Stars of the 2000s: Truth and Myths about Vitas' meteoric rise and mysterious disappearance

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

The peak of his fame came in the early 2000s. Probably, few performers manage to make a splash from the very first appearance on the stage, but this is exactly what happened with Vitas. The hit "Opera No. 2" broke all music records and brought the singer the fame of the most extraordinary vocalist and the most mysterious character of the Russian stage. He did not tell anything about himself, which further fueled interest in his person. And a few years later Vitas disappeared as suddenly as he appeared. Since then, his name was mentioned only in connection with another scandal arranged by the singer. What is the truth of this?

No, he did not come from another planet, as a character in "The Tale of the Star Boy". The first half of his life was mundane and prosaic - the same as that of many of his peers. He was born in 1979 in Daugavpils, Latvia. His real name is Vitaly Vladasovich Grachev. Vitas is the Latvian version of the singer's name. True, he did not live in Latvia for long, soon after his birth, his parents moved to Odessa, where he grew up. Vitaly studied at a regular secondary school and mastered playing the accordion at a music school. He has been very musical and artistic since childhood, although no one in his family had anything to do with the art world.

Grandfather dreamed that Vitaly would build a military career, his father saw him as a football player, and he himself studied in the theater of plastics and voice parody and dreamed of a stage. At the age of 14, the young man wrote his most famous song - "Opera No. 2". After leaving school, he went to conquer the capital. Producer Sergei Pudovkin took the talented singer under his tutelage, thanks to whom the first video for the song "Opera No. 2" soon appeared.

His solo career began in 2000, and this was the beginning of a new period in his life. Instead of the usual provincial guy Vitaly Grachev, the mysterious unearthly singer Vitas appeared, who immediately attracted attention not only with a piercing falsetto, but also with his original appearance. In the video, he appeared with gills around his neck, and many strange tales were immediately born in the media that the singer really cannot do without water for a long time, that he is a descendant of Ichthyander, that he can temporarily stop his heart and be transported to parallel worlds. The more absurd such stories were, the more the public wanted to know what was really behind it all.

The calculation was correct: it was possible to create excitement around the new star very quickly. A halo of mystery intrigued the audience and gave the singer charm. He deliberately categorically refused to be interviewed, and his producer gave information in a very metered manner. Here is what the artist himself said about this in 2019: "".

After Vitas appeared on the stage, both ordinary listeners and experts naturally have a question: what is the secret of his amazing falsetto, because a man cannot draw such high notes, and why does the singer never sing in the chest register? Producer Sergei Pudovkin explained Vitas' extraordinary abilities by the special device of his throat and ligaments. Allegedly, this is why he was able to cover even Sergei Penkin with his 4 octaves. But the professionals did not observe any extraordinary abilities of the singer at all. Music teachers drew attention to the fact that at low and middle notes he always switches to recitative, which is typical for performers who have never done vocals professionally, and there can be no talk of 5, 5 octaves here. Some have suggested that the high notes for the singer are played by the computer. The producer replied that his performer always performs live. Vitas himself proved this to the public more than once, demonstrating his vocal abilities.

Music critics called his songs monotonous and bored very quickly. A few years later, Vitas's career began to decline, and soon he completely disappeared from the field of view of the fans. There were no less rumors about his disappearance than about his appearance on the stage. Most often, they wrote that the singer abuses alcohol and even years after his triumph cannot get rid of star fever. There were certain grounds for such rumors.

In 2007, the singer was deprived of his driver's license for 2 years due to the fact that he was driving while intoxicated. In 2013, he hit a cyclist who, fortunately survived, hit a police officer and refused to undergo a medical examination. Then he pleaded guilty in court and publicly apologized for his behavior. As a result, he was deprived of his driver's license for a period of 1.5 years. In 2018, a new scandal erupted: Vitas staged a shooting at birds in the courtyard of his house on Rublevka and received 7 days of arrest "for petty hooliganism." Because of all these events, there were rumors that the zero star was drinking too much because of his creative lack of demand.

However, in fact, Vitas all this time continued to pursue a solo career, and very successfully. Only not at home, but abroad. He toured dozens of countries around the world, but made a splash in China. There he is considered the most popular singer in Russia. Its official Chinese fan club has over a million members, and a wax figure of a "Russian miracle" has been installed in Shanghai. In addition, in China, the singer starred in several feature films, which were also very popular there. And at the same time, in his homeland, he could only be seen from time to time in various television shows.

For a long time, the singer's personal life remained a secret behind seven seals. Only recently it became known that Vitas has been married for a long time and has two children. He met his chosen one at the age of 19 in the theater. Seeing her backstage, he was captivated at first sight, although then Svetlana was still a schoolgirl. From that very meeting, they did not part, and soon the girl went with him to Moscow.

Vitas is not going to stop his solo career and plans to conquer the USA, Mexico and Brazil. He changed his image, turned platinum blonde, released several songs in English and recorded a duet with an American hip-hop artist. True, his new video has caused a wave of negative reviews from former fans. Well, the singer is only 41 years old, and he still has a chance to conquer new heights, but will he be able to surpass himself at the beginning of the 2000s? Time will show.

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