Mirage soloist Margarita Sukhankina: “Georgian cuisine is my passion”

Biography

Margarita Sukhankina is a Soviet and Russian opera and pop singer. She performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, but in the 80-90s her voice was heard in all domestic discos, because it was Sukhankina who performed the popular hits of the disco group “Mirage”.

Margarita was born in Moscow into a family of engineers. The Sukhankins were not rich people; the girl often had to wear her older brother’s clothes. At the age of 4, Margarita’s parents took her to the Palace of Pioneers and Schoolchildren on the Lenin Hills, where the little girl was accepted into the choir and soon became a soloist. Later, the girl also began studying piano at a music school.

Singer Margarita Sukhankina

In 1975, Sukhankina joined the Big Children's Choir of the All-Union Radio and Central Television under the direction of Viktor Popov, in which she immediately became the soloist of the senior group. Tours began throughout the union republics, and later abroad, numerous concerts and festivals, and filming on television. Later, Margarita called the director of the Big Children's Choir her godfather in music.

After graduating from eighth grade, Margarita Sukhankina entered the music pedagogical school, after which she applied to the conservatory, but did not pass the competition. In the second year, the girl faces a similar failure. Then - again a refusal, both at the conservatory and at the faculty of musical comedy at GITIS.

Margarita Sukhankina

In the end, the persistent girl manages to become a student at the Gnessin State Pedagogical Institute, which Rita soon leaves. The fact is that there the teacher decided to retrain Sukhankina to a different voice - soprano, while Margarita has a congenital mezzo-soprano, that is, the tone is somewhat lower.

The following year, the now completely self-confident applicant finally submitted to the examination committee of the Conservatory. After receiving her diploma, a period begins in Sukhankina’s creative biography associated with classical music. A young opera singer performs at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater.

Singer Margarita Sukhankina

During her 10 years of service, Sukhankina performed almost the entire classical repertoire of the theater, but at the beginning of the 21st century she left the troupe. Among the roles that Margarita performed were the roles of Olga from “Eugene Onegin” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Laura from “The Stone Guest” by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, Cherubino from “The Marriage of Figaro” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Early years, youth

Margarita Anatolyevna was born on April 10, 1964. The family lived in Moscow.
Her parents worked as engineers. From the age of 4, Rita sang in the choir of the Palace of Pioneers, then went to music school, where she began to learn to play the piano. In 1975, the girl joined the television and radio choir, becoming a soloist in the senior group. The group had many tours, including abroad. They appeared on TV and participated in festivals.

After eighth grade, Sukhankina graduated from a music pedagogical school. Then she entered the conservatory, GITIS, but her attempts were unsuccessful. The girl began to study at Gnesinka, but dropped out. Then she still managed to get into the conservatory.

Music

Back in the mid-80s, Margarita Sukhankina recorded songs with her friend Andrei Lityagin. At first, the girl’s vocals sounded in the songs of the “Activity Zone” group, and then Rita sang three compositions – “Video”, “The Stars Are Waiting for Us” and “This Night”, which were included in the debut album of the group “Mirage”. In addition to Rita, the voice of Natalia Gulkina sounded on this record.

However, for Sukhankina, these recordings were only entertainment and had no commercial meaning. The singer also recorded all the songs on the second album, “Together Again,” which made Mirage one of the most popular groups in the USSR. The hits “Music has bound us”, “New hero”, “I don’t ask anymore” and “Night is coming” sounded from every home.

And here Margarita Sukhankina got scared! The singer asked Lityagin not to indicate anywhere that he had anything to do with the pop recording, otherwise this could be the reason for expulsion from the conservatory, to which the girl had been going for so long. As a result, Tatyana Ovsienko, Irina Saltykova, and Natalya Vetlitskaya danced on stage to the singer’s soundtrack, but none of the listeners knew about the real owner of a clear voice.

Margarita Sukhankina

In fact, Margarita also recorded the third disc, “Not for the First Time,” for free, which was released on cassette in 1989. Officially, the record began to be distributed only in 2008 and already with the performance of all vocal parts by Ekaterina Boldysheva. The album includes the musical compositions “I’m Waiting for You,” “You’re Like a Shadow,” “Two of Us.”

