Yuri Magomaev. The widow of Muslim Magomayev revealed the causes of family quarrels Magomayev's nephew

Yuri immediately admitted to us that he knows nothing about Minsk, except that it is the capital of Belarus. But his dad, also a musician, could well be involved in Belarusian culture.

- They say that once Mulyavin offered him to sing as part of Pesnyary. But he refused.

This is his personal story. He told our local Murmansk newspaper about it. He is a little fan of giving interviews, and I don’t even know what prompted him to admit it. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from him personally.

- Your whole family turned out to be musical. That is, you, in fact, did not have a choice of what to do in life?

I really didn't like going to music school, but my mother insisted. Then I even had attempts to enter a music school. But I was drawn to work in a restaurant. He sang in Murmansk, then for ten years in a row he left for seasonal work in Sochi. Every day there was Hochma. One day I couldn't refuse good client and for quite a decent amount he sang "The White Swan on the Pond" ten times in a row. It was in Sochi, in a restaurant on the embankment. But other guests were sympathetic to this. They knew that this was a seasonal income, and every penny was valuable.

- your famous surname more often helped in life or hindered?

I can say for sure that I don't see anything wrong with that. I am not the direct heir of Muslim Magomayev, my mother married his brother. But this surname has got to me legally. I am pleased that I have the opportunity to continue this family.

- Did you communicate closely with Muslim?

When I was 15 years old, he came to us in Murmansk on March 8, performed at the Philharmonic. After the concert there was a small family dinner. I did not give it then special significance, at 15, you don’t think about it. Yes, and consciously I began to study music by the age of 18-20. And only then I realized what the value was, how right it was to meet. And then, because of the worldly fuss, it was not possible to see him even once. He invited me to Moscow for an anniversary, but due to work in Sochi, I could not come. But I would still never ask him to help me. Go talk to Alla Borisovna or put in a good word for me. This is not the way in our family.

- How do you define the genre in which you sing?

I have long defined it as pop-rock. I don't know why in Russia they enrolled me in chanson. Maybe because one of the first who began to rotate my songs was Radio Chanson.

- Do you write songs yourself?

Now yes. A year ago, he collaborated with Maxim Oleinikov.

- And we have our own Maxim Aleinikov, producer and composer! Only the surname differs by one letter.

Truth? Great. But now Maxim has gone to the production center of Stas Mikhailov. He took it from me. Here, a friend turned out to be not a friend. We parted ways with him on a not-so-good note. Now Mikhailov takes him to concerts.

- What do you think, what is the secret of the frenzied popularity of the same Mikhailov, Vaenga?

The cultural development of the 90s pulled our country back 20 years. Although the whole world, on the contrary, tried to cultivate. Now we are sitting and wondering why Western artists, famous throughout the world, are in demand. And ours - only with us. Muslim Magomayev was in demand all over the world, and at one time he was even envied by Elvis Presley. Apparently, we need to radically change education in the country. Not only to educate lawyers, accountants, athletes ... Fortunately, at least people still go to theaters.

- And without money now you can unwind?

I try to do it. Of course, I feel the strength in myself, but how much they will be enough is another question. Everything works out fine for me. Hard, but true.

For the inhabitants of Murmansk, Magomayev is almost a countryman. Although Muslim Magometovich himself did not live here. But his mother devoted many years to the polar scene. - Muslim Magomayev's mother - Aishet Akhmedovna, by the stage name of Kinzhalova, worked for ten years in the Murmansk Regional Drama Theater, she died in our city, - says Tatyana Chesnokova, head of the theater Northern Fleet. - I wrote reviews of the performances in which Aishet played. I can say that this woman was an incomparably gifted dramatic actress with a multifaceted role. What do I personally know about her? She, in my opinion, comes from Dagestan (in fact, from Adygea. - Ed.), She studied at GITIS. Mohammed's husband went to the front, but Aishet managed to give birth to his heir - Muslim. In 1945, shortly before the Victory, Magomet Magomayev died. After the war, Aishet and his son settled in Vyshny Volochek in the Kalinin (now Tver) region. Then acting fate threw her to different theaters big country- Ust-Kamenogorsk, Barnaul, Ulan-Ude, Chimkent, Arkhangelsk. And so that Muslim could get a normal education, his paternal grandmother Baidigyul-khanum took him to Baku. Magomayev entered the ten-year-old at the local conservatory, immediately stood out musically. Mother came to visit from time to time.

