Viktor Tsoy

Viktor Tsoi is a phenomenon of Russian rock music. The leader of the Kino rock band, musician and film actor, he became the idol of the perestroika generation. The creative legacy that the singer left during his short life was repeatedly rethought by his contemporaries and subsequent generations of musicians.

The phenomenon that the Kino group represented in the post-Soviet space was unique: the problems raised in Tsoi's songs still continue to excite young minds.

Sometimes it is difficult to understand and explain why Viktor Tsoi deserved such total popular love. The voice of the people, the symbol of the era of Russian rock, the breath of change - such designations come in handy when remembering the name of the legendary musician.

Viktor Tsoi was born in the summer of 1962 into a Leningrad family of scientific and technical intelligentsia. The musician's father Robert Tsoi worked as an engineer, and his mother, a native Petersburg woman Valentina Vasilievna, taught physical education at school. Choi Son Dune (Russian name - Tsoi Maxim Maksimovich), Viktor Tsoi's paternal grandfather, was born in Korea. Despite his Korean roots, Victor was 184 cm tall (the generally accepted version).

From early childhood, the boy loved to draw, and his parents, in order to develop his talent, sent Victor to an art school, where he studied for three years. In high school, he could not please his parents with success, and the teachers did not see him as a learner capable of knowledge, paying attention to other children.

Already from the fifth grade, the circle of interests of the student changed dramatically in the direction of music. In the fifth grade, Tsoi got his first guitar, the boy enthusiastically begins to play music and even collects the first group "Chamber No. 6" with his comrades.

The teenager's passion for music was enormous: to buy a 12-string guitar, the student spent all the money that his parents left him when they went on vacation. For the remaining three rubles, Tsoi bought whites and ate them on an empty stomach. The result was predictable, and after that the musician made the only true conclusion for himself: never eat whites.

After the ninth grade, Viktor Tsoi decided to continue his studies at the Serov Leningrad Art School to become a graphic designer. But the passion for the visual arts quickly cooled down, since most of the young man's time was occupied by music. Choi was expelled from the second year for academic failure.

Victor went to work at the factory, and then got a job at the Art and Restoration Professional Lyceum No. 61, where he mastered the profession of woodcarver. The musician often carved Chinese netsuke figures from wood.

Nevertheless, all these vital interests were not the main goal for Victor. Music was always there, and over time he understood more and more that this is the only occupation to which he would like to devote his life.

At the end of 1981, Viktor Tsoi, together with Alexei Rybin and Oleg Valinsky, created a rock group called Garin and Hyperboloids, but a few months later they renamed the group to Kino and joined the famous Leningrad rock club in this composition. The newly minted team with the assistance of Boris Grebenshchikov and the musicians of his group "Aquarium" is recording the first album "45". The name of the album comes from the duration of the sound of his recordings.

The new creation became popular in the Leningrad apartment buildings. In a relaxed atmosphere, the audience of listeners closely communicated with the performers. Even then, Viktor Tsoi clearly spoke about his life principles, from which he did not intend to retreat.

The group recorded its next album, "The Head of Kamchatka" in honor of the name of the boiler house, where Viktor worked as a fireman, in 1984 with a new line-up: now, instead of Rybin and Valinsky, the group included guitarist Yuri Kasparyan, bassist Alexander Titov, and sat at the drum set Gustav (Georgy Guryanov). In the same year, the Kino group was a laureate at the second Leningrad rock festival, becoming a real sensation for the audience.

The next year of the festival, the Kino group repeated its resounding success, and the musicians decided to record the album Night, which was intended to become a new word in the genre of rock music, fully meeting the latest trends of Western rock performers. Work on "Night" dragged on, and instead of it "Kino" recorded a magnetic album entitled "This is not love."

In November 1985, another replacement took place in the Kino group: Igor Tikhomirov replaced Alexander Titov as bass player. This composition of the team did not change until the very end of its existence.

1986 was the year of the peak popularity of Kino. Its secret consisted in a combination of fresh musical discoveries with simple and vital texts by Viktor Robertovich, unique for that time. In addition, the songs "Kino" were easy to perform with a guitar, the group owes this to thousands of "movie fans" who sang Tsoi's compositions in every courtyard.

In 1986, the group presented the audience with the finished album "Night" and gave a landmark concert at the joint Moscow festival of the St. Petersburg rock club and the Moscow rock laboratory. The group's albums became more and more popular, and the new clips of the collective were watched by millions of viewers throughout the Soviet Union.

