Kobzon is alive or not? This question is asked by many admirers of his talent, as well as those who are closely following the stars of domestic pop. Rumors about the poor physical condition and illnesses of the pop singer have been around for a long time, and recently there have been only more. On August 30, 2018, it became known about the death of the singer. In this article we will talk about the main stages of his biography, family and causes of death.
early years
Kobzon is alive only in our hearts. So now all his fans think, some of which for decades have enjoyed his work. Soviet and Russian pop singer Joseph Kobzon was born in 1937 in the small town of Chasov Yar in the territory of modern Donetsk region in Ukraine. Kobzon's nationality is Jewish, as are both of his parents.
In 1939, parents moved to Lviv, where the father of the hero of our article began to manage the personnel department at the Kirov candy factory. When the Great Patriotic War began, the family was evacuated to Uzbekistan. They returned to Ukraine only in 1944, having settled in Kramatorsk.
When he served in the army, he received an invitation to the song and dance ensemble of the Transcaucasian Military District. After the discharge into the reserve, his mentor was the head of the choir Leonid Tereshchenko, who was preparing him for admission to the Odessa Conservatory.
Creative career
In 1959, Kobzon entered Gnesinka, at the same time got a job in a circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. In the program of Mark Mestechkin, he was a vocalist, performing the song "We Are Circus Artists ...". This allowed him to solve the material problems associated with life in the capital.
Soon the singer got another job. Kobzon became the soloist of the All-Union Radio, since 1962 he worked as a vocalist of the State Concert, and later the Mosconcert.
By the mid-60s, he successfully performed at several international vocal competitions. He became a laureate of festivals in Bulgaria and the Polish Sopot. He began his solo career in the early 70s. In the first issue of Songs of the Year, he sang Robert Rozhdestvensky and Oscar Feltsman's Paint Ballad.
Repertoire
The repertoire of the singer was the most diverse. These were civil, patriotic and Komsomol songs that spoke about military and labor exploits.
Kobzon often sang songs about the Great Patriotic War, operetta and opera arias, classical romances, arioso. In addition, he performed Russian, Jewish and Ukrainian songs. In total, he has more than three thousand compositions.
Among the most famous songs performed by the hero of our article "Prayer of Francois Villon", "On the Blue Trolley", "He did not return from battle", "Song of the Arbat", "Lord officers" and many others.
Social work
Throughout his career, Kobzon was not only creative, but also active. social activities. In the 1960s and 1970s, he constantly visited Komsomol construction sites, gave concerts for world peace, and was a member of the delegations that visited foreign countries on friendly visits.
For example, in the 80s he regularly traveled to Afghanistan, speaking to Soviet soldiers and officers. When the accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, he went on concerts to the regions, spoke to the liquidators of the disaster. In 1989, he was elected People's Deputy of the Soviet Union.
Post-soviet period
In 1993, he ran for the State Duma from the electoral bloc "Civil Union for Stability, Justice and Progress." However, the party failed to overcome the 5% threshold in the election.
In 1995, Kobzon again made an attempt to become a deputy from the My Fatherland bloc, entered the federal part of the list along with Gromov and Shatalin under the third number. And this time, failure awaited him, the party failed to gain even one percent of the vote.
Activities in the State Duma
For the first time, Kobzon became a State Duma deputy in 1997, winning from the Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug. Two years later, became a member of the deputy group "Regions of Russia".
In 2003, he was elected this time from the United Russia party, and headed the committee on culture in the federal parliament. Moreover, he became a party member only in 2007, despite the fact that a year earlier he had announced that he would never be a member of any party.
In 2011, Kobzon was re-elected to the State Duma. This time from the Trans-Baikal Territory. In 2015, information appeared in the media that the singer was not going to run for parliament again, but after registering the party with the CEC, Kobzon ended up in the fourth regional group.
Widely known for its peacekeeping activities. In the 90s, he regularly spoke during the armed conflict in the territory of the Chechen Republic. He participated in negotiations with terrorists who seized the theater center on Dubrovka in 2002. While Kobzon was alive, he constantly became the center of attention, many were already known not as a singer-performer, but as a politician and public figure.
Personal life
The hero of our article was married three times. In Kobzon's biography, personal life played a big role. His first wife is singer Veronika Kruglova, with whom they entered into an alliance in 1965. The marriage was extremely short. Already in 1967, they parted, in the same year, Lyudmila Gurchenko became the wife of Kobzon. At the time, a couple of the two most famous artists in the country was watched without exception. This time, Kobzon’s joint life lasted a little more - they divorced in 1970.
Joseph met his fate a year later. Kobzon's wife Nelly gave birth to two children, she was with him until the very end, remaining a reliable support for the artist. Nellie is 13 years younger than her husband, she is a graduate of the creative workshop of pop art, has become a specialist in the colloquial genre.
