Unfortunately, the biography of Valery Zalkin today is replete with gaps. There is no reliable data exactly when and where the singer was born. Even the famous omniscient Wikipedia cannot help with this. According to some sources, he spent his childhood in the Ukrainian town of Stakhanov, according to others - in Donetsk. Only the mother was engaged in the upbringing of the boy (the family was inferior); it is clear that there was no extra money, and Valera could not study at a music school. He began to study music as a young man when, after graduation, he moved to Kharkov.
The creative biography of Valery Zalkin began with the development of the piano. He independently comprehended all the wisdom of playing the instrument and created his first group. At that time, Valera was undergoing treatment at the factory dispensary, so the composition of the group was recruited from the same factory guys who were passionate about music. The name of the collective was extraordinary - “Crawlers”. It was in the early 80s, the guys traveled to the nearest villages with their performances. On one of them, the vocalist's voice broke, and Valery began to sing songs.
It didn’t last very long. Soon the group broke up, but Zalkin was offered to take the place of a bass player in the Kharkov ensemble "Madrigal", performing classical music. But such a biography of Valery Zalkin did not suit. Already in the late 80s, he began to use various recreation centers, invited musicians and rehearsed his own repertoire - nevertheless, he was more interested in personal work. In 1994, Zalkina was heard by Kamill Shuvaev (once he was an arranger for Rotaru and Dolina), he advised the singer to focus on his own work. Valera followed the advice, recorded a tape with his work, and soon it was replicated by Posad.
In 1996, his songs were heard at the Moscow firm Master Sound. They offered the singer a contract, and already in 1997 he released his first disc, which is remembered by an unusual manner of performance. A kind of backyard pop with compassionate, full of suffering melodies. Evil tongues claim that Valery Zalkin stood out among all others only with this manner of execution. The biography of the singer contains information that it was at that time that Valera was at the peak of success. Songs such as Autumn, Lonely Lilac, and Night Rain have become very popular. But the company “Master Sound” soon ceased to promote it as an artist, its popularity began to decline gradually, and in addition, the factory where he worked all this time was closed.
Further, the biography of Valery Zalkin tells about life in Moscow. He comes to the capital of Russia, unsuccessfully trying to get a job in construction brigades, but he finds a job as a teacher of children's vocals in one of the recreation centers. He was taken there without a musical education just because his salary was too miserable, and there simply weren’t anyone who wanted to work there. He also gets a job as a watchman at one of the recording studios. It was there that he secretly recorded his most popular song, Lonely Lilac. The head of the studio did not begin to punish him and even allowed him to record his album at night, which the students who had already managed to fall in love with with great impatience were waiting for.
In 1999, on the basis of the children's pop singing club, the "Dolls for Rent" group was created. It was the first teenage ensemble in Russia. It included girls 15-16 years old, and songs for them are written by Valery Zalkin (a photo of the group is presented to your attention). The team very quickly becomes popular, they participate on the TV-6 channel in a music competition and win. But perhaps it was this victory that entailed further unpleasant events. It was rumored that the win in the competition was intended for a completely different group. The TV-6 channel saw the propaganda of pedophilia in the song “Dropping Tears” and banned the performance of “Puppet for rent” on its airs. Then came an anonymous denunciation of Valery Zalkin to the relevant authorities. All audio and video materials were seized from him, although this was the end of the matter. Then an attempt was made to poison the singer. But, despite all these dirty tricks, “Dolls for Rent” gave more than 20 concerts in Germany. Already began to prepare a tour of Russia. However, unexpectedly for all, Zalkin leaves the project. He drops everything and leaves Moscow. Later it became known that the cause of this was the tragic death of his mother. The group “Dolls for rent” without him lasted no more than six months, and no one has reliable information about the fate of the singer. According to rumors, he went on a walk around the world, but still promised to return ...