After leaving the Bolshoi Theater, Sukhankina recorded her solo “Chuvash Album”. By this time, the fashion for retro and disco of the 80s began in Russia. This served as an incentive for the singer to come out of the shadows and finally appear before the public as a performer of legendary songs. Sukhankina teams up with Natalia Gulkina, calling the duet “Solo”, and then changing the name of the ensemble to “Golden Voices of the Mirage Group”.

Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina

For the opportunity to perform with the songs of the Mirage group, which were rightfully included in the golden fund of Russian pop music, the artists paid royalties to the creators of the musical compositions.

In 2005, the singers recorded the hit “Simply Mirage” and an album of the same name, released as a disc of the duet Gulkina and Sukhankina. A year later, the singers took to the stage of the Rossiya State Central Concert Hall, where a solo concert took place. In 2007, the Mirage group was officially revived. Andrei Lityagin again became its leader. In 2008, the musical group won the television competition “Superstar 2008. Dream Team”, which was held on the NTV channel.

In 2009, Gulkina and Sukhankina recorded the album “A Thousand Stars”. The title song, as well as the disco hit “The Night Flickers,” for which videos were released, become popular. A year later, the artists participated in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where they gave two solo concerts.

Subsequently, Gulkina was replaced by another former lead singer of the group, Svetlana Razina. The last album, “Let Me Go,” was released in 2013, but by the time it appeared in “Mirage,” only Margarita Sukhankina remained as a vocalist.

In 2021, the artist officially began her solo career. With her musicians, Margarita performs Mirage songs, for which she received copyright permission from the creators of the group, as well as new musical compositions. One of Margarita Sukhankina’s last hits was the song “My Love.”

Since 2021, Ekaterina Boldysheva is officially listed as the soloist of “Mirage”. She performed songs by Andrei Lityagin, such as “White Snow Was Falling” and “Star Scattering”.

Biography[ | ]

Born in 1964 in Moscow into a family of engineers[1].

In 1971 she entered the regional music school to study piano[2].

From 1976 to 1984 she was a soloist of the Big Children's Choir of the All-Union Radio and Central Television under the direction of Viktor Popov[3].

In 1979, the singer entered the music pedagogical school, which she graduated in 1983 with a diploma in “Music teacher and music educator.”[2]

Beginning in 1983, she failed to enter the conservatory for two years in a row, and as a result she became a student at the Gnessin State Pedagogical Institute.[2] However, she decided to leave the institute due to her disagreement with the teacher’s demand to change mezzo-soprano to soprano.[2]

In 1986 she entered the conservatory.

In 1985, she collaborated with Andrei Lityagin for recordings in the “Activity Zone” group. In 1986, she recorded three songs for the first magnetic album of the Mirage group: “Video”, “The stars are waiting for us” and “This night”. In 1988, she recorded the second album “Together Again” in its entirety, with the songs and voice from which Tatyana Ovsienko and Irina Saltykova toured.

In 1989, she recorded her third album, “Not for the First Time,” which was never released. The demo versions of this album were performed by Ekaterina Boldysheva (in her own voice) and Tatyana Ovsienko. After Mirage, she began her career as an opera soloist at the Bolshoi Theater.

In 1991 she graduated from the conservatory under the direction of Nina Lvovna Dorliak.[2]

In 2002 she left the Bolshoi Theater[2]. Recorded the “Chuvash Album”. In 2004, together with Natalia Gulkina, she recorded the album “Simply Mirage”. By 2007, the duet of Gulkina and Sukhankina, by court decision, received the name “Group of composer Andrei Lityagin “Mirage”. In 2008, the group released two videos - for the songs “1000 Stars” and “The Night Flickers.”

On September 17, 2009, the Mirage group’s album “1000 Stars” was released; in 2013 - the album “Let Me Go.”

Since September 2021, she has been performing with her own musical group and performing songs that she performed as part of the Mirage group, since she received permission to perform from the authors.[4][5][6]

On February 11, 2021, the international children's vocal competition “You're Super!” started on NTV, in which she acted as a member of the jury.[7]

On February 14, 2021, the author of the lyrics of the Mirage group, Valery Sokolov, made a statement in which he warned against performing songs without his permission. He stated that permission to perform a number of songs (“Music has connected us”, “Video”, “The Magic World”, “The Stars Are Waiting for Us”, “Milky Way”, “Night Is Coming”, “Snowflake”, “Together Again”, “Sunny Summer”, “Electricity”, “This Night”) were received from him only by Margarita Sukhankina and her team, as well as singer Svetlana Razina, and also that all of these works are excluded from the management of the Russian Society of Authors in terms of public performance and their performance is possible only with his consent.[8]

On August 6, 2021, the singer presented her solo album “Music Connected Us”[9].

