Alexander Novikov - biography, personal life, creativity

Childhood and youth

Alexander was born in a military town called Burevestnik, which is located on the island of Iturup, part of the Kuril archipelago. The Novikov family, Russian by nationality, ended up there thanks to the service of their father, a military pilot. The future singer’s mother did housework. A few years later, the parents and their son moved to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where Sasha went to school. But the young man graduated from high school in the capital of the Urals - Sverdlovsk, present-day Yekaterinburg.

In addition to Alexander, his younger sister Natasha was brought up in the family. The girl was fond of sports and played for the youth basketball team. At the age of 17, she died along with the entire team during a flight to Prague for a competition.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexander Novikov (@aleksandr_novikov_official) on Jun 17, 2021 at 2:16am PDT

Alexander Novikov in his youth
Alexander, as a teenager, began to have a negative attitude towards the Soviet political system. He even refused to join the Komsomol, which is why he got into trouble with teachers and law enforcement agencies. This fact was the reason why Novikov never received higher education. He entered institutes three times: first to the Ural Polytechnic, then to the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute, then to the Forestry Institute. But the student was expelled from each educational institution.

However, the young man was not too upset, since by that time he had decided to plunge headlong into rock music, and then into chanson. Novikov’s career was already gaining momentum: working in one of the restaurants, the chansonnier managed not only to arrange his life, but also to open his own recording studio, where he created new hits together with the musicians of his group, and also made studio equipment for Palaces of Culture and other institutions. But unexpectedly the artist was arrested.

The primary accusation was: anti-Soviet lyrics. But since it was impossible to pass off wishful thinking even with great effort, the investigation replaced the accusation. Novikov was convicted of allegedly profiteering and falsification of musical equipment.

Alexander Novikov - “Take Me, Cabby”

Of the 10 years to which he was sentenced, the singer spent 6 in prison. Despite the fact that Alexander was offered relatively comfortable occupations, such as a position as a librarian, Novikov refused and, like others, worked in construction and logging. The performer later recalled that in the camps there were constant provocations for him: he was not allowed to visit the club, his neighbors were constantly searched for hidden tape recorders and musical instruments.

The artist overcame a difficult period in his own biography with dignity and earned the respect of other prisoners. Only in 1990, Alexander was released early, since the Supreme Court of the USSR declared the verdict to be false and the arrest to have no basis.

Personal life

Alexander Novikov met his only wife Maria even before the tragic page of his biography, in his early youth. Both were students at the Geological Institute and were undergoing geodetic practice. When the singer went to prison, the woman did not turn away from her husband. Maria, together with Alexander, went through many difficulties in life, the couple have been happy for more than 40 years. In an interview, Novikov said that he was grateful to his wife and would not change anything in his personal life.

This marriage produced two children - son Igor, who is a professional photographer, and daughter Natalya, a designer and art critic. Thanks to the heirs, the singer has already become a grandfather.

During his collaboration with the television project “Three Chords,” Alexander met performer Anastasia Makeeva. The composer did not hide his favor towards the artist, which gave rise to rumors about their romance. But the information was not confirmed.

Alexander Novikov is a deeply religious person. But the singer did not limit himself to prayers and going to church. Together with a bell maker from Uralsk, in 1993, the chansonnier personally cast 7 large bells and decorated them with bas-reliefs depicting princes from the Romanov family. The belfry was selflessly transferred to the monastery, where it still serves people.

There is an official website of the artist, on whose pages photos and videos with the participation of Alexander Novikov are posted.

Creation

In the early 80s, Novikov became interested in music and decided to organize his own group, which he called “Rock Polygon”. For the group, the composer wrote songs, performed them and played the guitar. The style of the singer’s first creations was very different from what fans were accustomed to later. The guys played rock and roll, which even had a touch of punk rock.

In 1981, the first magnetic albums were created at the Novik Records recording studio. And in 1984, Alexander dramatically changed the genre and recorded a collection of soulful songs “Take Me, Cabby,” which included the musical compositions “Where the paths lead,” “Ancient City,” “Penny Rubles,” and “Telephone Conversation.” Then there was a long pause in his career due to his stay in prison.

