Singer Chris Kelmi. Biography

Chris Kelmi: biography

Chris Kelmi was the romantic hero of our stage, the idol of millions.
And when interest in him faded, he drowned his life in alcohol. It seemed that the artist was deliberately killing himself... Left without the attention of fans, Chris Kelmi found himself in complete emptiness, and this was unbearable for him. Family life began to crack even during the time of his popularity. In recent years, Kelmi lived alone, and he also faced death alone.

Or maybe the reason for self-destructive behavior is that Chris has too much free time? Kelmi was not used to this: from early childhood, the future musician lived according to a very busy schedule.

Childhood, family of Chris Kelmi

Chris Kelmi (real name Anatolyevich Armevich Kelmi) was born on April 21, 1955 in Moscow, into a family of metro builders who met in the capital. His father’s name was Ariy Mikhailovich Kelmi, and his mother’s name was Antonina Alekseevna Kelmi (nee Yakimovets). At the age of four, his father brought his restless son to the tennis court for the first time.

The artist himself assumed that he most likely had Lithuanian roots on his father’s side (in Lithuania there is a city called Kelme, which is similar to his surname).
Be that as it may, Kelmi’s surname is real, and he took the name Chris in honor of one of the heroes of Stanislav Lem’s novel “Solaris”. “Tolya Kelmi didn’t sound like a rocker!” - the singer joked. A couple of years later, Chris Kelmi was already involved in the section, and in high school he became a candidate for master of sports and even joined the national youth team. At the same time, he not only studied well, but also studied at a music school. In his free time, he played rock and roll on the guitar and tried to compose songs.

Links[ | ]

• Olga Peskova.
  "Old wolf".
  // Evgeny Yu. Dodolev.
  "New Look": newspaper. — Moscow, April 22, 1995. - No. 15. - P. 02.
• Natalya Maksimova.
  "Chris Kelmi's Anniversary." // “Musical Truth”: newspaper. — Moscow, January 25, 2008. - No. 02. - P. 03.
• VIDEO. Chris Kelmi in the 1991 American documentary about Soviet rock 'n' roll ("Americans about Soviet Rock'n'Roll") // youtube.com (user - "EUGENE DODO"; published December 10, 2009)

Music career of Chris Kelmi

Rock was practically banned in the USSR; performances often took place illegally.
But in 1980, the Autograph group, created by Kelmi together with Sitkovetsky, took second place at the festival in Tbilisi and became popular. With his first large royalties, Chris bought the most sophisticated keyboards. All the musicians in Moscow envied him! And Lenkom artistic director Mark Zakharov, having heard about the excellent instruments, even invited their owner to his theater. He made Kelmi an offer to create his own rock band and play live at the most outstanding performances, including “Juno” and “Avos”. This is how “Rock Studio” appeared.

It is believed that rockers are “loose” people, unrestrained in their habits. But Chris practically didn’t drink at that time - he wasn’t interested and didn’t need it. His sports background showed, and he had no time for drinking: he wrote a lot of music, rehearsed, went on tour with the group and with the theater. Life was full of drive even without alcohol!

Beginning of a musical career

At the age of 15, while still in school, Chris and several like-minded people founded a musical group - an amateur ensemble called “Sadko”. This was Chris Kelmi's timid first step on the path to the big stage and fame. The group did not last long, its composition was constantly changing. A couple of years later, the young musician began to think about creating a new band.

Chris had a friend, a music lover, who worked part-time as a guitarist and vocalist in various bands, Alexander Sitkovetsky. At that moment, he led the almost already disintegrated group “Airport”. From two collapsed groups, together they created a new group called “Leap Summer”, the first performances of which took place already in 1972.

The Leap Summer lineup included:

• Alexander Kutikov (bass and vocals), later the star of “The Time Machine”;
• Valery Efremov (drummer), also a future member of the Time Machine group;
• Alexander Sitkovetsky (vocals and guitar);
• Chris Kelmi (organ and vocals).

At the beginning of the group's existence, it was not particularly popular. But everything changed after the musicians began to collaborate with the aspiring poetess Pushkina Margarita, who many years later became famous and popular among fans of rock music. Their collaboration led to the creation of several very striking musical hits, thanks to which the Leap Summer group became famous and recognizable in the Soviet Union.

