choir of the Central House of Railway Workers' Children. The collective was managed by Semyon Osipovich Dunaevsky, and the girl's teacher was Tatyana Nikolaevna Ovchinnikova, who helped the future singer to master the basics of musical literacy and learn the secrets of vocal skill.

After school, the girl entered the conductor-choral department of the Moscow State Institute of Culture, and then graduated from the legendary Gnesinka. Valentina Tolkunova's first ensemble was the VIO-66 vocal and instrumental orchestra, led by Yuri Saulsky, the future husband of the artist. There, the young singer performed songs to jazz music, and later began a solo career.

The star start for the creative biography of the young artist was the performance of songs based on poems by Mikhail Ancharov and music by Ilya Kataev for the musical accompaniment of the film "Day by Day". After the release of the film on the screens, the song performed by Valentina Tolkunova “I’m Standing at a Half-Station” was sung by the whole country. The singer instantly became famous, and the disc with musical compositions did not linger on the shelves of music stores. Later, at the Artloto competition, the young singer won the first prize with this hit.

Valentina Tolkunova's first solo performance took place in 1972 as part of Lev Oshanin's anniversary concert. The artist performed the composition of Vladimir Shainsky "Ah, Natasha", and since the concert was broadcast on television, the young singer was seen and heard by a million audience. Together with the aspiring artist, Maya Kristalinskaya, Muslim Magomayev, Lyudmila Zykina, Georg Ots appeared on the stage that evening. In the same place, Valentina Tolkunova first met with Claudia Shulzhenko, a singer whom the girl idolized since childhood.

Soon, the artist's repertoire was replenished with musical compositions by Eduard Kolmanovsky, Mikael Tariverdiev, Oskar Feltsman, Mark Minkov. And already since 1973, Tolkunova regularly became a participant in the Song of the Year television competition. The singer's melodic tender voice made her a truly national artist. Sacks of letters from viewers came to television with requests to see the performance of their favorite singer again.

Valentina began to appear in the programs "Morning Mail", "Blue Light", as well as at creative evenings of prominent composers from the Column Hall of the House of Unions.

The second wave of fame overtook Tolkunova after the premiere of Vladimir Miguli's song "Talk to Me, Mom" ​​on the All-Union Radio. The composer wrote it for Lyudmila Zykina, but when he heard the composition performed by Tolkunova, he changed his mind.

The highlight of Tolkunova was that the artist always sang about people and for people, in the repertoire there were virtually no Soviet slogans and socio-political overtones, which was a rarity for that time. For Valentina, each song is someone's fate, someone's life story.

In 1975, the fateful meeting of Tolkunova and her stage partner - instrumentalist, composer David Ashkenazi took place. Colleagues have worked together for 18 years. The jointly performed hit was the song "The Gray-Eyed King" to the music of Alexander Vertinsky and lyrics by Anna Akhmatova.

The songs "I can't do otherwise", "Silver weddings", "An evening of school friends" were very popular. Also, the voice of Tolkunova sounded in the soundtracks of famous films and cartoons. For example, in the cartoon "Winter in Prostokvashino" the singer performed the song "If there was no winter", and in the melodrama "Romance of Lovers" - "Lullaby", in the comedy "Bride from the North" - "White Pushinka".

And, of course, one cannot fail to mention the children's song "Tired toys are sleeping", which became the screensaver of the evening program "Good night, kids!", On which more than one generation of children was brought up. Another children's song by Tolkunova - "Snub-noses" - especially loved by fans of the singer's talent.

In 1979, Valentina Tolkunova gave her first solo concert. Creative evenings consisted of popular and folk songs, but more and more often the singer began to pay attention to musical compositions about the Great Patriotic War, the first of which was “If there were no war”. For 10 years, the artist's repertoire included 22 songs about military action, which Tolkunova released as a separate disc.

Tolkunova's talent demanded new forms, and in 1986 from the pen of Ilya Kataev came the opera "Russian Women", which was created with the expectation of being performed by Tolkunova. The premiere of the opera took place in the Rossiya Concert Hall. In the same year, the artist made her debut in the full-length musical film "I Believe in the Rainbow" directed by Vitaly Fetisov.

A year later, the singer organized the Moscow Theater of Musical Drama and Song, the performances of which "Splashes of Champagne", "Expectation", "How to Be Happy" enjoyed special love of the audience. The last concert performance was the solo musical program “Today I will break my vows of silence”, which appeared on the stage of the theater in 2010.

In the 2000s, Tolkunova's repertoire was replenished mainly with spiritual songs - "My Angel", "Christmas Night", "Save and Save", "Prayer". Thanks to the album “My Invented Man”, which includes songs by the author Vasily Popov, Valentina Tolkunova received an award from the international charitable foundation “Russian Culture”.

In the first ensemble, Valentina Tolkunova met the composer and conductor Yuri Saulsky, who became her first husband, but this marriage lasted only 6 years. A big difference in age affected, because the singer at the time of the wedding was only 19 years old, and the spouse was 37.

Three years after Tolkunov's divorce, at a social evening at the Mexican embassy, ​​she met the elegant international journalist Yuri Paporov. The novel developed rapidly, and after a couple of months the lovers became husband and wife. Soon, a son, Nikolai, was born, the only child of the People's Artist. But Valentina's female happiness did not work out in her second marriage either. Yuri Paporov traveled abroad on business trips, and at one period was absent from home for 10 years.

According to the former director of the singer Nikolai Basin, Valentina had another romantic page in her personal life associated with the name of physicist Vladimir Baranov. Valentina called this man “a husband from God,” but neither he nor she dared to leave the family. With Yuri Paporov, the woman lived until the last days of her life, and the husband survived his wife only by a month and a half.

Valentina Tolkunova always reached out to church, and later became a church. The singer even bought a house near the monastery in order to be able to devote more time to church services and prayers. In addition, the artist financially helped the restoration of churches by giving charity concerts.

Back in 1992, Valentina Tolkunova was diagnosed with breast cancer. After surgery and a course of chemotherapy, the disease receded, but after 16 years it returned. And later, the singer was additionally diagnosed with a brain tumor. Valentina Vasilievna refused to go under the knife again and continued to tour.

The singer gave her last concert on February 16, 2010 in Mogilev, after which the woman was hospitalized. Since then, Tolkunova was in the hospital, but the help of doctors was already powerless. On March 22, the singer fell into a coma and passed away a few hours later. Metastases caused the death of the artist.

The singer was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery, where relatives and fans are now coming. On the grave next to the sculptural statue there is a portrait photo of the singer.

1972 - "I'm standing at a halt" 1974 - "The Year of Love" 1976 - "The showers of haymaking have already rang out" 1980 - "By the New Year tree" 1981 - "If there were no war" 1986 - "A Conversation with a Woman" 1995 - "I Can't otherwise "1997 -" I am a village "2002 -" My invented man "2011 -" How to be happy "

Valentina Tolkunova 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Valentina Tolkunova in 2020 ?

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2021

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.2M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $583.8K - $1.5M.

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2020

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.7M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $774.8K - $1.2M.

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2019

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.8M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $894.5K - $1.6M.

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2018

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.5M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $945.3K - $1.9M.

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2017

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.9M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $703.4K - $1.6M.

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2016

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.4M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $890.2K - $1.1M.

Valentina Tolkunova Net Worth 2015

Valentina Tolkunova 's revenue is $1.6M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Valentina Tolkunova and could vary in the range between $758.9K - $1.4M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Valentina Tolkunova. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Valentina Tolkunova makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Valentina Tolkunova's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.