The very first role brought success In the 70s, when Muslim Magomayev was already popularly known, Aishet Akhmedovna moved to Murmansk. And the very first role - the mother in the "White Dress of a Woman" made her very popular with the northern public. - She was very beautiful, very musical - she played almost all the instruments - so all the children went to her, - recalls Marina Skoromnikova, actress of the Murmansk Regional Drama Theater. - Aishet had good voice She accompanied herself on the accordion. There was so much fire in her, probably because of the mixing of blood: her father is a Turk, her mother is half Adyghe, half Russian ... In Murmansk, Aishet Akhmedovna found her female happiness. Her civil husband- Leonty Kafka - was also an actor in the regional drama theater. They had two children: Yuri and Tatyana. Both still live in Murmansk. And they also connected with music all their lives - Tatyana became a professional pianist, and Yuri played in various ensembles. Many Murmansk residents knew that the restaurant "Panorama" sings native brother Muslim Magomayev himself.

“My brother’s birthday was moved to the end of October…” We found Yuri Magomayev at home, on the eve of leaving for the funeral. Despite the difficult state of mind, Yuri Leontyevich agreed to talk with Komsomolskaya Pravda. - Our condolences. - Thanks. Muslim's death was shocking news. Yes, he was ill for a long time, but we thought that everything would work out. It is difficult to talk about Muslim in the past tense. - You were half-brothers, weren't you? - I always considered him my own. We have one mother. And I believe that he was my own brother. - And when you last time communicated with Muslim Magometovich? - Communicated regularly by phone, and saw each other last fall. Since then, alas, it has not happened. We were going to meet at the end of October. After all, Muslim did not celebrate his birthday this year because of poor health. After heart surgery, he was unable to arrange a celebration. We thought about how it would get better, we would definitely meet with him in Moscow and celebrate. There were such plans. Everyone pushed back, pushed back ... Now we are still going to Moscow. Alas, it's completely different. In Murmansk long time lived and the son of Yuri Leontyevich - Yuri Yuryevich. Now he has moved to Moscow, but very often works in Sochi, in a disco bar. And he stands behind the DJ console, and sings himself - in his repertoire there are songs by Grigory Leps and Stas Mikhailov.

VERBATIM

Muslim hated Hitler terribly

From an interview with Aishet Magomayeva to the Murmansky Vestnik newspaper on March 8, 1996: “Mohammed died on April 24 near the Polish city of Kustrin. He died while returning from reconnaissance. The partner pulled him out on himself, but already dead. Sotnikov, a colleague of her husband, wrote about this in detail ... There, near Kustrin, he was buried in a mass grave. Muslim, when he spoke in Poland, was at the grave of his father, told me about it ... As a child, in his youth, Muslim hated Hitler terribly. Scary. Sometimes he did his hair obliquely, painted on his mustache and scoffed, imagining him. Even photographs have been preserved ... Do you remember, he sang "Buchenwald alarm"? "People of the world, stand up for a moment!" - remember? It was not just a song for Muslim.”

October 25 at the age of 66 due to coronary disease Muslim Magomayev died in Moscow, the famous Soviet singer, in whose work the classics, Soviet patriotism and love for Western music paradoxically combined.

Since the first solo concert of Muslim Magomayev in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall 45 years ago, the country considered him the standard of a pop artist. On October 28, they said goodbye to Muslim Magomayev in the same hall. “Muslim, you are our lost miracle,” said Alexandra Pakhmutova. Of course, the words about the loss were not only about the death of the singer, but also about long years his life spent away from the place on Olympus he deserved. It was not for nothing that journalists noted that many treated the memorial service in Moscow not only as a farewell, but also as an occasion to meet with an artist who, in last period silent life. "We knew that he was sick and suffering from loneliness, but did nothing to help him," said Iosif Kobzon. Muslim Magomayev was buried in Baku, next to the famous grandfather and uncle.

The rapid success of Muslim Magomayev is easiest to explain by his origin. It's easy to make a career when the philharmonic in your city actually wears your name. Muslim Magomayev was the full namesake of his grandfather, after whom the Baku Philharmonic is named.

Muslim Magomayev Sr. is considered the founder of Azerbaijani classical music. After graduating from the Transcaucasian Teachers' Seminary in Gori, where playing the violin was a compulsory subject, he became a conductor and opera composer even before the revolution. Under the new government, Magomayev began to write music based on Azerbaijani folk motives with a Soviet bias: he owns "Dance of the Liberated Azerbaijani Woman", the rhapsody "In the Fields of Azerbaijan" and the opera "Nargiz", which is considered the pinnacle of his work, main character who became a peasant girl. In 1935, Magomayev Sr. was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR. But on July 28, 1937, he died in Nalchik, according to the official version - from transient consumption. Some media already in our time suggested that he was repressed and shot, but it is unlikely that the name of the repressed in the same 1937 was given to the Baku Philharmonic. So in this case the official version is most likely true.

