Zhenya Lyubich about family, New Year’s traditions and the “White Concert”

______________________________

Tell us about your “White Concert” that you give during the January holidays. How did the idea of ​​performing at the beginning of the year come about? What does it mean for you personally?

The idea of ​​the “White Concert” was born in 2014 together with the artistic director of the Erarta museum concert venue Alexander Mashanov. He, as a theatrical person, suggested that I come up with a name and concept for the winter New Year’s concert in Erarta. This is how the “White Concert” appeared, which has become a tradition. As a rule, it falls on Christmas Eve and it is also the day of my Angel – January 6, and this concert is distinguished by a special atmosphere, a special set list with a certain dramaturgy and a set of songs – mostly snowy, Christmas and fabulously magical. The main color is white, snow is like a leitmotif, and it flies in the songs, on the stage and on the screen behind the backs of the musicians. Every time we have “winter” decorations that create the mood of a white, snowy holiday. And there are always musical guests at this concert, with their unexpected instruments – a harp or a balalaika – and this adds special colors to the sound. Once, at such a performance, little ballerinas appeared – like white snowflakes they flew onto the stage and danced with me. This was the case in Erarta until 2019, until it closed as a concert venue. Since then, we have been looking for a place to hold the White Concert, and tried to make apartment houses in this format, and some options without video, or without additional guests – but the White Concert was fully revived only last year, when The event was organized by a large concert company PMI. In 2021, the “White Concert” was held at the height of the Aurora Concert Hall, and this year we will present this unique show at the Boris Eifman Dance Academy Theater on January 6th. This is a new site. Impossibly beautiful. It looks like a small toy theater from a children’s fairy tale… just what you need for a Christmas concert! It seems that I will be the first to perform in this hall with a vocal and instrumental program. After all, in the first place it is intended for dance numbers, but as it turned out, the site has everything you need for the “White Concert”! Come, there will be unreal beauty! This is simply not to be missed!

You have several winter songs in your repertoire, what inspires you so much this time of year?

Just on December 16, my Christmas ballad will be released with a reference to country music on the verses of Joseph Brodsky “It doesn’t matter what was around and it doesn’t matter.” This is a very beautiful “winter” track, and at my next concerts I will definitely perform it live.

And yes, I have more than a few winter songs – perhaps they would be enough for several albums … But so far we have released only one such album called “Snezhno” … but we will definitely release more and more. I am inspired by how everything changes in winter. When snow falls, it’s like a miracle. Small twinkling stars fly to the ground, and at this moment the sky, the cosmos seem to be getting closer. The night becomes white. Water freezes, time freezes, snow falls on us, and everything really seems to start from a blank white slate. It’s almost like a song.

In 2018, the birth of your daughter inspired you to the song “The Way Out”. What inspired you to see Alexander?

In fact, just the other day I was thinking about the fact that when Sasha grows up, he will ask me – “where is the song about me, on the occasion of my birth?” And you know what? I have this song in sketches, it remains only to finish it and record it … so everything will be fine.

Do you have any unusual New Year traditions in your family?

The White Concert is already a family tradition. New Year’s. The maximum number of my friends and relatives meet here to wish each other a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! And all this to the sound of my songs … And on the New Year itself, if I don’t perform, but I’m at home, then we light sparklers, “when the clock strikes 12”, and candles are always lit at the table, and we also have concert numbers , but already in the family circle – I can sing something, Anya reads poetry with pleasure, sings songs and dances, Sasha this year will also dance, applaud and clap to the beat, her husband can write and read poems of his own composition … – just we are all very creative and musical.

It is written in your social network: singer, songwriter, actress, model, presenter, mother – which Zhenya Lyubich do you feel like most now?

At some point, I had a feeling of a split personality: on stage, or in the studio, I am one person. And that’s one life. And in the family – I’m a different character in general, and I have a different life. Now I’m trying to connect it. For me, my creative part is so defining, so important that now more and more I try not to disconnect from it, and even when I’m at home and I’m in the role of a mother, I continue to be myself, it’s still me – the one who sings and writes songs … And then, when the children go to bed, I go to a separate room with a guitar and write songs at night … and in the morning I can sing something new to all my household. In general, here I catch some kind of balance, and it seems that something is working out.

Your music often becomes the soundtrack to films. Which movie best reflects you?

I love Claude Lelouch’s Man and Woman. Anouk Aime plays the main character. We are outwardly similar, and her style, her image is close to me. Interestingly, the film was filmed in Deauville – a resort French town on the ocean. And once I ended up in this city for the New Year with a concert, and wandered through the same streets, lived in the same hotel where one of the scenes of the film was filmed, and for a moment I felt myself inside this movie.

You have many songs about St. Petersburg. What does Moscow sound like?

Moscow sounds great!

You have a program “Songs to Poems of Poets”, and with which of the contemporary authors would you like to collaborate?

The program “Out loud” is really based on my songs from the verses of classical poets. This is my tribute to my favorite authors and this story is important to me, because my music came out of literature. My first songs were written to verses that I read and learned according to the school curriculum. It was like a transition, or an impulse to start writing the words to your own music. And since, in the vast majority of cases, I myself write the lyrics for my songs, I can’t say that I have some kind of deficit in this topic. But I, for example, like the poems of Vanya Pinzhenin, and I have one song based on his poems – we plan to record it somehow.

You rarely attend social events and are not active on social networks. Are you not close to publicity? Why did you choose this path?

With two small children it is quite difficult to get out somewhere. You have to prioritize. And in addition to home and raising children, I choose creativity first of all. By creativity, I include the composition and recording of songs, concerts, participation in film projects. So far, I just don’t have enough for more. Perhaps in the future I will be more active in terms of my publicity when the kids grow up a little. However, I also value my personal life very much, my personal space, so I’m not really worried about how things are going now: maximum creativity (as far as possible in my circumstances), a lot of family activities and not very much publicity. So far so. Well, or I’m not finishing something … maybe I’m preparing for a big breakthrough. And in order to complete it, I probably needed a pause for restructuring.

What are your plans for 2023?

I’m about to make a musical breakthrough! This is global … And in the near future – to celebrate the New Year, perform in Moscow on January 4 at the Mumiy Troll bar and play the “White Concert” on January 6 in St. Petersburg! Come!