Children
In 1974, the couple had a son, Andrei, who became a restaurateur and businessman. He is a graduate of the Music Institute, who graduated in Hollywood.
In the 90s, Andrei Kobzon founded a club called "Justo" together with Andrei Zuckerberg and Arthur Kurylenko. He performed with the musicians of the Resurrection band, then played in the Code of Morality. After that, he finally tied up with creativity, becoming a businessman. He owns several restaurants on Novy Arbat, for example, Gazgolder and Zhiguli, a Japanese restaurant in Bolshoi Tolmachevsky Lane, and the Paris-Moscow restaurant Maxim. In addition to restaurant business, he is engaged in real estate. His first wife was designer and fashion model Ekaterina Polyanskaya. In 2006, they divorced. After that, four years he was married to Anastasia Tsoi.
Kobzon's daughter Natalia was born in 1976. For some time she worked as a press secretary for Valentin Yudashkin, now lives in London. Her husband, a lawyer, Yuri Rapoport, has Australian citizenship.
The singer has seven grandchildren left. That's all that is known about the biography, the personal life of Kobzon.
Health problems
The singer’s health problems were identified in the early 2000s. Even then, from time to time, journalists wondered whether Kobzon was alive or not, after another deterioration in well-being.
In 2001, he went to the Vishnevsky Military Hospital for examination due to regular severe back pain. Previously, he was diagnosed with intervertebral hernia. During the examination, the singer also found diabetes, he underwent a course of treatment through droppers.
At the same time, he continued to take an active part in domestic politics and public life. For example, right from under a dropper with a catheter connected, he went to Kazakhstan to the International Assembly of major cities and capitals of the CIS. There he had planned concerts and numerous meetings. Three days later he returned to the hospital, while his condition worsened significantly. Doctors determined singer Kobzon fever, purulent sepsis. He was hospitalized in the intensive care unit, where he underwent a course of intensive care. Doctors believed that blood poisoning occurred through a catheter with which he flew to Kazakhstan. He spent about two weeks in a coma, but then came to his senses and was discharged from the hospital.
Prostate cancer
The next terrible diagnosis that the singer found out about is prostate cancer. In 2005, in Berlin, he underwent a 6-hour tumor removal operation. The surgeon was an outstanding German urologist Peter Althaus, and surgeons Matveyev and Veliyev arrived from Moscow together with Kobzon, who assisted. As a result of surgical surgery, the singer’s health was severely undermined. A thrombus formed in the pulmonary vessels, the immune system was extremely weakened, and sepsis of the right kidney and pneumonia began. That's what Kobzon was sick with.
Cancer bothered him for a long time. In 2009, a second operation was performed, which was unsuccessful. They saved him only in the oncological center on Kashirka. Five days after the most complicated operation, he stood on the stage in Jurmala, performing songs live.
Another deterioration in health was again associated with the forum in Astana. Twice he fainted, once right on stage, the doctors had to give him artificial respiration. As the doctors noted, a cancerous tumor provoked anemia, which caused loss of consciousness.
In 2015, Kobzon, who appeared on the sanctions list of the West, still managed to get a visa for treatment in Italy. The singer himself claimed that President Vladimir Putin contributed to this. The fact that Kobzon was sick caused him many problems, he could not finally cope with the disease.
Last hospitalization
In July 2018, Kobzon was again hospitalized. On August 7, it became known that he was discharged from the hospital, but he soon felt ill again and was returned to the clinic.
At first, the doctors managed to stabilize his condition, but about two weeks before his death, the body began to finally give up, its vitality was only maintained with the help of devices. On August 28, the artist fell into a coma. Two days later, he died before he lived a few days before his 81st birthday.
Condolences to the singer’s family and friends were expressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of other foreign countries.
Farewell to the singer
The death of Joseph Kobzon was a serious blow to his family and friends. This is an irreparable loss. The cause of Kobzon's death is prostate cancer. The ailment with which he fought for many years, he did not manage to finally defeat. The neoplasm was constantly returning in the form of metastases, which caused the death of Kobzon.
The last journey of the singer was conducted by a guard of honor company. They buried him to the sounds of the anthem of the Russian Federation. Kobzon’s funeral took place at the Vostryakovsky cemetery. The will that he left indicated that the artist wants to be buried next to his mother in accordance with Jewish traditions. The son of the hero of our article, Andrei, at the funeral of Kobzon, said a prayer in Aramaic over his father’s grave. The ceremony ended with the performance by the orchestra "Songs of the Far Homeland" from the television series "Seventeen Moments of Spring".
Many famous politicians responded to the death of Joseph Kobzon. The farewell ceremony was attended by Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. On his last journey he was escorted with applause and incessant cries of "bravo."