Having returned, Novikov reissues the previous album. The songs “Remember, girl?..” and “East Street” are becoming popular. Later, the compositions “City Romance”, “Chansonette”, “Break Up with Her” were recognized as hits. Alexander writes his own songs. The artist creates videos for hits that are popular with viewers.

Alexander Novikov - “Golden Fish”

In 1993, Novikov began collaborating with singer Natalya Sturm. The meeting of two musicians happened by chance at the Moscow Variety Theater. Alexander became the author of the songs on the artist’s first two albums, which brought her all-Russian fame. There were various rumors about the creative tandem. Thus, fans of the performer claimed that the composer and producer won her at cards from the mafia. Later, Sturm admitted that the musician himself launched this joke among the people.

The singer has a number of albums in his discography based on poems by other authors. In 1997, the disc “Sergei Yesenin” was released, where the lyrics of the hits were poems by the great Russian poet. Later the singer repeated this experience. The album “I Remember, Darling” based on Yesenin’s poems and “Pineapples in Champagne” was released, in which the authors of the lyrics were various poets of the Silver Age. In addition, the musician pleased fans with a disc of his own composition, “Notes of a Criminal Bard.”

Since the mid-90s, the singer regularly creates solo programs and gives concerts. The artist records music from performances in the form of concert albums. During his musical career, Alexander Novikov was repeatedly nominated for the Chanson of the Year award. In half of these cases he received a reward.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexander Novikov (@aleksandr_novikov_official) on Mar 26, 2021 at 1:17am PDT

Alexander Novikov and Vladimir Presnyakov
The composer not only releases music discs, but also publishes books of poems from the works beloved by the public. The collections “Street Beauty” and “Remember, Girl?..” have become popular.

In 2014, Alexander became a member of the jury of the TV show “Three Chords”. During the broadcasts, Novikov not only assessed the performances of the participants, but also went on stage with popular songs. The premiere of the hit “Fire Girl” took place here. The performer also appears in television programs of other formats. So, in 2014, he gave an interview to Dmitry Gordon in the release of his program.

In 2021, the artist pleased fans with new works - the album “Blatnoy” and the collection “Hooligan Songs”, which included popular hits of the past and new musical compositions.

Alexander Novikov - biography, personal life, creativity

October 31, 1953 In the village of Burevestnik near the island of Iturupe, the creative and famous Alexander Novikov was born. Known as an author and musician of songs in the genre of Russian chanson. His father is a military pilot, his mother is a housewife.

From an early age, his parents comprehensively developed the boy. As a child I went to boxing, then to sambo. Mom tried to instill a love for the theater. The first production they attended was “Unknown Man with a Tail.” The family moved to Kyrgyzstan to the city of Bishkek, the boy was 6 years old. Went to first grade in 1960. In 1969 moved to Sverdlovsk, where he completed his education, and in 1970 received his diploma. To this day he works and lives in Sverdlovsk. After he graduated from school, he entered three universities: the Ural Polytechnic, the Sverdlovsk Mining, and the Ural Forestry, and from each he was expelled for their own reasons.

Personal life

At the last university I met a girl named Masha. Soon, in 1975, she became his wife and in the same year gave birth to his son Igor. Seven years later, she also gave birth to a daughter, who was named Natasha. Novikov challenged rules and principles. The guy had character and often went against people's opinions. He criticized the Soviet regime. In principle he was not a Komsomol member; he terribly did not tolerate them. The authorities were interested in such a person, and the highest circles kept a vigilant eye on him.

Hobbies

Since the 1970s, he fell in love with cars and for this reason he got a job as an auto mechanic. His job was to restore cars after car accidents. Novikov had a “kopek” car, which he purchased. Some driver crashed it, and Alexander managed to restore it, thus taking it for himself. In the late 70s I became interested in rock music. Sasha got a job in restaurants in Sverdlovsk as a musician and singer. He worked in such establishments as “Cosmos”, “Malachite”, “Ural dumplings”.

The beginning of creativity

Over the 4 years of work, I collected quite a lot of money. He opened his own workshop, Novik-Records. There he began recording his rock songs.