Oddly enough, during this period Chris was the happiest in his entire musical career. Everything was first: concerts and tours, nights until morning with a guitar. And not a single thought about money, fame or any kind of comfort. Happiness was only in the music and in the buzz that they received performing together on stages. Andrei Makarevich described this time well in his book:

“It was as if a ray of light from the Beatles fell on us from Liverpool, with the help of which we maintained obsession and purity. We really wanted to be famous, but just enough so that there would be concerts and people would wait for us. We were happy…"

Tours began around the cities of the USSR. Samizdat released 4 magnetic albums. The Leap Summer band took part in the Riga rock festival, which took place at the Singing Field in 1977. The musicians of this group used a strobe light for the first time to create lighting effects on stage. Later in 1978, at the 2nd Tallinn Rock Festival, the Leap Summer band again distinguished itself by innovation, starting to use stage decorations in their performances.

But, as often happens in life, where success begins, there may also be failure. The musical compositions “Prometheus” and “Satanic Dances” performed by the group caused a protest in the city committee of the Komsomol, and the group was banned. The musicians began performing underground and existed for about two more years, but the band still broke up due to internal disagreements and conflicts.

Chris Kelme's Career Peak

The peak of Rock Studio's career was the tour in Paris.
Kelmi then met his idol, Rolling Stones drummer Keith Richards. They played a couple of songs together, and Keith said: “It turns out that there is rock in the USSR!” For Kelmi this was the highest praise. Returning home, Chris decided to say goodbye to Lenkom. He understood: nothing would be better than “Juno” and “Avos”. He told the band’s musicians: “We have thousands of fans all over the country, we will tour.” But things didn't go according to plan. The group began to fall apart, tours were disrupted, and the halls were often half empty.

This continued until Kelmi met Alla Pugacheva. He performed several of his songs for her, and she exclaimed: “Why doesn’t the country know this?!” After participating in her “Christmas meetings,” Chris Kelmi was known throughout the USSR. The most stellar period in his life began. The hits “Night Rendezvous” and “Closing the Circle” sounded from every receiver, fans carried him in their arms... Meanwhile, family life was bursting at the seams.

His wife Lyudmila did not like the constant tours and annoying fans. She guessed that her husband had affairs, but he didn’t really hide it. The gap between the spouses grew larger.

Since the early 2000s, Chris began to be invited to tours and concerts less often, and he composed and recorded fewer and fewer songs. It was then that the musician began to abuse alcohol. At first, Lyudmila tried to persuade him not to drink, then she began to threaten divorce, even left her husband several times, but she still returned.

Chris and Lyudmila Kelmi continued to live together, although they had long become strangers. The artist, who took almost no part in his upbringing, also did not have a warm relationship with his son. Christian was always on his mother’s side, saw how hard it was for her, and blamed his father for it.

Chris Kelmi: One with seven cats

In the summer of 2015, Chris Kelmi said in an interview: “I’m in great shape, I’m in good health.
Those who say that I am an alcoholic and a heart patient are lying!” Just a few days after this statement, the musician had a heart attack, not his first. Returning home from the hospital, I resumed my old routine. Kelmi did not believe that he was suffering from alcoholism, and was sure that he could stop drinking at any time. However, he didn’t quit - without alcohol, life became insipid and boring. Like all addicts, the artist always had excuses: family problems, stress on tour, reluctance to offend fans and friends who invite them to a feast after the concert...

Chris spent his last years in a country house, where he lived alone, with a visiting housekeeper and seven cats. His wife and son did not visit him often, and his friends visited him even less often. Moving out of town, Kelmi said: “I will write music.” In fact, he approached the instrument less and less often, and when he did sit down at it with the intention of composing, he could not come up with anything. And again the hand reached for the bottle...

Doctors repeatedly warned: if he continues in the same spirit, he won’t last long. The singer's liver was in terrible condition, he suffered from a stomach ulcer; his heart began to work intermittently, problems began with his legs - he could only move with a walker.

In 2021, Kelmi was admitted to a rehabilitation center in Thailand for treatment. Together with him, Dana Borisova and Evgeny Osin tried to get rid of alcohol addiction. This action was widely covered in the media, everyone wished the musician a recovery. But the miracle did not happen. Even after the death of Osin, who never gave up his addiction, Chris continued to drink. “It feels like he was deliberately destroying his body and his personality,” said one of the musician’s friends. “There’s long been nothing left of the Chris we knew 20 years ago.”