Muslim Magomayev's parents were also creative people. Father Magomet Magomayev is a theater artist and amateur musician. He went to the front as a volunteer, and in 1945, nine days before the end of the war, he died in the small town of Kustrin near Berlin. Mother is a theater actress.

But Muslim was brought up in the uncle's family, younger brother father. Jamal-Eddin Magomayev was a major party and economic figure. After the war - Deputy Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, later - a member of the Central Committee of the Republic, Permanent Representative of the Council of Ministers of Azerbaijan in Moscow.

It would seem that the presence of such relatives should explain the rapid success of the young Muslim. But everything is not so simple.

When the grandson of the great Azerbaijani composer discovered a rumor, he was sent to a music school at the conservatory. He was promised a career as a pianist, but sitting for hours in front of the instrument was not in the nature of Muslim. Very soon, the young musician took up singing seriously. At the age of 15, he gave his first concert at the Sailor's House. He sang despite the objections of his relatives, who believed that early concert activity would damage the development of the voice.

Muslim Magomayev was really lucky with his family, but he presented evidence of his own viability as a musician already in the very early age. While studying at the vocal department of the music school, he took lessons from the famous Baku teacher of the conservatory Susanna Mikaelyan. And when he sang, students and teachers gathered under the door of Mikaelyan's office to listen to Figaro's cavatina from The Barber of Seville and Alyabyev's Nightingale, which Muslim performed as a ringing youthful soprano. Even then it was clear that this boy was not only the grandson of his grandfather and the nephew of his uncle.

At the age of 20, Muslim Magomayev refuted another stereotype - that "stars" from the national republics of the USSR appear mainly according to the order from above and can only decorate government concerts, performing mainly folklore repertoire. In 1962, Magomayev performed at the Azerbaijani Art Festival in the Kremlin. Performed "Buchenwald Alarm" by Vano Muradeli and Figaro's aria. "This guy does not save himself at all if he repeats such a difficult aria for an encore," Ivan Kozlovsky said after the singer's Baku relatives. Ekaterina Furtseva noted: "Finally, we have a real baritone." This “with us” became a pass to the league of “Soviet artists”: from now on, Magomayev’s voice was not only the property of his republic, but a value of allied significance, including an export item. Through the Komsomol, Muslim Magomayev went on tour to Finland. The magazine "Spark" came out with an article "A young man from Baku conquers the world." In 1963, the singer was admitted to the Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theater named after Akhundov, but he was already irrevocably "ours", "common": no one else thought about his Azerbaijani roots.

In 1964-1965, the Soviet singer underwent an internship at the La Scala theater in Milan. None of the domestic pop singers can boast of such a line in the curriculum vitae anymore. After touring the USSR with material from "Tosca" and "The Barber of Seville", Muslim Magomayev was offered a job at the Bolshoi Theater, but with all the enthusiasm of the opera audience, the young artist clearly understood that his place was the stage. The invitation of the main theater of the country was rejected.

It is not known what was more difficult for him - to say "no" to the Bolshoi or to resist the temptation to stay in Paris, where he was offered a contract at the Olympia Theater. In this hall, Magomayev had a resoundingly successful tour in 1966 and 1969, an engagement for a year was offered by the director of the hall, Bruno Coquatrice, but the USSR Ministry of Culture was against it. They wanted to see the singer regularly at the Kremlin government concerts. Muslim Magomayev later wrote in his memoirs: “It was possible to stay, but impossible. favorite word"can"".

The motherland did not want to let go of the "real baritone", but he was allowed a lot of things that others could not even think of. Partly by right People's Artist USSR, which he became at an unprecedented age - at the age of 31. Partly because of the sympathy for him in the highest government offices. Among his fans were Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov, and they were quite satisfied with the musician's approach to the repertoire.

The basis of its programs formally consisted of opera arias, romances and songs of patriotic content. But it is still striking that a completely official repertoire coexisted in his performances with songs that were essentially symbols of the pernicious influence of the West. Muslim Magomayev erased the boundary between "serious" and "light" music, which existed both in the code of bureaucratic rules and in the minds of listeners. When such a voice comes into play, the genre fades into the background. Magomayev was a kind of loudspeaker through which Soviet people got acquainted with the music of the rest of the world, and quite quickly. And in the choice of songs, the singer was never mistaken.

