Visit to Chita Summer 2018 No. 6 Big Russian Pop Song

This will be short. Yesterday I met a group of Kristina Mkrtchyan’s summer English students in a very interesting setting–a kind of cafe/meeting place where you can rent a room for cheap for an event, a party, a video showing, play for kids, etc.  They offer simple drinks like coffee, tea, water, and you bring your own food. (Side note: if Kristina’s last name gives you pause, you aren’t alone.  It is Armenian, and most cruelly only has only one vowel in it: “ya” – “?”.  Join the pronunciation challenge with me! This challenge replaces the somewhat mastered one that has plagued me sooo many years: “????????????? ????” khoZYAISTvennoyeh MEEluh–except the vowel at “MEE” [?] doesn’t exist in English and is a bear. The expression means household soap.) The meeting started with each student giving their name and a few words about themselves.  Later, I’ll talk about this meeting in more detail, but I want to focus on just one of the students.  Anastasia Dorofeyeva, Nastya, is, I think, 17.  She is the tall girl to my right in the photo.  (Their teacher, Kristina, is second from the left.) She said she finished music school at age 14 in piano, and is now going to college.  But she also sings, so I asked about that and then asked if she’d text me her Russian pop and rock suggestions found at youtube, since my understanding of this is music so small.  She sent me the five embedded below. The first one below grabbed me because of its timeliness, and possibly because I’m not 17…  It is a big production with big Russian stars. I can only identify one, Polina Gagarina, the young blonde singer.  It appeared on my computer with English subtitles, but if they don’t show up for you, hit that “cc” button to the bottom right of the video and turn them on.  “????” (zheet) means “to live.” Zemfira UMA2RMAN B-2 Yolka