In February 2021, the organizers of concerts with the participation of Margarita Sukhankina announced the cancellation of the planned 23 concerts in different cities of the country. The reason for the cancellation was lack of viewer interest.[10][11]

On October 15, 2021, the Arbitration Court of the Volgograd Region made a decision on the claim of Andrey Lityagin against the organizer of Sukhankina’s concert for payment of compensation for the illegal use of works from the repertoire of the Mirage group. The court recognized that Sukhankina's concert was not a theatrical performance, as stated in the poster, and the organizer had to obtain consent from the authors to use the works. According to Andrei Lityagin, this decision “puts an end to the endless speculation that Margarita Sukhankina has all the rights and can sing the songs of the Mirage group.” Andrei Lityagin estimated the amount of compensation that Sukhankina must pay him for the illegal use of his works at 20 million rubles. He once again warned all customers of concerts with the participation of former soloists about criminal liability for the illegal use of his works.[12][13] In July 2021, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation approved the decision of the Volgograd Arbitration Court on the claim of Andrey Lityagin against the organizer of the Margarita Sukhankina concert in Volgograd for violation of exclusive copyrights. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation agreed with the evidence of the fact of “illegal use of these musical works by the defendant through public performance during an event, of which he was the organizer.” Also, by its Ruling, the Supreme Court confirmed the conclusion of the first instance court that “the controversial event cannot be qualified as a complex object - a theatrical entertainment performance.”[14]

Personal life

At the beginning of her opera career, Margarita Sukhankina went to a master class in Germany, where she met Croatian businessman Antun Maruna. Soon the wedding took place, and Rita took not only her husband’s surname, but also accepted his Catholic faith. The couple lived in Germany and Switzerland, but Margarita was not happy that her husband turned her into a housewife and did not allow her to return to the stage. Two years later, the marriage was destroyed, but Rita’s surname Maruna remained in her passport.

Andrey Lityagin and Margarita Sukhankina

Then the artist got married three more times. First for a little-known composer, then for the pianist-accompanist of the Bolshoi Theater. The singer's last husband was a businessman, a retired officer. But none of the marriages turned out to be long-lasting.

Since 2010, Margarita lived in a civil marriage, which she herself called a guest marriage, with composer Andrei Lityagin. The couple even adopted two children, a boy Seryozha and a girl Valeria. This event was widely covered by the press and television, as biological parents, deprived of parental rights, tried to return their children to themselves. But all the public appearances of Seryozha and Lera’s relatives turned out to be, according to Margarita Sukhankina, only falsification, since after the broadcast of the talk show “Let Them Talk” with Andrei Malakhov, the children’s relatives did not apply for guardianship.

However, a conflict arose in the artist’s family - the husband was not ready to love his adopted children as his own. Andrei, according to Margarita, had enough love for his only daughter, who was born in his first marriage. Margarita broke up with Andrey after four years of marriage, and now they are only colleagues.

Now Margarita does not regret her choice in favor of children, but on the contrary, she calls this action the only right decision in her life. The artist’s elderly parents help raise Seryozha and Lera. Together the family lives in a country house in the Moscow region.

Margarita Sukhankina with children

Margarita Sukhankina is interested in raising children. The artist shares her accumulated experience with other parents through the Letidor portal, where Sukhankina has an information column. The artist posts messages about new articles, as well as photos of her children, on her Instagram page.

Quarantine in the family of Margarita Sukhankina: “We locked ourselves at home 2 weeks ago”

Singer Margarita Sukhankina was also forced to change her schedule during the spread of coronavirus. Tours and performances were cancelled. Moreover, the artist turned out to be one of the most conscientious stars and, when the spread of the virus in the capital had just begun, she locked herself at home in quarantine. She shared the details of life in strict self-isolation with WomanHit.ru.