Even at that very triumphal concert in the Tchaikovsky Hall in 1963, after the official part of the program with works by Bach, Mozart, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Gadzhibekov, Muslim Magomayev sat down at the piano and sang the twist "24,000 Baci". This happened just two years after Adriano Celentano performed this hit, the first of his career, at the Sanremo festival. Muslim Magomayev easily coped with "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley and "My Way" by Frank Sinatra. And it was the performance of Muslim Magomayev that was preceded by the names "Lennon" and "McCartney" first spoken by the host of the concert from the stage of the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. The song, announced by the host as "Yesterday", Magomayev sang in English.

Muslim Magomayev sang the first Soviet twists "Queen of Beauty" and " Best City Earth" - and twists were no longer considered a capitalist infection. Muslim Magomayev sang the most restaurant Soviet hit "Wedding" - and restaurant hits registered on the stage. Muslim Magomayev recorded all the male vocal parts for "Following the Bremen Town Musicians", a sequel to the first Soviet animated musical "The Bremen Town Musicians" ", and the genre of the musical was finally recognized in the theaters of the country. Magomaevsky Troubadour is the most compelling argument in the debate about whether we had rock music that could stand on a par with Western music, and "The Sun Will Rise" performed by him is absolutely brilliant a thing that is not inferior to any Lloyd Webbers.

Muslim Magomayev never lived from album to album, from hit to hit. By 1974, by the time of his marriage to his second wife, singer Tamara Sinyavskaya, he had already done the most important thing. He proved that even in the strictest political system talent can be close to complete freedom, while remaining popularly loved. He knew exactly when to leave. In one interview, he admitted: "For every voice, every talent, God has determined a certain time, and there is no need to step over it." He again said "no" - as once to the Bolshoi and "Olympia". This time - aging in front of the public, the inevitable conversations behind your back: "healed", "burned out", "exhausted". The path of Sinatra, who had reached gray hair, was not for Magomayev, but he, unlike the American crooner, was initially released more. We will never know if Magomayev missed the stage in last years life, whether he regretted his almost seclusion. Comments like that were not his style.

Unlike fellow pop artists, who, as in a joke, said goodbye but did not leave, Muslim Magomayev never officially announced his retirement and did not arrange farewell concerts. He simply reduced the number of performances every year, devoting time to graphics, sculpture, filming, literary work, creating music for theatrical productions. In recent years, he mastered the Internet and actively managed his own website. He rarely appeared on television as a wedding general, but he willingly told the audience about the life of opera and pop stars. I tried not to stay in hospitals. He died without ever complaining about his fate.

On the whole, she was kind to him.

Boris Barabanov

Tamara Sinyavskaya was indignant that Yuri was acting under the name of her late husband

Tamara Sinyavskaya was indignant that Yuri was acting under the name of her late husband

In addition to wives, children and grandchildren, who are being dragged onto the stage by now living celebrities, relatives of celebrities who have long gone to another world are periodically announced in show business - either the great-grandson of Fyodor Chaliapin's younger brother, or the illegitimate grandson of Leonid Utesov, or the great-nephew of Valery Obodzinsky. Usually these are “children of Lieutenant Schmidt”, who have nothing to do with their illustrious “ancestors”. One of the few exceptions is the singer from Murmansk Yuri Magomayev, who is indeed the nephew of the late Muslim Magomayev. About where the legendary Azerbaijani came from with relatives in a distant northern city and whether a high-profile surname helped them in life, Yuri was found out by the music columnist Express Gazeta.

My dad is a son from the second marriage of Muslim's mother Aishet Akhmedovna Magomayeva, - said Yuri Magomayev. - She was a theater actress. Her maiden name is Kinzhalova. Everywhere they write that this is a stage name. But it was this surname that appeared on her birth certificate. Before the war, my grandmother married the theater artist Magomet Magomayev and moved from her native Maykop to him in Baku. On August 17, 1942, their son Muslim was born. And in 1945, just a few days before the Victory, Mohammed died at the front. Grandma had to continue her education in theater institute and make a living at the same time. She left little Muslim in Baku in the family of his uncle Jamal. And she herself went to Vyshny Volochek, where she was offered a job at the local theater. Then acting fate threw her into the most different cities Soviet Union- Tver, Arkhangelsk, Ulan-Ude, Barnaul, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Chimkent. In Ulan-Ude, she became close to the actor Leonty Bronislavovich Kavka. He became her second husband. But officially they were not painted. And according to the passport, the grandmother remained Magomaeva. In 1956, their daughter Tanya was born. And in 1958 - the son of Yura, my dad. As civil marriages then they did not admit, in the column "father" they had a dash. And Aishet Akhmedovna gave them her own surname.