After the release of the album "Blood Group" (presented in 1988), "kinomania" spread outside the USSR. The collective gave concerts in France, Denmark and Italy, and the group's photos appeared more and more often on the covers of popular music magazines. A year later, "Kino" released the first professional studio album called "A Star Called The Sun", and the musicians immediately began work on the next disc.

The best songs from the album "A Star Called the Sun" made Viktor Tsoi and the Kino group immortal, and the composition "A Pack of Cigarettes" became a hit for every subsequent young generation of the states of the former USSR.

In 1989 concerts of the Kino group were held in France and the USA.

In June 1990, the last concert of Viktor Tsoi and his team took place at the Luzhniki Olympic Complex in Moscow.

«Кино» – последний альбом в дискографии коллектива. Песни «Кукушка» и «Следи за собой» стали наиболее популярными композициями, которые в дальнейшем неоднократно исполняли другие музыканты и группы.

Песни Цоя перевернули сознание многих советских людей. В первую очередь имя музыканта ассоциируется с переменами и изменениями. Такое стремление представляет песня «Хочу перемен!» (в оригинале - «Перемен!»), которая впервые прозвучала на IV фестивале ленинградского Рок-клуба в ДК «Невский» 31 мая 1986 года.

На первый взгляд может показаться, что Цой был приверженцем радикальных решений, но на самом деле он воспринимал жизнь несколько иначе.

Цой о музыке:

Однажды в интервью представителям СМИ он признался, что считает себя противником перевоплощения, а оставаться самим собой – главное для него. Вполне возможно, что музыкант размышлял над профессиональной актерской карьерой, а не комментировал отношение к политическим тенденциям того времени.

Цой сказал о своем видении изменений в советском обществе:

Кинодебютом Виктора Цоя как актера кино стало участие в дипломной работе молодого киевского режиссера Алексея Учителя, своеобразном музыкальном киноальманахе «Конец каникул». Съемки фильма проходили на озере Тельбин в Киеве. Участие в этой картине ознаменовало для Цоя новый этап в творчестве.

Популярность группы «Кино» привела к тому, что Виктора Цоя стали приглашать для участия в съемках фильмов «новой формации». Фильмография Цоя-киноактера составила четырнадцать фильмов, среди которых нужно отметить важные картины того времени, в полной мере отражающие суть «эпохи перемен».

Это знаменитая «Асса» кинорежиссера Владимира Соловьева, картина, наполненная терпким ощущением «начала конца», характерного в годы перестройки. Это и драматический триллер «Игла», в котором лидер группы «Кино» исполнил главную роль. Герой Цоя Моро решает вступить в схватку с наркомафией, но все оказывается не так просто. Его антипода, наркодилера Артура, сыграл Петр Мамонов. Фильм стал лидером проката 1989 года, а Виктор Цой получил титул «Лучшего актера года» по результатам опроса среди читателей «Советского экрана».

In high school, Viktor Tsoi was not popular with classmates, his nationality was to blame, but by the age of 20 the artist's personal life had changed. Girls were on duty in droves at the entrance of their favorite musician. And soon the young man met a soul mate. The acquaintance took place at one of the parties where the musician was present. Marianne was three years older than the musician. For the first six months, the lovers went on dates in the park, after which they decided to live together.

The musician married Maryana (Marianna) Tsoi, who bore him a son, Alexander. In the future, Alexander Tsoi will also become a rock musician. Alexander turned out to be the only child of Viktor Tsoi, the singer had no more children. Tsoi's wife took over all the economic activities of the group, helped with concert costumes and organizational issues.

In 1987, while working on the shooting of the film "Assa", Victor met Natalia Razlogova, who worked as an assistant director. A romance broke out between them, and a new relationship eventually led to the destruction of the family. As Marianna later recalled in an interview, she and Natalya turned out to be women of different nature. Marianna embodied the "volcano of passions", and Natalia remained "an impregnable rock".

The couple did not officially divorce, and after the death of the musician, Marianne took over the organization of the release of his last recordings, as well as unreleased materials. Viktor Tsoi's widow in 1999 graduated from St. Petersburg University, where she studied Japanese. The woman was carried away by translations from Japanese, English.

On the eve of the new century, she was diagnosed with cancer. After removing the tumor in the chest, doctors discovered an oncological formation in the brain. Realizing that nothing could be done, Marianna Tsoi went home to die. For the last three months, her mother and husband, Alexander Aksenov, better known by the stage name Ricochet, have been courting her.