“The main thing that has changed in my life is that I am now constantly at home, which is very unusual. But it makes me and my loved ones happy. Of course, like everyone else, I worry: about the children, about the elderly parents. But the decision to quarantine was not even discussed. “We locked ourselves at home 2 weeks ago, as soon as school was canceled,” the singer said. — Of course, I constantly read articles about safety, and I also talked to doctors I know. I purchased masks and antibacterial products in a timely manner. Our team travels a lot, so these tools are always in our arsenal. Now they are useful for protecting against the virus. We started a “hand washing diary” with the children. Even if we don’t go outside, I make sure that they do this every 2 hours and put a tick next to their name. Animals also roam around the house. We have a fairly large area, there is no need to go beyond it. There is a place to run and walk. We don't go outside the gate. As they say, God protects those who are careful..."

By the way, many during the period of self-isolation complain that they suffer from doing nothing. Sukhankina admits that in her case, peace is only a dream.

“With two children who have a lot of different interests, it’s not boring at all. We draw, study cooking using video lessons, and prepare new dishes. We hold home tournaments in small towns in the yard, watch new films, read books that we haven’t gotten around to. You won't be bored. I enjoy immersing myself in the world of my children’s hobbies. Everything is fine with their studies too. Like all schoolchildren, they study remotely. At first I was afraid that it would be difficult for them to perceive the material in this way, but for them it is like a new useful game. So far everything is working out. Of course, I help with homework, but I always do this. And very often on tour I checked the lessons remotely.”

Now Margarita Sukhankina and her family spend time exclusively within their area

instagram.com/margarita.sukhankina/

Interestingly, constantly staying at home has provided an excellent opportunity for the ever-touring star to improve her culinary skills: the family eats exclusively at home.

“I now have time to experiment in the kitchen. As I already said, my daughter and I have subscribed to several cooking channels and are trying to cook something new. I didn't stock up. When the family is large and there is storage space, there is always a supply of basic products. That’s why I didn’t even go to the store on purpose. Let’s make do with what we have in the house,” the artist concluded.

Margarita Sukhankina now

In 2021, Margarita Sukhankina received an invitation from the creators of the international television competition “You’re Super!”, where she became a member of the jury. Children left without parental care were invited to participate in the show. Together with Margarita Sukhankina, Viktor Drobysh, Yolka and Stas Piekha took places in the judges' chairs. As Margarita later said in an interview, the singer supported all the performers, as she knew their difficult fates, but someone turned out to be closer to the artist in the manner of performance and in spirit.

Margarita Sukhankina in the show “You are Super!”

The victory in the first season of the show was won by a native of Abkhazia, Valeria Adleiba. Six months after the completion of the first season of the project, at the beginning of 2021, Margarita Sukhankina recorded two new hits with the finalists of the show: “I Believe” with Anastasia Simoganova and “Ice Cream” with Nadezhda Shebanova.

Kindness and patience

Oksana Morozova, “AiF.Zdorovye”: You devoted 10 years to the Bolshoi Theater, you have a conservatory behind you. Have you ever regretted that all this was left in the past?

Margarita Sukhankina: Probably not. During my career at the Bolshoi Theater, I achieved everything I wanted and sang a huge number of vocal parts. I can’t say that after leaving the Bolshoi I ​​was left with some unsaid things. Now my life is much richer and more interesting.

– Where are the rules of the game stricter – at the Bolshoi Theater or in show business?

– In fact, it’s difficult for me to compare the rules of the game. Classics is a rather complex genre, not only in terms of performance. In the world of classical music, you often encounter people smiling in your face and saying nice things, but then tripping you up behind your eyes. On the stage everything happens more openly and clearly (smiles).

Article on the topic

Singer Margarita Sukhankina: “Rest for me is to walk through the garden with a watering can”

– Are there many temptations in your profession?

– Temptations are always present in the lives of artists. As for temptations in my understanding, in my career there were some events at which the “powers of this world” were present, and in principle then it was possible to take advantage of the situation and ask for something. But I never did this, because for me this is an unacceptable thing.

– You were on the jury in the “You are Super!” program. Share your impressions of this project. Did he teach you anything personally?

– There should be more such programs on our television. Although, I admit, I cried constantly during the project. Taking into account also the fact that biographies of one or another participant were always laid out on the jury’s table, which we read and understood that we could not say “no” to this child, no matter what he sang and no matter how he sang it. It was difficult to remain objective, knowing about the fate of these guys. This project taught me even more kindness, patience, sympathy and other words with the prefix “with”: compassion, together, etc. This prefix “with” is actually very important in life - I realized this when I had children ...

Margarita Sukhankina: “Trying to become a mother was very difficult for me...” Read more