Notes[ | ]

1. ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Evgeny Yu. Dodolev
   . "Old Wolf" Chris Kelmi didn't miss a beat. Publishing house “New Look” (article from the newspaper “Musical Pravda”, No. 17, September 4, 2015) // newlookmedia.ru
2. ↑ 1234567891011
   Real name is Chris Kelmi. Website about pseudonyms and their bearers “Pseudonyms” // propsevdo.ru
3. ↑ 1 2 3 Valeria Mustafaeva, Maria Mamedova
   . Information has emerged about the death of Chris Kelmi. — The author of the hit “Night Rendezvous” suddenly died in his home in the Moscow region. So far the cause of death has not been reported. The musician was 63 years old. Website of Andrei Malakhov’s magazine “StarHit” // starhit.ru (January 10, 2019)
4. ↑ 12
   Chris Kelmi died on New Year's Day. RIA Novosti // ria.ru (January 11, 2021)
5. ↑ 1 2 Evgeny Yu. Dodolev
   . Chris Kelmi in the MediaMetrix project. Publishing house “New Look” (article from the newspaper “Musical Pravda”, No. 03, February 19, 2016) // newlookmedia.ru
6. ↑ 12345678910111213141516171819202122
   Chris Kelmi: “We are no longer husband and wife, but roommates.” — The famous musician spoke frankly about why his family actually broke up and his son doesn’t talk to him. // 7days.ru (August 1, 2015)
7. ↑ 1 2 3 Konstantin Vasiliev
   . Singer Chris Kelmi's mother called him to his grave. Newspaper “Sobesednik” // sobesednik.ru (February 24, 2014)
8. The program “Subbotnik” on the TV channel “Russia”.
9. Alexander Dremlyugin, Simferopol
   . “To Crimea - out of principle.” — Interview with Evgeny Yu. Dodolev. Newspaper “Moskovskaya Pravda” // a.mospravda.ru (August 13, 2015)
10. MIIT graduates. Issue 1977 (Kelmi A.A., Kharit M.D.). Class of 1978 (Slutsker V.I.)
11. ↑ 1 2 3 Chris Kelmi.
    “There’s nothing to brag about here.” // "Coeval": magazine. - 1986. - August. — P. 24-25.
12. Olesya Matveeva, student of the Moscow Aviation Institute
    . Hot summer of 1972. Publishing house “New Look” (article from the newspaper “Musical Pravda”, No. 17, October 5, 2012) // newlookmedia.ru
13. ↑ 1 2 Vitaly Gaponenko
    . To the 60th anniversary of the birth of Pavel Smeyan. — Pavel Smeyan: “To live, I want to live, and all I prefer is to live well...” // retroportal.ru (April 2021)
14. Boris Oppenheim
    . “Between Jazz and Rock” (part three, June 2021). Website “Vocal-instrumental era (1960-1988)” // via-era.narod.ru
15. Oppenheim Boris Rafailovich. Biography, discography, links. “The Great Encyclopedia of Cyril and Methodius” // megabook.ru
16. "Machine time" at idle. Publishing house “New Look” (article from the newspaper “Musical Pravda”, No. 11, June 11, 2014) // newlookmedia.ru
17. Chris Kelmi was sent to jail for 22 days
18. Chris Kelmi again grossly violated traffic rules and refused an alcohol test (unspecified)
    . NTV. Access date: October 27, 2015.
19. ↑ 12
    VIDEO. “Let them talk” - drunk Chris Kelmi at Malakhov’s. // youtube.com (user - “trader4ex”; published October 1, 2011)
20. ↑ 12
    VIDEO. Star brawl: Chris Kelmi and Valery Leontyev are at the center of the scandal (release of the “Live Broadcast” program with Boris Korchevnikov on the “Russia HD” TV channel on November 3, 2015). // youtube.com (user - “Live”; published November 3, 2015)
21. In the studio Chris Kelmi // “Mimonot” Radio Mediametrix
22. ↑ 1 2 Valeria Mustafaeva
    . Chris Kelmi is divorcing his wife and sharing an apartment. Website of Andrei Malakhov’s magazine “StarHit” // starhit.ru (June 13, 2016)
23. Treatment of Evgeny Osin for alcoholism in Thailand (August-November 2017) (unspecified)
    . Rehabilitation site (Thailand) // vip-samui.ru. Date accessed: January 2, 2021.
24. A famous Soviet singer with a Jewish patronymic was beaten by Buddhists during treatment for alcoholism
25. Chris Kelme made a will. — It would seem that after the rehabilitation center in Thailand, Chris Kelmi will feel better and he will stop abusing alcohol. But he took up his old ways again, moreover, he felt so much worse that he decided to make a will. Website of Andrei Malakhov’s magazine “StarHit” // starhit.ru (December 2, 2018)
26. ↑ 1 2 Yulia Diveeva
    . Chris Kelmi died at a dacha near Moscow after celebrating the New Year. Newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” // kp.ru (January 2, 2019)
