Legends of the 1970s: How was the fate of Sofia Rotaru's constant rival Nadezhda Chepragi

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

They were constantly compared, and in the past they were often confused. At the beginning of their creative career, they really had a lot in common - from repertoire to image. In the press, they were presented as eternal rivals, and when Nadezhda Chepraga disappeared from the stage, they said that the reason for this was Sofia Rotaru's intolerance of rivals. Whether there was some truth in this, and what the legendary pop star of the 1970s is doing today, - further in the review.

Nadezhda Chepraga was born and raised in Moldova. In her family, no one studied music professionally, but everyone was musical: her mother often sang folk songs, her father played the violin, and Nadezhda, along with her brothers and sister, pleased fellow villagers, performing together at local holidays. In the homeland of the singer, they said that in Moldova there is no person who could not sing, therefore, vocals were perceived as a state of mind, and not a serious profession. Therefore, the parents dreamed that their daughter would become a teacher of the French language and send her after school to Balti to enter the pedagogical institute.

Nadezhda Chepraga won her first victory in the song contest when she was 4 years old, and at school age she appeared more than once in television programs and musical films. Once in Balti, she went to a concert of the Doina choir, and after their performance she went backstage and began to beg the artists to take her to their ensemble. Therefore, in the pedagogical institute, Nadezhda did not stay for long and, against the will of her parents, entered the music school in Chisinau at once in two departments - vocal and conductor-choral, and then graduated from the conservatory in vocal and choral conducting.

During her studies, Chepraga participated in foreign competitions and festivals in France and Germany, from where she brought two gold medals. At the age of 17, she made her debut on the stage of the most prestigious concert hall in France, Olympia, performing at the folk song festival. At the same time, Nadezhda began to collaborate with composer Eugene Doga, who wrote compositions for her first disc.

All-Union popularity came to her after a freshman at the conservatory performed the song "I Dreamed of the Sound of Rain" on "Song of the Year-77". Behind the scenes, this hit was announced as the anthem of cosmonautics, and the whole country learned about the singer. In 1980, Chepraga took part in the anniversary international song festival "Sopot", after which the American singer Jimmy Lawton said: "".

Despite her early fame, the success did not turn the head of the young singer. She said: "".

Since then, she has won so many awards at all-Union and international competitions that it is very difficult to list them in one article. The singer has released 15 albums, prepared several solo programs, with which she regularly performed in the USSR and abroad (in the USA, Israel, Greece, France, Poland, Denmark, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Laos, etc.).

As soon as the star of Nadezhda Chepragi lit up on the Soviet stage, she was constantly compared to Sofia Rotaru, with whom she really had a lot in common. They constantly competed for the title of the best singer in Moldova, appeared on stage in national costumes and sang folk songs. In addition, the black-browed dark-haired beauties were very similar in appearance, which led to the fact that they were often confused.

Once there was an incident that led to a conflict between two competitors. The Moldavian composer Petr Teodorovic wrote the song "Melancolie" and first gave it to Cheprage, and later resold it to Rotaru. The latter performed it in the "Morning Mail", after which Chepraga expressed her displeasure with her. When the misunderstanding was clarified, the song still had to be conceded, and it remained in Sofia Rotaru's repertoire, although the recordings with Chepraga's performance were also preserved in the archives.

Both Chepraga and Rotaru had a huge number of fans, and men bombarded them with letters of declarations of love. Nadezhda was even looked after by the Sheikh of Brunei, who gave her a camel, and the son of the Romanian leader Ceausescu, who showered her with flowers, but she lived all her life with her husband, the economist Yevgeny Litvinov, whom she married at the age of 17. However, here they were similar - Sofia Rotaru also made her choice in her personal life once and for all.

Despite the constant publications in the press about their rivalry, the actresses themselves never considered each other rivals. Nadezhda Chepraga always spoke of Sofia Rotaru with great respect: "".

Having become a star of the Soviet stage, Sofia Rotaru still retains her position, continuing to perform and tour, but Nadezhda Chepragi has really not been seen on stage for a long time. However, this happened not because Rotaru “removed” her rival, but because after the death of her husband, the singer was very worried about his loss and really stopped performing and appearing in public.

Today Nadezhda Chepraga, who turned 62 on September 1, lives in Moscow, periodically participates in group concerts and works on the jury of song competitions. The singer still leads an active lifestyle, doing gymnastics, jogging and swimming.

The fate of another popular one in the 1970s. the performers of folk songs and romances were also not easy. The difficult path of Zhanna Bichevskaya: Who attempted the singer's life.