Philipp Kirkorov

Due to his public support of Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Lithuania blacklisted Kirkorov on 19 January 2021, preventing him from entering the country for a period of five years.[29] Several of his concerts had been scheduled in Lithuanian cities that year. On 23 June, Kirkorov was included in the list of "persons who pose a threat to Ukraine's national security" and was thus banned from entering Ukraine for speaking in support of Russia's annexation of Crimea.[30] Estonia banned the singer from entering the country on 24 February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine; Ukraine imposed sanctions on him for promoting Russia in January 2023.[11][12]

Studio albums

• 1990: Philipp
• 1990: Sinbat-Morehod
• 1991: Nebo I Zemlya
• 1991: Ti, Ti, Ti
• 1992: Takoi Sakoi
• 1994: Ya Ne Raphael
• 1995: Primadonna
• 1995: Ckazi Solncu – "Da"
• 1998: Edinstvenaya
• 1998: Oi, Mama Shika Dam
• 2000: Chelofilia
• 2001: Magico Amor
• 2002: Vlubloniy I Bezumno Odinokiy
• 2003: Neznakomka
• 2007: For You
• 2011: Drugoy – 2 Edition
• 2016: Ya

Live

• 2001: Vchera, Segodnya, Zavtra... (Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow... )

Compilation

• 2003: Luchshie Pesni (The Best Songs)
• 2004: Dueti (Duets)

• 1999: Mish`
• 2000: Ogon` I Voda
• 2000: Kilimandzaro
• 2001: Diva
• 2001: Ti Poverish`?
• 2001: Ya Za Tebya Umru
• 2001: Maria
• 2002: Zesrokaya Lubov`
• 2004: Sam P..A?! Ili Kirkorov MAZZDie!!!
• 2005: Kak Sumashedshiy Ya (duet with Sakis Rouvas)
• 2009: Zara

Philipp Kirkorov has covered a few songs which appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest and its national finals, as well as entering a song in his own right. Songs include:

• "Dreamin'" (Ireland 1995 entry) (English and Russian)
• "(I Would) Die for You" (Greece 2001 entry) (English and Russian as "Ya za tebya umru")
• "Diva" (Israel 1998 entry) (English, Hebrew, Spanish and Russian)
• "Go" (United Kingdom 1988 entry) (Russian as "Lish by ty vsegda byla moej")
• "Maria Magdalena" (Croatia 1999 entry) (Russian)
• "Hero" – Charlotte Perrelli (2008 Swedish entry) (Russian as "Novyj geroj")
• "La voix" – Malena Ernman (2009 Swedish entry) (Russian as "Golos", English and French) (with Anna Netrebko)
• "Let's get wild" – Helena Paparizou (2005 Greek National Final) (Russian as "Kaif")
• "Carnaval" – DJ Mendez (2002 Swedish National Final) (Russian)
• "Let your spirit fly" – Jan Johansson & Pernilla Wahlgren (2003 Swedish National Final) (Russian as "Vljublennaja dusha") (with Anastasia Stotskaya)
• "Cara Mia" – Måns Zelmerlöw (2007 Swedish National Final) (Russian as "Koroleva")
• "Playing with Fire" – Paula and Ovi (Romania 2010 entry) (Russian as "Igra s ognem")
• "Hope & Glory" – Måns Zelmerlöw (2009 Swedish National Final) (Russian as "Tyi vsyo uvidish sam")

On December 19, 2002, at the Ostankino television center, one of the young extras who came for filming, seeing Kirkorov, shouted: “My bunny,” for which he was beaten. This conflict was resolved very quickly

.

On December 29, 2002, in the St. Petersburg hotel “European”, a verbal altercation occurred between the leader of the DDT group Yuri Shevchuk and Kirkorov, during which the latter’s guards attacked Shevchuk, knocked him down and began beating him. Kirkorov himself did not participate in the brawl, although, according to some sources, he tried to reach out to Shevchuk. After the hotel security calmed down the singer’s security, Kirkorov demanded that Shevchuk be declared persona non grata[37].

On May 20, 2004, at a press conference in Rostov-on-Don, shortly after a question from Gazeta Dona journalist Irina Aroyan, “What is the reason for such a large number of remakes in your repertoire?” the singer insulted the journalist using obscene words. Aroyan filed a lawsuit, which found the singer guilty under Part 2 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (insult in a public place) and sentenced Kirkorov to pay a fine of 60 thousand rubles. The scandal led to Kirkorov being declared a boycott for some time by many Russian electronic and print media.[38].