It is no secret that Muslim was offended by his mother for a long time and believed that she had abandoned him. We have preserved his childhood letters to her, where he wrote: “I miss you very much. Take me to your place!". When Muslim was 9 years old, Aishet Akhmedovna took him to Vyshny Volochek. And they spent a whole year together. But then she returned Muslim to Baku to her uncle to receive music education. Maybe if she had not done so, we would never have seen or heard that Muslim whom everyone knows. It was a thoughtful move on her part. She worried not only about herself, but also about the future of her first child. What could give a child a widow who roamed the provincial theaters? And Uncle Jamal was far from the last man in Baku. He lived in the same house with the singer Bul-Bul, the father of Polad Bul-Bul Ogly, and others. famous people. His table was always bursting with black caviar. “Aishet, don’t be a fool! Uncle Jamal said. - Leave the baby to us! We will provide him with everything he needs.” In the future, Muslim himself admitted that his mother did the right thing. Their relationship improved. My dad and aunt Tanya became brother and sister for Muslim. As young children, they went with Aishet Akhmedovna to his first wedding and to his first solo concert in the Kremlin. And then they constantly visited him.

In 1971, my grandmother received a lucrative offer from the Murmansk Regional Drama Theater and moved with her family to Murmansk, where she settled down until the end of her days. I was born there in 1979. My parents met in a restaurant. Mom worked as a waitress. And dad played the keys and sang in the restaurant ensemble. His ensemble enjoyed great success. Everyone predicted him a career on the professional stage. In 1981, dad tried to get into the Wider Circle TV show with his songs. I traveled specifically to Moscow. Everyone was waiting to be shown. But he was never shown. As he explained to everyone, he was allegedly cut out. Only recently it turned out that in fact there were no filming. The creator of Wider Circle, Olga Molchanova, said that her father really called her and handed over his notes, but she was not interested in them. Why didn't dad use his help? famous brother- I don't know. At one time, Muslim invited him to Moscow. Offered to work with him. But dad refused. Apparently, he wanted to achieve everything himself. He also refused offers to join the Belarusian ensemble Pesnyary and the Kazakh group Arai, later renamed A-Studio. So he worked for 35 years in Murmansk restaurants.

I was also introduced to music since childhood. They forced me to go to a music school. But over the course of seven years, I was so fed up with it that after graduation I didn’t approach the piano at all for a long time. I was more fascinated only by the computer games that appeared in our country. I was selling game consoles. Worked as a security guard for children's slot machines. I didn't even think about becoming a musician. But at the age of 17, I was suddenly drawn to the instrument again. For a while I played with my dad in restaurants. And since 2001, he began to go to work in Sochi. We had musicians in Murmansk who worked there every summer and came back very satisfied. "Let me try too!" I thought. The first time I got lucky. I arrived in Sochi, walked along the embankment and immediately got a job at the Flibuster restaurant near the Zhemchuzhina Hotel. And the next year I could not find a job for a whole month and sat hungry and without money. Fortunately, I met a familiar musician, from whom I bought branded “minuses” a year earlier. And he betrothed me to the music director of the Rosariy restaurant. There was very good job. By the end of the season, I had earned my Mercedes. In principle, for this money I could buy an apartment in Sochi. But I wanted to show off and return to Murmansk in a good car. After that, I sang for four seasons in the Rosary. Then an acquaintance from the Flibuster called me to “rock” a new institution - then still the Golden Barrel, and now the Caravel. I was already a co-founder there. Bring your sound and light there. And he worked for five seasons until he met a Muscovite and moved to her in Moscow.

I met my famous uncle only once in my life, when in 1995 he came to visit us in Murmansk. It was a big event for our city. It was covered by all local media. I even had some interviews. But at the time it didn't interest me much. I was 15 years old. And for me it was important to go through a new computer game which I just bought. What famous uncles are there?! And when, with age, my life priorities changed, and I myself wanted to meet Muslim, my relatives from my father’s side prevented this in every possible way. Although my parents divorced a long time ago, until a certain time we all communicated normally. I remember how my grandmother came with my dad to my birthday and sang “My Nightingale, Nightingale” to his accompaniment. And I used to hang out at their house all the time. But every year the relationship got worse and worse. Dad had a young wife - a year younger than me. They could have already said to me: “Yura, why did you come without a call?” When my grandmother died of a stroke on August 21, 2003, I learned about it from strangers. Dad and aunt Tanya did not even consider it necessary to notify me. And when I came to Moscow and tried to visit Muslim, they kept saying: “Don't you dare! Do not go! They won't let you in. So we will come to Moscow and go to him together. Unfortunately, such a case never presented itself.