27. ↑ 12
    The cause of death of Chris Kelmi has been announced. Official website of Channel Five // ​​5-tv.ru (January 2, 2021)
28. ↑ 12
    The cause of death of Chris Kelmi has become known. Official website of the REN TV channel // ren.tv (January 2, 2021)
29. The cause of death of Chris Kelmi has been announced. // lenta.ru (January 2, 2019)
30. Details of the death of Chris Kelmi have been revealed. Archived copy from January 3, 2021 on the Wayback Machine // n4k.ru (January 3, 2021)
31. The cause of Chris Kelmi's death was a chronic disease - media (Russian). IA Regnum (January 5, 2019). Date accessed: January 5, 2019.
32. The last will of Chris Kelmi (Russian) has become known. gazeta.ru Access date: January 11, 2021.
33. ↑ 123
    The entry for obtaining an internal passport dated January 24, 1923, available on the Jewish genealogy website JewishGen.org (database for Lithuania), indicates a family consisting of Meilakh Abramovich Kelmi (1883, native of Vilna), Sarah Mordukhovna Kelmi (nee Sorskaya, 1889 , native of Skobelev) and Arie Meilakhovich Kelmi (1920).
34. ↑ 123
    Kelmi Ariy Mikhailovich, 03/20/1920-08/14/1997
35. Svetlana Kashlyaeva “Little Chris’s grandfather, or closing the circle”
36. List of MIIT graduates
37. Ariy Kelmi on the evacuation lists (1942): At the beginning of the war, he and the institute were evacuated to Novosibirsk.
38. Kelmi A., Zhilkin
    V. Arpa - Sevan // Metrostroy. 1978. No. 8. P. 8-10
39. How Chris Kelmi gave up the fashionable answering machine. // media-activist.ru (June 23, 2021)
40. List of MIIT graduates: In the lists of graduates it is indicated as Antonina Alekseevna
    Yakimovets-Kelmi.
41. Plays for children's theater groups. State Educational Establishment Central Children's Theater "Strogino" // strogin.blogspot.com (November 9, 2010)
42. Marina Boychenko
    . Chris Kelmi framed his brother. Newspaper “Sobesednik” // sobesednik.ru (May 17, 2012)
43. ↑ 1 2
    Children of Russian pop musicians
    (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link). Rolling Stone Russia magazine // rollingstone.ru. Access date: February 13, 2011. Archived January 13, 2012.
44. Vadim Uslanov - “Dancing on the Water.” “Disco of the 80s”, 2005 (VIDEO youtube.com)
45. Hits Archived copy of November 9, 2021 on the Wayback Machine // karen-kavaleryan.ru - Karen Kavaleryan - Official website
46. VIDEO. Chris Kelmi - “Tired Taxi” (K. Kelmi - A. Markevich). //youtube.com
47. VIDEO. Chris Kelmi & Igor Talkov - “House on the Shore” (1991, “Morning Mail” program). //youtube.com
48. ↑ 12
    VIDEO. Chris Kelmi - “Father Frost” (K. Kelmi - A. Markevich). //youtube.com
49. VIDEO. Chris Kelmi - “Old Wolf” (K. Kelmi - K. Kavaleryan). //youtube.com
50. VIDEO. “Rock Studio” - “Take your time” (K. Kelmi - M. Pushkina). //youtube.com
51. VIDEO. "Six letters about the beat." //youtube.com
52. ↑ 12
    VIDEO. Program "A. Excitement": Chris Kelmi and Vadim Uslanov. //youtube.com
53. VIDEO. “Guess the Melody” (“ORT”, 1995): Chris Kelmi, Olga Kormukhina, Andrey Derzhavin. //youtube.com
54. VIDEO. “Guess the Melody” (“ORT”, 1999): Chris Kelmi, Vladimir Presnyakov Sr., Sergei Krylov. //youtube.com
55. VIDEO. “Health” (“Channel One”, January 6, 2003): Chris Kelmi. //youtube.com
56. VIDEO. "From my memory: Chris Kelmi." //youtube.com
57. VIDEO. “To the dacha! Chris Kelmi." //youtube.com
58. VIDEO. Chris Kelmi in the program “Good Health! A successful dacha." //youtube.com

Chris Kelmi: Death

Chris Kelmi died on New Year's Day 2021 at the age of 63.
At his dacha, alone, next to a dusty piano and records, on the covers of which he is still young and handsome. The artist was cremated on January 8. Only the closest relatives and friends were present at the farewell - Chris's relatives wished to make the ceremony private. Fans won’t be able to bring flowers to their idol’s grave either: during his lifetime, he asked that his ashes be scattered over the Atlantic Ocean. The musician bequeathed all his property, including three apartments and a cottage with a total value of almost 100 million rubles, to his wife and son.

[media=www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA2USKD-_bQ]
Lina Filimonova