On December 6, 2010, a verbal altercation occurred between Philip Kirkorov and the assistant to the chief director of the Golden Gramophone ceremony, Marina Yablokova, at a rehearsal, after which the singer slapped Yablokova, pulled her by the hair and kicked her. Yablokova filed an application with the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department to initiate a criminal case under the articles “insult” (part 1 of article 130) and “infliction of minor bodily harm” (part 1 of article 115).

F. Kirkorov: “The reaction of some media is an absolute and deliberate lie. I didn’t kick her or turn her into an invalid.” Anna Netrebko, who was present at the rehearsal: “This girl is lying for some reason, it’s unclear why.” Witnesses to the incident clarify what happened at the rehearsal. The organizer of the award, Russian Radio, published “Clarification on the conflict between F. Kirkorov and M. Yablokova.”

In an interview with Ksenia Sobchak in the “Sobchak Live” program on the Dozhd TV channel, Kirkorov admitted that Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov assisted him in settling relations with the media.

I. Prigozhin, Alexander Novikov, singer Valeria and V. Meladze spoke out against Kirkorov. The journalist who suffered from Kirkorov was also supported by the person involved in the previous scandal involving the singer, Irina Aroyan, who called for a repeated public boycott of Kirkorov and advised Yablokova to “see her job to the end.”

Several players of the Russian national football team wrote an open letter in defense of Kirkorov. Joseph Kobzon, Lyudmila Gurchenko, Igor Nikolaev, Sergei Makovetsky, Taisiya Povaliy, Gennady Khazanov also spoke out in defense of the singer.

On December 8, Kirkorov was hospitalized in the psychiatric ward of the Israeli Sheba Medical Center (Tel Hashomer Hospital), from where on December 10, in the “Let Them Talk” program, he publicly apologized to Yablokova and explained his behavior as a “serious illness”, attacks of which the singer “suffers” twice a year and which is accompanied by unconsciousness.” “Yes, I raised my hand. I insulted. But I didn’t do what they say I did.” On December 12, in the Central Television program, after the presenter’s statement about the presence of a video recording of the incident, Yablokova reported that Kirkorov did not pull her hair. Yablokova's lawyer asks that the video recording not be made public. On December 13, Kirkorov’s lawyer announced a possible appeal to law enforcement agencies regarding slander directed against Kirkorov. On December 15, a criminal case was opened. Kirkorov was recognized as a defendant, Yablokova as a private prosecutor and victim.

On December 16, F. Kirkorov and M. Yablokova entered into a settlement agreement. On December 22, the magistrate’s court held a meeting to consider the issue of its approval.[39].

In 2012, rapper Timati published a message via Twitter about the just completed Muz-TV Award, in which he expressed bewilderment at the distribution of awards in a number of categories. Kirkorov reacted rudely to the message, reminding Timati of professional ethics. Timati, in the same manner, reminded Kirkorov of his past scandals. The conflict resulted in Timati recording a video message to Kirkorov, “Goodbye”, “in the manner of a popular video at that time»[40].

In 2016, the leader of the Space group, Didier Marouani, made claims to Kirkorov for plagiarizing the musical material of the song “Tough Love,” which Marouani, citing experts, considered 41% borrowed from the song Symphonic Space Dream. After lengthy correspondence by email and telephone conversations (which, as it later turned out, were conducted by pranksters Vovan and Lexus instead of Kirkorov), Maruani arrived in Moscow on November 29, 2016 to resolve the conflict and a joint press conference with Kirkorov, for which, as he assumed, was supposed to receive $1 million in compensation from Kirkorov. Before meeting with Maruani, Kirkorov, on the advice of his lawyer A. Dobrovinsky, turned to the police, and during the “investigative experiment” in the Sberbank office, Maruani and his lawyer I. Trunov were detained by the police and then released. Law enforcement agencies refused to initiate a criminal case against Kirkorov based on his claim of “extortion” by Maruani. The whole detective story was characterized by the French musician as “a setup and a stupid, criminal act.” Maruani accused Kirkorov of “stole more than 30 songs from other performers,” and announced an intention to sue Kirkorov in the United States (where he has property) over “illegal use of musical material.” Kirkorov, in an interview with NTV, without denying a certain similarity of a fragment of the melody, argued that the song “Cruel Love” by composer Oleg Popkov was created and recorded in 1996-2000, and Marouani’s song Symphonic Space Dream - only in 2002. At the same time, Kirkorov declared himself only the performer of the song, not bearing any legal responsibility for its music[41][42].

