Aida Vedischeva - 80: What the performer of "Songs about Bears" did not share with Natalya Varley, and how her life in the USA turned out

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

June 10 marks the 80th anniversary of the singer, who in the 1970s. was one of the most popular performers in the USSR - Aida Vedischeva. Her songs "Somewhere in this world …", "Forest deer", "Help me", "Lullaby of the Bear" sounded in cult films and cartoons, the whole country knew them, but all the laurels went to other artists - for example, Natalia Varley. The singer was accused of "vulgarity and lack of ideology", she was removed from concerts and was not allowed on television. As a result, she decided to emigrate to the United States. How her fate developed after that and why she left her American millionaire husband - further in the review.

How Ida Weiss turned into Aida Vedischeva

Her real name is Ida Weiss. She was born just before the start of the war, on June 10, 1941, in Kazan, where her parents moved from Kiev. No one in the family had anything to do with the world of art - her mother, Elena Emelyanova, was a surgeon, and her father, Solomon Weiss, was an outstanding dentist, whose textbooks were used by students of medical schools throughout the USSR. At the same time, music was always heard in their house - the mother sang beautifully, the doctor-sister had a strong operatic voice. During the war, 15 of their mother's relatives were evacuated from Kiev to Kazan from Kiev, and they all played different musical instruments and arranged improvised concerts at home.

When Ida was 4, 5 years old, her mother hired a governess who taught her English, and later, when the family moved to Irkutsk in 1951, Ida continued to study English at home, and studied German at school. She attended these classes under the pressure, because then she could not imagine how knowledge of foreign languages would be useful to her in the future.

In fact, only music really fascinated her. Later she will say: "". In Irkutsk, Ida graduated from a music school and began performing there in the student theater of musical comedy. At the insistence of her parents, she entered the Institute of Foreign Languages, and then transferred to the correspondence department and went to storm the theatrical universities of the capital. Ida went through all the rounds, but she was not accepted, explaining it this way: "".

Ida was convinced that the only reason for her failure was her Jewish name. Be that as it may, she returned to Irkutsk, completed her studies at the institute and worked at the Oryol Philharmonic. Once the capital's circus artists came to them on tour, and Ida met her future husband, Vyacheslav Vedishchev, who invited her to Moscow. Vedishchev hired her vocal tutors, introduced her to the head of the jazz orchestra Oleg Lundstrem, and she began performing with them, and later sang in the orchestra of Leonid Utesov. In the mid-1960s. Aida Vedishcheva began giving recitals with the Meloton ensemble and the Blue Guitars VIA.

Conflict with Natalia Varley

In 1966, composer Alexander Zatsepin announced a radio competition to find a special singer to perform songs in Leonid Gaidai's film "Prisoner of the Caucasus". Of the many applicants, Zatsepin chose Aida Vedishcheva, and it was she who sang the famous hit "Somewhere in this world …" ("Song of the Bears"). But the name of the singer was not mentioned in the credits of the film, and the audience was convinced that this song was performed by the actress Natalya Varley, because her heroine sang it in the frame. They did not remember her last name in the credits of the film "The Diamond Arm", where the singer sang the song "Help Me". Aida Vedischeva was outraged by this - she always knew her worth and did not tolerate such a disrespectful attitude towards herself.

Since then, Varley and Vedishcheva spoke extremely unflatteringly about each other. The singer rated her acting and vocal abilities low and believed that her rival worked unprofessionally in front of cameras, and besides, she could not forgive the actress for performing her songs at concerts. And Varley, in turn, was offended that she was not allowed to perform in the film "The Song of Bears" - Gaidai planned that she would sing, but then Zatsepin brought Vedishcheva and insisted on her candidacy.

Unforgiven grudges

In 1972, the film "Oh, this Nastya!" Was released, where the song "Forest Deer" was performed by Aida Vedishcheva. This time her name was indicated in the credits, but the singer already had other ambitions - she wanted to create her own show, in the musical genre. Her ideas were not appreciated, in the format of the musical they saw susceptibility to the influence of the West. Increasingly, Vedishcheva was attacked by officials who accused her of "lack of ideology and vulgarity," more and more often she was removed from concerts and practically ceased to be shown on television. The singer saw the reason in her own disobedience and anti-Semitism of the State Television and Radio Administration.

Musician Igor Granov was sure that the real reason for Aida Vedischeva's failures on the stage was not her Jewish origin, but what is called "acting pinch": the singer always put on a show around herself, in her behavior on stage everything was somehow deliberate and too … Friends spoke of her as a self-confident, relaxed and extravagant artist, which was unacceptable for the Soviet stage of those times. According to Granov, Vedishcheva did not tolerate any comments in her address, she perceived any criticism as a personal disaster and did not listen to advice.

The American Dream of a Soviet Singer

Whatever the real reasons for her career failures, one thing was clear: she could no longer work in the USSR. And at the age of 39, Aida Vedishcheva made a difficult decision for herself - to leave for the USA. Later, she explained her decision as follows: "".

At that time, she was already in a second marriage, with musician Boris Dvernik. They left together, but broke up soon after moving to America. The third husband of the singer was the American millionaire of Polish origin Jay Markoff. They lived together for 6 years, and then the litigation lasted for another 3 years because of their divorce - her husband could not forgive her for not giving up the stage for his sake. He wanted Aida to quit touring and give no more than one concert a year and only in Los Angeles, but she was not ready for such sacrifices and left her husband. For the fourth and last time, Vedishcheva married an emigrant from Israel, Naim Bedzhim, with whom she has been living for more than 25 years.

She dreamed of becoming the star of American musicals on Broadway, but she never succeeded. Aida studied at the College of Arts, began performing on stage with songs in English and even fulfilled an old dream - she prepared the musical "Masterpiece and Singing Freedom", which was shown on Broadway for several years, and also gave a recital at Carnegie Hall, but all the singer did not receive wide popularity abroad.

At first, Vedishcheva periodically came to her homeland, but in her mature years she could hardly endure flights and began to visit Russia less and less. Even today she remains energetic, artistic and charming. And all the same optimist, never complaining about fate. The singer says: "".

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