Zhanna Bichevskaya
Encyclopedia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n bard
Bard (Soviet Union)
The term bard came to be used in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, and continues to be used in Russia today, to refer to singer-songwriters who wrote songs outside the Soviet establishment, similarly to beatnik folk singers of the United States...
and folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
ian.
She was born in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and in 1971 she graduated from the Moscow Circus and Performing Arts School. She was teacher of music in Zagorsk (Sergiev Posad).
In the 1970s, Zhanna started to perform Russian folk songs and romance
Romance (music)
The term romance has a centuries-long history. Applied to narrative ballads in Spain, it came to be used by the 18th century for simple lyrical pieces not only for voice, but also for instruments alone. During the 18th and 19th centuries Russian composers developed the French variety of the...
s.
At that time she was deeply influenced by Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Okudzhava
Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter. He was one of the founders of the Russian genre called "author song"...
, and she quickly gained popularity in Russia and abroad with some critics dubbing her the Russian Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
. According to Mick Jagger, 'Bichevskaya is an island of true, eternal art in the ocean of modern music'.
Her unique style of music is often described as Russian country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
-folk.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Zhanna Bichevskaya's songs started to have more political, nationalist and spiritual themes.
She performed a series of White Guard
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
officer's songs, as well as a series of religious songs. The lyrics to the latter were composed by Father Roman, a priest of the Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery
Pskovo-Pechorsky Monastery
Pskov-Caves Monastery or The Pskovo-Pechersky Dormition Monastery or Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery is a Russian Orthodox male monastery, located in Pechory, Pskov Oblast in Russia, just a few kilometers from the Estonian border....
.
In 1999, Zhanna also became the host of her own show on Voice of Russia
Voice of Russia
Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service owned by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. Its predecessor Radio Moscow was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.-Early years:Radio Moscow...
radio station.
Her album "Hieromonk Romans's songs" was benedicted by Hieromonk
Hieromonk
Hieromonk , also called a Priestmonk, is a monk who is also a priest in the Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholicism....
Roman in 1997.
Zhanna Bichevskaya's political and religious stances attracted some criticism and controversy. She has been an active proponent of granting sainthood to tsar Ivan the Terrible. In 2006 a song of Zhanna Bichevskaya "We, Russians!" ("Мы, Русские!") caused considerable controversy. A video-clip accompanying the song includes a segment with a Russian military aircraft firing rockets followed by the scenes of destruction of American cities from the movie Independence Day
Independence Day (film)
Independence Day is a 1996 science fiction film about an alien invasion of Earth, focusing on a disparate group of individuals and families as they converge in the Nevada desert and, along with the rest of the human population, participate in a last-chance counterattack on July 4 – the same...
.
Discography
- Мы русские (We Are Russians )
- Русский марш (Russian Marsh )
- Грозный Царь (Grozny Tsar)
- Мы православные (We're Orthodox)
- На этнической войне (In the ethnical war)
- Марш славянки (Marsh of Slavianka,)
- Прощание славянки (Farewell of SlaviankaFarewell of SlaviankaFarewell of Slavianka is a Russian patriotic march, written by the composer Vasily Agapkin in honour of the Bulgarian women bidding farewell to their husbands who left for the First Balkan War. The march premiered in Tambov in 1912 and was subsequently released as a single...
)