Just do not think that I was counting on some help from my uncle. By that time, Muslim was already retired and needed help himself. As far as I know, he actually lived at the expense of the Azerbaijani consulate, from where food was brought to him every day. But most of all, the uncle lacked purely human communication. According to Aunt Tanya, recent times he often asked her about our family and wanted to be friends with all relatives. "Come to me! Muslim told her. - I'm so lonely. My daughter won't come." By the way, I now communicate with his daughter Marina in Odnoklassniki. She lives in Cincinnati, America. He invites me to visit him. But with the widow of Muslim Tamara Sinyavskaya, I did not have a relationship. I was introduced to her in 2008 at the farewell to Muslim in the Tchaikovsky Hall. “Yurochka is also Magomayev? she wondered. - And also sings? Oh, how nice! Then Tamara Ilyinichna asked Aunt Tanya if we had our passports with us. “Fly with me to Baku for the funeral!” she suggested. I had a passport. And I was ready to fly with her. But dad and aunt, who did not have passports, began to object. “What's wrong with that? I wondered. “At least I will support the person.” In the end, I had to give up because of them. And when Sinyavskaya came to her senses after Muslim's funeral, she called Aunt Tanya and began to figure out how I also became Magomayev and why I speak under this name. Frankly, it was very unpleasant for me.

Words no less unpleasant for me were heard at a concert in memory of Muslim, which, on the first anniversary of his death, was organized by the Azerbaijani millionaire Aras Agalarov in his Crocus City Hall named after Magomayev. “For us, Magomayev will always be the one and only,” Larisa Dolina said then. “We won’t give the other Magomaevs a road.” And everyone began to agree with her: “We won’t give it! We won't give it!" A year ago, at the opening of the monument to Muslim in Voznesensky Lane, I managed to meet Aras Agalarov and his son Emin. My director Yury Vakhrushev, who, by the way, used to work in the Wider Circle program, and I tried to talk with them about possible cooperation. But there are so many ambitions that they didn't even listen to us. Apparently, Emin, who also sings, considers himself Magomayev's heir. And then suddenly a relative appears. Why does he need it? He and without me in full chocolate. And I don't want to ask either. From childhood, my dad told me: “Yura, change your last name! Get a pseudonym! According to him, the only thing he regretted all his life was that he did not take maiden name mothers - Daggers. “There cannot be two Magomayev singers,” he always repeated. I think this is nonsense. I got this surname at birth. And I have every right to wear it. It especially offends me when they ask me: “Yura, are you not ashamed to use the name Magomayev?”. I answer this: "Ask better than Ivan Urgant or Stas Piekha - are they not ashamed! And I still haven’t received any benefit from my surname.”

If anyone tried to profit from Magomayev's name, then some not very decent people who stuffed themselves into my friends and offered to take care of my business. One of these people was the father of the late "queen of chanson" Katya Ogonyok Evgeny Semenovich Penkhasov. In 2010, very authoritative people brought me to him. And at one time he served as my director. Outwardly, he looked like a divine dandelion. But there was a moment when I brought it to clean water. He just robbed me. I instructed him to pay people who rendered certain services to me. But the money went into his pocket. I then asked these people. And they told me with their eyes wide open: “We didn’t see any money.” Penkhasov behaved just as ugly when he got a call about me from Stas Mikhailov. Some time ago, Stas opened his own production center and was looking for an artist who could become his first project. Apparently, he monitored the Internet, stumbled upon me and wanted to meet me. But Penkhasov hid me from Mikhailov for a long time. “Yura, you don’t need this,” he said. - Or let Mikhailov give me money! Then I'll let you go." “Damn yourself! I was surprised. What are you giving money for? And what does it mean - you will let me go? Are you my producer? A producer is a person who invests money. And Penkhasov was nobody. He did my errands and fed himself thanks to my finances.

Despite the intrigues of Penkhasov, I still had a meeting with Stas Mikhailov. We talked very sincerely. Our conversation was attended by his wife Inna, his director Sergey Kononov and the program director of one of the leading Russian radio stations. Stas offered me production. “You won’t get any further than the La Minor TV channel on your own,” he said. But Stas did not promise anything concrete, except for beautiful clothes and a ghostly confession. And why do I need these clothes?! His wife showed me some kind of magazine and said: “This is how you will look like!”. And there was a picture of a fagot. I imagined myself in the role of this fagot and thought: “Mother of God! I just didn't have enough like this to disgrace the name of Magomayev. And I politely declined his offer. With creative issues, I myself successfully cope. And my friends help me with finances, one of whom, for example, is the head construction company engaged in the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi. As it turned out later, with my refusal I terribly offended Stas Mikhailov. “You shouldn’t have talked to him so badly,” they scolded me. And what did Mikhailov want? For an artist to forget about everything in the world with happiness? As a result, he received such an artist in the person of the co-author of my songs Maxim Oleinikov.

