Natalya Vetlitskaya

Natasha Vetlitskaya in school. Moscow, 1980.

Natalya Vetlitskaya was born in Moscow, to nuclear physicist Igor Arsenyevich (1935–2012)[2][3] and his wife Yevgenia Ivanovna (born 1939), a piano teacher.

She studied at the Moscow School No.856, and, a self-described 'ugly duckling', hated sports lessons there, because, being the smallest in the class, had to stand always the last in the line.[4] "I've always dreamt of becoming a doctor, and yet could never stop imagining myself on stage, singing or dancing," she later remembered.[5] At the age of ten she began to study ballet and for ten years, since fourteen, was regularly taking part in dancing competitions. She enrolled into music school to learn piano, which she graduated in 1979.

In 1981 Vetlitskaya graduated from the high school with gold medal. The same year, defying her parents' wish that she should go into studying languages, she went on to start a ballet dance school of her own.[6][5]

Natalya Vetlitskaya started her musical career by taking part in the recording of the soundtrack for the 1983 Mary Poppins, Goodbye, written by Maksim Dunayevsky, then the head of the RSFSR Pop Music Orchestra. One of its members was Pavel Smeyan, whom Vetlitskaya married in 1983, and it was he who insisted that she start singing too, not just dance. Credited as Natalya Smeyan, she recorded one song for the film Train Out of Schedule (1985). A year earlier she debuted as an actress, having received a small part in the film Higher Than Rainbow.

In 1986 Vetlitskaya took up the job of choreographer in the Retsital Ballet. A year later, after the sisters Bazykins left the rock band Rondo, Mikhail Litvin invited to the auditioning Sveta Kolesnikova from the Vizit group, who brought in her friend, Natalya Vetlitskaya. 'But I cannot sing,' I argued. 'And I cannot dance,' she replied. So with a great deal of mutual help, in a ten days' time we prepared our own little show, got ourselves into our old school uniforms, drastically cut, and were welcomed in, she remembered.[5] Vetlitskaya worked there as choreographer, dancer and backing vocalist, and took part in the recording of four songs which made it into the 1986 Rondo-86 album. Soon her relationships with Litvin deteriorated, though, and she left. In 1987–1988 she danced and sang for the bands Klass and Idea Fix, before joining in 1988 Mirage which she left later that year. In Mirage I earned a certain sum, 90 per cent of which I gave to my parents for them to buy a car, and the rest kept for myself, hoping this money will keep me afloat until something else comes my way, Vetlitskaya remembered.[5]

All of her savings went into recording a jazz rock number at the SNC, the Stas Namin studio, but nothing came of it. Vetlitskaya's prospects started to look grim, but then Igor Matviyenko re-introduced her to Igor Zuyev, a young composer whom she knew from her days with Klass.[5] "I liked his new songs and so we started to record my debut album. Then Fyodor Bondarchuk approached me, suggesting that he might shoot a clip for one of the songs, "Look Me into the Eyes". I said, okay, but I am penniless. Through some complicated financial scheme he procured the sum needed and we made this clip." Considered to be Russia's first true commercial video, it was a low-budget, unrehearsed affair. "Those people in the video were not actors, but friends and their friends, our own circle," the singer remembered.[5]

External video
Look Me Into the Eyes According to Vetlitskaya, the much discussed 'arse powdering episode' (2:58) was a trivial working moment: "I found a nail in the studio with my very expensive tights, and the makeup artist had to quickly repair the damage."

Natalya Vetlitskaya's breakthrough came in 1992 when a video for Look Me into the Eyes, her debut album's title track received the Gran Prix at the Moscow Generation-92 Festival and launched the career of Fyodor Bondarchuk, who made the clip with Tigran Keosayan and Sergey Kozlov, the latter as a cameraman. The clip, nominated for the MTV Video Music Award as well as the Eurovideo Grand Prix, made the singer famous in Russia and known in Europe.

Vetlitskaya's second album Playboy came out in 1994, the video for the title track, made by Sergey Kalvarsky, premiered on the New Year Eve to become a huge hit.[5] It was followed by Slave to Love (1996), its title track again topping the Russian pop radio charts. In 1997 Vetlitskaya starred in the film The New Adventures of Buratino (as Alisa the Fox) and recorded three songs for the soundtrack, including Taj Mahal, a duo with Sergey Mazayev. Another unusual collaboration, with the post-punk outfit Nogu Svelo! resulted in River, the duet with the band's singer Maksim Pokrovsky, who would later sum up her appeal as intelligent femininity and feminine intelligence.[5]

In 2003 Vetlitskaya starred as Princess Natalia in Maksim Papernik's musical Snow Queen, for which she recorded the song "Lanterns", a duet with Vadim Azarkh. Also in 2003 she performed for the last time at the festival Pesnya goda, with the song Flame of Passion. In early 2004 her sixth album My Beloved came out. Later that year Vetlitskaya gave birth to her daughter Ulyana and went into semi-retirement, only occasionally appearing on TV and releasing new songs and clips (Birdie, It's not Just) in the course of the next five years. She was expected to make a major comeback in 2009, but the announced massive tour never materialized for reasons which remained unknown. In 2009 Vetlitskaya retired from the Russian music scene and went on to reside in Spain where since then she's been leading the life of a recluse, contacting only those who share her passions for yoga and Eastern philosophies. The mystery of the sudden departure of Russia's most stylish pop singer, remained fogged in Indian incense, Muz-TV reported.[7]

• Look Me into the Eyes, 1992, Jeff Records
• Playboy, 1994, Jeff Records
• Slave to Love, 1996, Soyuz Records
• Think What You Will, 1998, Extraphone
• Just So, 1999, Soyuz
• My Beloved..., 2004, CD Land