Eduard Khil

Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (; 4 September 1934 – 4 June 2012), often anglicized as Edward Hill, was a Soviet-Russian baritone singer and a recipient of the People's Artist of the RSFSR. Khil became known to international audiences in 2010, when a 1976 recording of him singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song "I Am Very Glad, as I'm Finally Returning Back Home" () became an Internet meme, often referred to as "Trololol" or "Trololo", as an onomatopoeia of the song, or as the "Russian Rickroll", and, as such, the song was commonly associated with Internet trolling. The song's newfound prominence in Internet culture led him to adopt Mr. Trololo as a stage name.
Early life and education.
Khil was born on 4 September 1934 in Smolensk to Anatoly Vasilievich Khil, a mechanic, and Yelena Pavlovna Kalugina, an accountant. Life as a child was hard for Khil. With his family breaking up, he was brought up by his mother. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII Eastern Front), his kindergarten was bombed and he was separated from his mother and evacuated to Bekovo, Penza Oblast where he ended up in a children's home, which lacked basic facilities and needs, including food. Despite the desperate situation, Khil regularly performed in front of wounded soldiers in the nearby hospital. He was reunited with his mother in 1943 when Smolensk was liberated from Nazi Germany and in 1949 moved to Leningrad, where he enrolled in and then graduated from printing college. In 1955, Khil enrolled in the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied under direction of Yevgeny Olkhovsky and Zoya Lodyi. He graduated in 1960. During his studies, he began performing various lead operatic roles, including Figaro in "The Marriage of Figaro".
Career.
After graduating he became interested in pop music after attending a Klavdiya Shulzhenko concert, and started to perform popular music. This led to him winning several prizes in the next two decades. He won the "All Russian Competition for Performers" in 1962 and was invited to perform at the "Festival of Soviet Songs" in 1965. He attained second place in Sopot International Song Festival in 1965. In 1967, composer Andrey Petrov won the USSR State Prize for a collection of songs performed mainly by Khil, and in 1968 Khil won the Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR. The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was awarded in 1971, and Russia's most prestigious artist award, the People's Artist of Russia, was awarded to Khil in 1974. He was so successful that the public called him the 'Symbol of Leningrad'.
Between 1977 and 1979, Khil taught solo singing at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy.
Khil toured in over 80 countries and lived at Tolstoy House () in St. Petersburg.
After his singing career faded in the early 1990s, Khil re-entered private life and worked in a cafe in Paris, singing cabaret. In 1996, upon the suggestion of his son Dmitry, he became part of "Khil and the Sons", a joint project with the rock band Prepinaki.
For his 75th birthday, Khil was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 4th Class in 2009 by Russia and, in 2010, performed in St. Petersburg's Victory Day Parade.
Song style.
He was the first artist to sing such songs as "Woodcutters" (), "I am so happy to be finally back at home, Moonstone" () by Arkady Ostrovsky, "A song about a friend" (), "And people go to the sea" () by Andrey Petrov and "Blue Cities" (). Other popular songs performed by Khil included "From where does the homeland begin?" (), "How the steamers are seen off" (), "Winter" (), "Birch sap" (), "Alder Catkin" (), "We need one victory" (), and many others.
Khil's manner of singing and performance was unique and easily recognizable in Russia (as well as in other countries that were part of the USSR), characterized by his personal charm and his lyrical baritone, which combined a degree of optimism and humor.
Personal life.
The family name "Khil" is thought to have come from a Spanish ancestor with the surname "Gil", which is pronounced similarly to "hill".
In July 1958, Khil met ballerina Zoya Pravdina, while performing alongside her at the Leningrad Conservatory. During the summer and fall, they toured together, and began a romantic relationship. They were married on 1 December 1958, and stayed married until his death in 2012.
The couple had one son, Dmitri, born 2 June 1963, and a grandson named Eduard (born in 1997) after his grandfather.
Illness and death.
On 8 April 2012, Khil suffered a stroke and was hospitalized with serious brain injuries at the Mariinsky Hospital in St. Petersburg, where he fell into a coma immediately afterward. His condition was later reported as critical, with now irreversible brain damage. Doctors were initially optimistic about a partial recovery, but later retracted these statements. He died in the hospital in St. Petersburg on 4 June 2012, from complications from the stroke, aged 77, two days after his son's 49th birthday.
Among people who offered their condolences to Khil's family was Russia's President Vladimir Putin. He said about Eduard Khil:
Legacy.
Internet videos.
In 2009, a 1976 video of Khil singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song "I am very glad, as I'm finally returning back home" () was uploaded to YouTube and became known as "Trololol" or "Trololo". The name "Trololo" is an onomatopoeia of the distinctive way Khil vocalizes throughout the song. The video quickly went viral and Khil became known as "Mr. Trololo" or "Trololo Man". The viral video also has been referred to as the Russian Rickroll.
The song was written by Arkady Ostrovsky. Besides Khil, it was also performed by Valery Obodzinsky, Hungarian singer János Koós, and by Muslim Magomayev on the "Little Blue Light" programme in the Soviet Union although Magomayev's version was sped up slightly causing the song to be played almost a semi-tone higher.
According to Khil, the "Trololo" song originally featured lyrics which described a narrative about a cowboy riding a horse to his farm:
The "Trololo" video first appeared on some sites beginning on 21 February 2010, the most prominent of those being the "Trololo" website trololololololololololo.com that helped push the video into popular awareness, receiving more than 3,000,000 hits in its first month. It gained prominence on 3 March 2010, during a segment on "The Colbert Report" after appearing on "Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld" a handful of times over the previous couple of weeks. It was also parodied by actor Christoph Waltz on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" as well as Craig Reucassel of The Chaser on the 2010 Australian TV specials "Yes We Canberra!", and in September 2011 on the animated American television series "Family Guy" in its tenth-season premiere episode, "Lottery Fever".
"Trololo"'s popularity in turn re-ignited interest in Khil's singing career aside from his vocalised performance; for a time, the "Trololo" website included a petition for Khil to come out of retirement to perform on a world tour.
Arkady Ostrovsky's son, Mikhail, gives another version of the vocalise story:
Khil's son was quoted as saying "He thinks maybe someone is trying to make a fool of him," and "He keeps asking, 'Where were all these journalists 40 years ago?'"
"Trololo" was used by Butlins in a television advertising campaign in the United Kingdom, as well as a United States ad campaign with the Volkswagen Beetle convertible that debuted during Super Bowl XLVII in 2013. It was also featured in the 2012 video game '. It was played briefly in the 2018 film '.
On 31 December 2011, Khil performed the Trololo song again live on a 2012 New Year's Russian holiday television special. Within the first week of January 2012, the new video of Khil performing his new version of the Trololo song had gone viral on YouTube again, earning over four million hits. Khil died later that year.
On 4 September 2017, Google displayed an interactive doodle of Khil singing the Trololo song, celebrating what would have been his 83rd birthday. Although it was released on the doodle site on the 4th, it was not released until the next day 5 September due to Labor Day in some countries.