With Oleinikov, as well as with many other guys, I met in Sochi. He came there to work from Volgograd. For ten years we have had the most friendly company among Sochi restaurant musicians. In 2008, Maxim had problems with an apartment in Volgograd. He bought it on credit from a cooperative. And the cooperative collapsed. From those who did not have time to pay, they began to take away apartments through the court. And he needed to urgently pay off the debt. Friends from Volgograd helped him with half the amount. I lent him the other half. Although my baby was about to be born, and there was a hungry winter ahead, I did not demand my money back. At that moment, Maxim opened a cool recording studio, and we agreed that he would work them out by writing songs for me. In Volgograd, the cost of his work was 3-5 thousand. And I wrote off 15-20 thousand to him for each song, so that he would quickly cover the debt. But until the end, we did not pay off with him. After my refusal, Mikhailov turned to Oleinikov. And unlike me, he agreed to work with Stas. We signed a production contract with Maxim for standard conditions: 10% of income to the artist, 90% to the producer. The money that, according to my information, he is now paid a month, I would not have enough for a week. And for this money, Maxim travels with Mikhailov to all cities and villages and performs as an opening act for him.

And everything would be fine, but since Maxim did not have his own repertoire, Mikhailov decided that he should perform mine. “On what basis do Oleinikov’s songs belong to you? They started making claims against me. You had nothing to do with their creation. Maxim himself wrote them. And you came to his studio and only interfered. I explained that I bought these songs from him with giblets. It doesn't matter who wrote them. Maxim received the money and gave me the exclusive rights to music and lyrics. Although in fact he did not have the finished music and the finished text. There were only sketches. I had to finish them myself. Not a single arrangement and not a single text was written without my participation. To my misfortune, as a decent person, I registered these songs in the Russian Academy of Education for the two of us - 50 percent each. Ah, by Russian legislation, Oleinikov, as a co-author, had the right to rework them. Taking advantage of this right, he slightly altered my best songs"Fly away" and "It's high up there." In particular, “Fly away” was replaced by “Arrive” and rearranged a couple of notes in the arrangement. And he began to perform these songs in Stas's concerts as his own. “I don’t decide anything,” Max later justified himself. Everything is decided by the producers. I didn't want to sing these songs. whole year did not want. But they made me." I am not offended by Oleinikov. He is now a man of liberty. But his producer, in my opinion, behaved ugly. I never got anything in my life for free. Why should I give someone songs that I honestly paid for?

For the kids, he brought a Polish curiosity - chewing gum

Magomayev's mother was an actress and therefore traveled a lot. So she gave the polar theater scene a dozen years. Younger children: Yuri and Tatyana (their age difference with Muslim was 16 and 14 years, respectively), while still small, they traveled with their mother. Muslim, at that time, already lived alone, and comprehended the musical Olympus, where he achieved certain success. The first memorable meeting with his brother and sister took place in the singer's homeland in Baku.

We then lived in Shymkent, in Kazakhstan, - the interlocutor recalls. — It was 1961. 19-year-old Muslim was already famous in Azerbaijan. He called his mother and invited her to a wedding in Baku. His bride was the girl Ophelia.

The singer's first wife still lives in Baku. And here is his only daughter now from the States. Marina settled in San Francisco and keeps in touch with relatives, including Aunt Tanya from Murmansk.

Mom took us little ones and went to the wedding, - continues Tatyana Leontievna. “From that moment on, I remember him. She, then, had just arrived from abroad, from a song festival in Poland, and brought us chewing gum. In a transparent package were chewing pads: yellow, white, red - such a sweet taste. Few people in the Soviet Union saw them at that time. 61st year, what kind of chewing gum are there, what are you talking about! Then there was nothing at all. He gave us a small handful, but we did not understand what to do with it. Then Muslim explained: this is chewing gum, it must be chewed. We were surprised of course. After all, children at that time chewed: resin and wood glue. And here is such an import thing. I don't remember the wedding itself. I was only five years old, after all. But the festivities were going on in a large beautiful Baku courtyard. It was fun, warm, a lot of people gathered.

Trip to the camp "Gaidar"

All-Union fame came to Magomayev just a year later. And in 1963 he became a soloist with the Azerbaijan Opera and Ballet Theatre. However, Muslim moved to Moscow only closer to thirty years.