He created his own group “Rock Polygon” in 1980. He called his first album “Rock Polygon”. The songs were performed in the styles of rock and roll, reggae, new wave with elements of punk rock and psychedelic rock. The government did not support the activity of the musicians, so the group was not entirely legal. The musical equipment was made by Novikov himself. Musicians still use some of the equipment today.

In 1984, Alexander Novikov liked chanson, he wanted to create his own “sultry” songs. In 1984, he released an album with 18 songs. The following people worked on the creation of the album: Abramov, Khomenko, Chekunov, Kuznetsov, Elizarov. This is how the hits “Take Me, Cabby”, “I Came from the Jewish Quarter” and “Remember, Girl?” appeared.

We worked on the album at night in the Sverdlovsky House of Culture. They avoided the authorities, they were afraid that they would not have time to finish what they started, but they were not afraid of prison. An elderly gentleman, an expert in this matter, took up the promotion of this album. True, he immediately told Novikov: “I can roll this out to the whole country in two months, but you, young man, will be imprisoned.” The guy’s moral character did not stop him, and already on May 3, 1984, the album “Take Me, Cabby” was released. The album became very popular, broke all records in terms of circulation, and was listened to in all corners of the country and throughout the Soviet Union. The furor was amazing. The musician was being watched, his phone was wiretapped, and the sector of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was outraged by this behavior.

Arrest and freedom

On October 5, 1984, the musician was captured right on the street and placed in a detention center in Sverdlovsk. The criminal case contained every song of his and a review of it. The authorities believed that Alexander Novikov should go to either a psychiatric hospital or prison. The musician was also accused of creating musical equipment. He was given 10 years of strict regime.

During all the years of imprisonment, he was offered light work, but Alexander refused; he, like everyone else, worked in logging and construction. Novikov was a man with a modest demeanor who was not afraid of hard work, for which all the prisoners respected him. While alone in the cell for 30 days, he wrote his next song, “On the Eastern Street.” He was released in 1990 by the Russian Armed Forces and the verdict was annulled. In the 90s he became artistic director of the Song Theater. The musician was included in the list of undesirable persons for his unpleasant statements.

Creative inspiration

Towards the mid-90s, Alexander Novikov began performing on television and radio. He toured, gave concerts and recorded new albums.

In 1993 he was the producer of the young singer Natalya Sturm. He made a documentary film about the group “Boney M.” and its creator Frank Farian "Oh, this Farian!" in 1994. Filming took place in Luxembourg and Germany, the film included unique interviews with Farian and materials from his personal archive. The film was not shown in Russia. Alexander Novikov also starred in such films as “Gop-Stop Show”, “Remember, Girl?”, “I Just Got Out of the Cage”. Novikov received the Ovation Award in the Urban Romance category in 1995. He created an album called “Sergei Yesenin”, wrote songs based on the poet’s poems, musicians appreciated his album and considered it the best. Alexander wrote over 300 songs and poems.

The first video that became unique was “Chansonette”. In this video, all the characters were made by hand without the help of computer graphics. Alexander Novikov was the first to create the genre of urban romance.

Life today

Today, Sasha lives with his wife and is proud of his children and grandchildren. Loves fishing and hunting. He became an authority in criminal circles, but he sees nothing wrong with it. Sasha is a believer and helps in the construction of the temple. He cast bells for the Church on the Blood and for the Monastery of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers on Ganina Yama. The bells are uniquely designed. He became an outstanding musician of the twentieth century. He considers “Remember, Girl?” to be his best work. Takes part in the Kremlin National Award “Chanson of the Year”. He classifies his songs as masculine lyrics. Tours often. Alexander Novikov is a musician, composer, singer, author and public figure. President of the Ural Foundation “400 years of the House of Romanov”. He directs the Variety Theater in Yekaterinburg.

When he was appointed artistic director, the first thing he did was give an order to ban the play “Blue Puppy,” in which he saw signs of promoting pedophilia.

Social activity

In 2010, Alexander Novikov was appointed artistic director of the Variety Theater in his native Yekaterinburg. First of all, the musician reviewed the repertoire and banned the production of “The Blue Puppy,” which was beloved by Ural theatergoers. The artist saw in the performance a hint of the theme of pedophilia, low-grade and bad taste of the artistic presentation of the material.

