Valery Meladze: I like it when other artists perform my songs

The artist told Time to Eat about his attitude to popularity, musical experiments, the project "The Voice. Children" and what a singer should do when he has lost his voice.

Valery, on March 4th the "ZHARA" awards will take place, where the stars will vote for their colleagues in real time. Have you already decided on your preferences?

What a compromising question! No, I haven't decided yet. I really like the bands A'Studio and IOWA, but based on the number of shows and videos, it would probably be the band "Vremya i Steklo".

By the way, how will you vote: subjectively or objectively?

Subjectively! (Laughs.) Of course, I will seriously prepare: I will leaf through, listen, watch. In show business in general, there is quite a lot of inertia, and every year it gets stronger. Previously, it was enough for someone to appear on one program to become famous and popular, because programs and channels were few. But today, it takes at least six months to promote a new song. Sometimes, for me, a song takes off after I've given up on it. It takes a full cycle, and suddenly people start asking me to perform it at concerts. For example, both Ani Lorak and Svetlana Loboda have worked very hard, but to objectively choose which of them to award the award to, you need to look at what each of them has accomplished not in their entire lives, but specifically in recent years. Of course, the most difficult nomination is "Discovery of the Year." Young artists are constantly coming up with interesting things. But the most proven echelon is the top echelon. These are the artists who have spent years achieving recognition and have built up such momentum that they can't be easily dismissed. But fortunately, the competition there isn't too fierce. Are you interested in the festival format as an artist? Or is it more for young people and beginners?

Some festivals are truly primarily for young people. At most of them, we're presented as veterans, from whom expectations are low. We act as mentors who can share opinions or experience, but are incapable of being ridiculous or frivolous. But at the ZHARA festival, for example, everything is different. There's an atmosphere of mild unpredictability, and that's wonderful. There are no clichés, and, what's more, you don't even know what to expect in the next fifteen or twenty minutes. At the same time, nothing is stressful, even from a purely mundane perspective. The tents on the beach are air-conditioned, and there's always plenty of water and refreshments. In general, everything encourages a flexible schedule and a pleasant time. Respectability combined with a touch of irreverence—those are probably the factors that attract spectators. And besides, despite the fact that this is a truly young festival, one can already say that it has succeeded. As Paulo Coelho said in The Alchemist, "What happens once may never happen again. But what happens twice will certainly happen a third time."

You'll be headlining one of the days at ZHAR-2018.

Yes, there will be recitals with various artists, and I'll be performing in one of them. Of course, I prefer recitals with my brother, Konstantin Meladze, because I have less responsibility then. (Laughs.) Although, in any case, it's our joint event, since he wrote almost everything I sing. By the way, I love it when other artists perform my songs. If any of them finds new life, that's happiness. I'm terribly sorry when my favorite compositions outlive their time and are no longer performed on stage. I try to include them in my concerts, but it's impossible to fit everything in. Therefore, my priority is new material. To be contemporary and stay on trend, you need to release something fresh every year. These are the rules.

Are you trending now?

Of course. If you look at the hit parades on youth channels, my new song "Freedom or Sweet Captivity" held the top spot for many weeks. That means someone is voting for it. Then I sang a duet with Ulyana Sinetskaya on "Star Factory," and this composition scored the highest number of points. These are objective indicators, not my inner feeling. But nothing comes easy: there is hard work behind everything. For example, I no longer have the right to make a subpar video or record a mediocre song. With such a strong background, my colleagues and I must demonstrate a new, higher level each time. Therefore, we constantly try to keep our tails up, we know what is happening in show business both in Russia and in the West, we think, analyze, and filter.

Twenty years ago, your third and most famous album, "Samba of the White Butterfly," was released. Do you remember that day - January 14, 1998?

I don't remember at all! But I can't forget how hard it was for us to write the songs from this album, including the title track. My voice started changing dramatically then, and for almost six months I had nothing but problems with it. Everything stopped working out, and it felt like