Mom every summer had a tour of the country, which ended around the end of August, continues the artist's sister. – And we almost always passed through Moscow. When Muslim moved to the capital, they began to look at him as well. True, it happened that we were going, and he was on tour, we were going back - he was again outside the capital. It happened that because of this we did not see each other for several years, but the meetings were always warm. I remember how he joked. When I was young, I had a braid down to my knees. Muslim pulled my braid and said: “Tanka, don’t even think about cutting the braid.” I was in Moscow more often than my brother Yuri. I went there to the ballet school, for example, to enter. Once, on one of these trips, Muslim handed me a ticket to the Gaidar pioneer camp in the Moscow region. Very interesting. I met a girl there who I'm still friends with today.

In Moscow, for the first time, Magomayev lived in the Rossiya Hotel. When relatives came to him, they were forced to leave the building with the artist only through the back door. The popularity of Muslim Magometovich was wild. You gape a little, crowds of fans fly in.

Once we had already left the hotel and were sitting in the car, and Muslim was standing nearby in a white suit. Suddenly, one of the fans saw him and immediately people came running. A minute later there was not a single button on the suit, the pockets were torn off. Ripped off for memory. He had to go to change clothes and go out through another door later, - Tatiana recalls. There were also pests, of course. Once, at a concert in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, a crowd of young people sat and stomped Muslim's entire speech. His mood was then greatly spoiled. Barely finished the concert.

Meanwhile, Magomayev was gaining popularity. He got a house, married the singer Tamara Sinyavskaya, and his family moved to Murmansk.

Liked? It's a snake!

By the time of the first visit to the Arctic, Magomayev's relatives had lived here for 23 years. The artist called very often, sent Greeting Cards with all the holidays, but it was impossible to come. And so it happened in 1995. Magomaev in Murmansk.

On that visit, he gave many interviews on radio and television, - says the artist's sister. - And then there was a wonderful concert. In his course, Muslim turned to the audience from the stage and said that my mother, Aishet Akhmedovna Magomaeva, was sitting in the hall. People applauded. When he came to our house, I thought about how to treat my brother. You won't be surprised. “Muslim, will you have borscht?” He told me: “I will be more and how! Finally, normal Russian cuisine, otherwise they feed me in restaurants with all sorts of delights. Pampered. And so I want simple homemade food.

Usually, like any native of the Caucasus, he liked to celebrate holidays in a big company. So, as an artist, he spent his anniversaries on stage, and on the second day he arranged a reception for friends and relatives. Often in the restaurant "Baku".

There, for the first time in my life, I tried a snake, - Tatyana Leontyevna laughs. - We sit at the table, celebrate, eat. I see such black diamonds with green streaks. I thought it was something from meat with the addition of greens. I tried it: soft, tasty, but I can’t make out exactly what it is. Something so tender, just melts in your mouth and looks like meat. I also took it - I liked it! Muslim sits next to him and laughs: “What does Tanya like?” "Yeah, I mean, it's delicious." “Do you know what you eat? It's a snake!" I was surprised, but not disgusted. Yummy indeed! This was 17 years ago. Muslim celebrated his 50th birthday. Vel anniversary evening great entertainer Boris Brunov. At one point, he turned to those gathered at the tables: “I ask the whole audience to stand up, Muslim Magomayev’s mother is here! And I, with your permission, will come up and kiss the hand.

He loved jokes and taught Baskov

Magomayev was known as a great joker and was very fond of jokes. There was no need to invent any funny stories. When you often communicate with stars of the first magnitude, such as Pugacheva or Kobzon, funny stories appear by themselves. Actively helped young artists.

He taught Nikolai Baskov, for example. But at the same time, Magomayev liked to retire. He closed himself in a separate office - he painted, wrote music. After all, many of the songs that the artist performed, written "from the side" had only poems.

Hereditary talent apparently affected:

Mom sang wonderfully, - continues Magomaeva's sister. - Tamara and Muslim looked at each other, God forbid we sing so wonderfully at this age. At the age of 70, to have such a clear sonorous voice. She always sang on holidays and in general. She even had her first role - Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro.

Wine, according to the memoirs of his sister, Magomayev, despite the Caucasian blood, did not favor. But he loved good, expensive cognac. In moderation, of course. But he smoked a lot last days. Surprisingly or not, he never had problems with his voice from this.

The last two years I have passed very well, - Tatyana concludes. Didn't want to be seen sick. He was going to definitely get better and gather friends to celebrate his birthday, as before. 2003 hit him hard. Then his beloved uncle died, and immediately his mother became very ill. After her mother's death, he wilted.

From concert performances in recent years, he refused. And the song "Farewell, Baku", recorded in 2007, became the final in his long career.

They thought that Muslim would live a long time. It's like that in our family. All longevity. My mother didn’t even have a card at the clinic until she was 80 ... And Muslim left too early.

Ruslan VARENYK