In 2011, Novikov, together with opposition politician Alexei Navalny, called on residents of Yekaterinburg not to ignore the elections and to vote according to their conscience. There was even a video parody of the standard election ad “GOLO...SUY!” And in the summer of 2021, it became known that Alexander Vasilyevich was going to run for deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk Region.

It is also worth noting that Novikov acted as a director of several documentaries: “I Just Got Out of the Cage”, “Gop-Stop Show” and “Remember, Girl?..” The most popular was the biographical film “Oh, that Farian!” about the founder of the group Boney M Frank Farian. True, this picture was never shown on Russian television, although it was a success abroad.

Alexander Novikov now

In 2021, the artist pleased fans with new works - the album “Blatnoy” and the collection “Hooligan Songs”, which included popular hits of the past and new musical compositions.

In 2015, a criminal case was initiated

under the article “fraud on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy” in connection with the loss of 50 million rubles during the construction of the Bay of Queens housing construction cooperative. Mikhail Shilimanov, former Deputy Minister of Economy of the Sverdlovsk Region, was also involved in the case.

Musician Alexander Novikov

The case was resolved over the course of two years. In August 2021, the Ekaterinburg court issued a final verdict to the musician regarding his involvement in the crime. Alexander Novikov remained disagree with the accusation, providing evidence of his own innocence, one of which was the completion of construction and delivery of real estate to housing and communal services shareholders.

After the trial, Channel One aired the program “Let Them Talk,” where the public spoke out about the scandal. In turn, in October the singer filed a lawsuit

against the creators of the TV show and TV presenter D. Borisov, accusing them of slander and denigration of the artist’s reputation. Alexander reported this from his own Facebook account. A check has now begun on the legality of the television workers’ actions.

Problems with law

In 2015, a criminal case was opened against Alexander Novikov under the article “Fraud on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy” in connection with the loss of 50 million rubles. during the construction of the Queens Bay housing cooperative. Mikhail Shilimanov, former Deputy Minister of Economy of the Sverdlovsk Region, was also involved in the case.

The case was resolved over the course of 2 years. In August 2021, the Yekaterinburg court issued a final verdict implicating the musician in the crime. Alexander Novikov did not agree with the accusation, providing evidence of his own innocence. One of these was the completion of construction and delivery of real estate to shareholders.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexander Novikov (@aleksandr_novikov_official) on Mar 24, 2021 at 11:22pm PDT

Restaurateur Alexander Novikov
After the trial, Channel One broadcast the program “Let Them Talk,” where the public spoke out about the scandal. In turn, in October the singer sued the creators of the TV show and presenter Dmitry Borisov, accusing him of slander and tarnishing his reputation. Alexander reported this on his own Facebook account. The legality of the TV crew's actions was checked.

Only 2 years later, the criminal prosecution of the musician was dropped due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

Queens Cove scandal

2016 became quite controversial for Alexander Novikov; there are many blank spots in the artist’s biography and personal life, which force envious and uninformed people to make a wide variety of assumptions. The situation with the “Queens Bay” cottage community could not have happened without them. According to investigators, Novikov and his accomplice collected more than 150 million rubles from shareholders, after which they transferred them to their own accounts.

Construction was frozen, and the total amount of damage was estimated at more than 35 million rubles. After lengthy proceedings, the artist was charged with fraud; as of September 2021, the case is ongoing, and the houses still remain unfinished. The musician claims that this criminal proceeding is fabricated, and the investigation is constantly preventing the completion of construction and putting the buildings into operation.

Discography

• 1993 — “Drive me, cabbie”
• 1995 — “Chansonette”
• 1995 — “City Romance”
• 1996 — “With a beauty in my arms”
• 1997 — “Sergei Yesenin”
• 1999 — “Burlak”
• 2000 — “Wall”
• 2000 — “Beautiful Eyes”
• 2003 — “Real”
• 2005 — “Ponty Amur”
• 2007 — “Luali”
• 2008 - “I remember, my love...”
• 2010 — “Pineapples in champagne”
• 2012 — “Break up with her”
• 2013 — “E-album”
• 2016 — “Blatnoy”
• 2018 — “Girl Fire”