On January 2, 2017, in the entertainment program “MaximMaxim” on Channel One, Philip Kirkorov presented the presenters of the program, Maxim Galkin and Alla Pugacheva, with a pair of knitted woolen socks, calling them Bulgarian and saying that his aunt knitted them. After the release of the program with this episode, controversy and a flurry of indignation began in the Tajik segment of social networks. Users recognized these woolen socks as a rare pattern that can only be performed by women of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan. As it turned out, the socks donated by Kirkorov turned out to be part of the national attire of the Pamir peoples and some Tajiks - Pamir jurabs. Soon, on social networks, Tajiks and Pamiris organized a flash mob called “Know our jurabs!” They called on Kirkorov to apologize to the Pamir and Tajik peoples and admit his mistake. Many residents of Badakhshan, emphasizing the uniqueness of the Pamir socks, expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that Kirkorov did not indicate their origin, but presented them as handmade by his aunt. After this incident, some Tajik journalists proposed recognizing jurab knitted products as a masterpiece of the oral and intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tajikistan has included the knitting of jurabs in the list of intangible cultural heritage of the country, but has not yet submitted an official application to UNESCO[43][44][45][46].

In October 2017, Gilbert Sinouet, a French writer, author of the novel "Yerevan" about the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, also known as a songwriter, accused Kirkorov of plagiarizing his song "Helwa ya Baladi", which has existed since 1978. The accusation was related to the fact that Kirkorov performs the song “Silk Thread” in Russian, which is identical to the French work[47][48].

In 2018, Philip Kirkorov together with Nikolai Baskov released the video “Ibiza,” which caused a flurry of criticism and negative comments for using low-grade techniques (the climax was smearing both with feces and “milking” a goat). As a result, they had to release an apology video to their fans.

On August 29, 2019, a video appeared on the Internet in which Philip Kirkorov swore obscenely from the stage at the workers of the New Wave festival in Sochi, declaring that he did not care about the live broadcast and until he rehearsed the number with cameras, the show would not start . Soon the scandal quickly spread across social networks. Kirkorov's press secretary Ekaterina Uspenskaya called the incident "working moments on a very important day." She explained Kirkorov’s obscene language towards the festival workers by his concern for the quality of the performance that he was preparing for “New Wave 2019.” Soon, journalist Irina Aroyan responded to this incident, saying the following: “This is not masculine behavior. It’s bad to swear, what else can you say?”[49].

Philip Kirkorov found himself out of favor. After the anniversary concert, the masses took up arms against the king of pop on the national stage. Not only did an Orthodox cross with the actress’s crucifix appear on stage, Kirkorov also danced on it. The public’s favorite was not forgiven for such blasphemy.[51]

Kirkorov was sued[52]

Viewers are outraged by the inappropriate act of Philip Kirkorov. The famous artist danced on an Orthodox cross with the actress’s crucifix at the anniversary concert. The shocked public demands that the prosecutor's office deal with the blasphemer, and the department has a “bunch of statements” on its desk.

The famous lawyer Alexander Ostrovsky commented on Kirkorov’s troubles. The lawyer does not see the incident as a global catastrophe:

Hundreds of such applications are submitted every day. All tastes, everything is evaluated. If at the bottom they think so, then at the top they may think differently and cancel the decisions that were made. Even if a case is opened, it could actually end in a ban, a fine and that’s it.

This also led to massive cancellations of all his concerts.[53]

In October 2022, singer Nargiz Zakirova posted a video on social networks in which she is driving through the streets of Tashkent and, upon seeing a poster announcing a concert by Philip Kirkorov, swears: “Come in large numbers, b...”. Philip Kirkorov responded with a mini-fable: Nargiz, you don’t even need vocal cords to “fuck you.” And to fawn and fawn on someone to whom yesterday you were fawning, and your conscience will not be useful." In November 2022, in an interview with journalist Alena Zhigalova in the YouTube show “Alena, damn it!” Philip Kirkorov commented on singer Nargiz’s attack on himself in Tashkent:

“I’m sitting not bothering anyone, suddenly this “hospitable” video “flies in.” On the eve of a tour in Tashkent, where I haven’t been for a hundred years, where Farukh Zakirov and the “Yalla” group are waiting for me... And suddenly she (Nargiz) records a video: driving past of my beautiful poster in Tashkent and remarks: “Let’s come in large numbers, ...!” This is about me! For five years, while she was trying to do something in Russia, until she quarreled with Fadeev, with Channel One, until she gave our country a bad name and received a ban on entry for her boorish attitude towards Russia, towards to all of us, she wrote to me: “Happy Birthday, Rock Star”, “I love you endlessly!” I answered her: “Thank you, my girl!” And suddenly: “Here we go!”

[54]