On August 15, 1990, Viktor Tsoi died in a car accident.

Tsoi crashed in an accident on the thirty-fifth kilometer of the Latvian Sloka-Talsi highway near the city of Tukums, returning from a vacation in the Baltic States. His car crashed into an Ikarus passenger bus, the driver of which was not injured. According to the official version, Choi fell asleep from overwork while driving.

For a long time there were rumors that the musician did not notice the turn, as he changed the cassette in the car radio, but there was no confirmation of such statements. The cause of death still agitates Russian society.

The death of the singer came as a shock to the country. On August 19, 1990, thousands of people gathered for his funeral in St. Petersburg at the Theological cemetery. Many fans could not accept the news of the death of the idol, committing suicide.

There are always fresh flowers on his grave in St. Petersburg and candles never go out. In the same cemetery, not far from the singer's grave, Viktor's wife, Marianna Tsoi, as well as his mother, Valentina Vasilievna Tsoi, are buried.

After the death of the musician, a large number of monuments were erected in different countries of the world. One of the main sculptures, which depicts a rock artist sitting on a motorcycle, is installed in St. Petersburg on Nevsky Prospekt, opposite the Aurora cinema.

On the 35th kilometer of the Sloka-Talsi highway, where the fatal accident happened, a monument 2 meters 30 centimeters high was also erected. As a basis, the sculptors have chosen one of the most popular photographs of the musician, in which he is captured with crossed arms.

The sculptor Amiran Khabelashvili and the artist Ruslan Vereshchagin, who created the monument, decided to forever fix Tsoi's famous lines about death and love from the song "Legend":

The musician's creative heritage has been repeatedly reworked by other groups. So, Konstantin Kinchev, the leader of "Alice", who at one time was friends with Tsoi, performs some of his songs at his performances.

In 2000, the Kinoproby tribute took place, in which many Russian rock performers took part.

The Hermitage Symphony Orchestra performed the songs of the Kino group at a concert dedicated to the memory of the musician.

In 1990, after the news of the death of the performer, Tsoi's Wall appeared. In Moscow, admirers of Viktor Tsoi's creativity have covered the wall of house No. 37 on Arbat (Krivoarbatsky lane in Moscow) with inscriptions. With the inscription "Tsoi is alive" and quotes from his songs, the fans wanted to emphasize their love for the popular performer. In the future, the wall of memory will become one of the main attractions of the Russian capital.

The directors did not forget about the biography of the popular musician. Filmmakers continue to make films about his life and work.

In 2012, a documentary film "Tsoi` Kino` "directed by Evgeny Lisovsky was released. In the film, Tsoi's song "Ataman" (previously unreleased) was published. Natalia Razlogova kept the cassette with this composition, making it public.

In the summer of 2018, the premiere of Kirill Serebrennikov's drama Summer, dedicated to the beginning of Viktor Tsoi's career, his friendship with Mike Naumenko, as well as his relationship with Mike's wife Natalia, took place in Cannes. The musicians were played by the European actor of Korean origin Teo Yu and the leader of the group "Beasts" Roma Zver (Roman Bilyk), Irina Starshenbaum was approved for the role of Natalia Naumenko.

Every five years, fans of Tsoi celebrate the next anniversary date from the birthday of Viktor Tsoi with festive rock concerts and memory actions. In 2017, in honor of another anniversary date, a video was shot in one shot for the song "Star Called Sun" in St. Petersburg. This year the artist would have turned 55 years old.

1982 - "45" 1983 - "46" 1984 - "Head of Kamchatka" 1985 - "This is not love" 1986 - "Night" 1988 - "Blood type" 1989 - "A Star Called the Sun" 1990 - "Cinema" ("Black album")

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

Let's check, How Rich is Viktor Tsoy in 2020?

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2021

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.8M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $769.5K - $1.8M.

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2020

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.2M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $614.9K - $1.3M.

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2019

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.2M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $768.3K - $1M.

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2018

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.4M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $695K - $1.9M.

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2017

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.1M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $822.9K - $1.2M.

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2016

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.8M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $756.1K - $1.3M.

Viktor Tsoy Net Worth 2015

Viktor Tsoy 's revenue is $1.2M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Viktor Tsoy and could vary in the range between $509.9K - $1.2M.

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