Mirage group of artists. Cult singers of the group "Mirage"
In 1985, composer and keyboard player Andrei Lityagin, a student at the Moscow State Conservatory, vocalist Margarita Sukhankina, guitarist Sergei Proklov and vocalist Mikhail Kirsanov united in the amateur group “Activity Zone” and recorded their first demo recording entitled “Information from Newspapers”. Initially as a soloist in the "Activity Zone" project there was Mikhail Kirsanov, who wrote poetry and sang, and Andrei Lityagin played the keys. They performed hard electronic new-wave.
"Mirage" appeared a year later - in February 1986. And soon the group settled in SPM "Record", where A. Lityagin assembled a studio for professional recording. Soon they had 12 compositions ready, and Valery Sokolov had already written poems for almost all of them, perfectly suited for sensual female vocals. They remembered Margarita Sukhankina and asked her to sing vocal parts for the first songs. Margarita agreed and recorded vocals for three songs (“The stars are waiting for us,” “Video,” “This night”). However, Margarita refused to participate in the recording of the next material for the future album, as she wanted to make an opera career and did not want to be noticed in a group performing pop music.
After many tests and lengthy searches, Andrei Lityagin found a new vocalist, Natalia Gulkina, in the jazz studio of one of the Moscow cultural centers. She recorded five more tracks - “Sunny Summer”, “Mad World”, “I Don’t Want”, “Electricity”, “Magic World”. The instrumental "Around Midnight" was added to these compositions. In this form, on March 3, 1987, the group’s first magnetic album, entitled “The Stars Are Waiting for Us,” was released. Andrey Lukinov (Studio “Sound”), Sergey Proklov (guitar parts), Konstantin Bragin, Alexey Ryashchin also took part in the recording of the album. For release on CD, the album was remixed in 1994 at Mirage Music studio with the participation of Ekaterina Boldysheva (vocals), Igor Babenko (remastering).
Six months after the release of the magnetic album, interest in the group pushes Lityagin to the decision to start touring. At the same time, the lineup was replenished with another girl - Svetlana Razina. After some time, the density of touring activity reached 80 - 90 concerts per month. Thus, the first line-up of Mirage included composer Andrei Lityagin, guitarist Sergei Proklov (he was replaced at concerts by Igor Ponomarev), keyboardist Roman Zhukov and drummer Sergei Solopov. Vocals - Natalia Gulkina, Svetlana Razina.
1988
Despite their enormous popularity in 1988, both Gulkina and Razina left the group, creating their own projects. Natalia Gulkina organized the “Stars” group, and Svetlana Razina organized the “Fairy” group. Later, Natalya Vetlitskaya became the group’s soloist, who, after working in the group during 1988, left the group and subsequently pursued a solo career. It should be noted that it was Natalya Vetlitskaya who starred in the group’s first video clip, and she sang in it exclusively with her own voice. For the video clip, it was decided to use a medley of three songs - “I Don’t Want”, “This Night” and “Music Has Connected Us”, which had not yet been released at that time. During these years, Inna Smirnova and Irina Saltykova also worked in the group for a short time. In the summer of 1988, the group’s second magnetic album was recorded using equipment provided by Zvuk studio. Margarita Sukhankina was again invited to record vocal parts; Andrei Lityagin (arrangements, keyboards), Alexey Gorbashov (guitar) also participated in the recording. The appearance of the talented guitarist Alexei Gorbashov in the project and his participation in the recording of the second album allowed the group to rise to a qualitatively different level and become a professional band. The combination of dance music with the rock guitar of Alexei Gorbashov gave rise to the birth of a completely new style of music, which has become business card group "Mirage".
1989
The group still conducts very active concert activities with soloists Irina Saltykova and Tatyana Ovsienko. Irina did not work in the group for long, and with her departure, Tatyana Ovsienko becomes the full-fledged “prima” of the group. She fit into the image of a soloist more competently than others; within a few months she was on all the posters, thus becoming the leading soloist of Mirage. In the same year, the group participated for the first time in the “Song of the Year” festival, where they performed the songs “New Hero” and “Music Connected Us”, the latter reaching the finals. Meanwhile, Andrey Lityagin and Alexey Gorbashov in the studio begin work on the album “Not for the first time.”
1990-1999
There is another change of soloist in the group - Tatyana Ovsienko, by the decision of Andrei Lityagin, was replaced by Ekaterina Boldysheva. Boldysheva was the first and only vocalist of the group who performed live in those years. Before Ekaterina Boldysheva joined the team, Margarita Sukhankina (by that time Margarita Maruna) was once again invited to record the third album in 1989. The album was recorded with the participation of Alexey Gorbashov and Andrey Lityagin and was ready for release in 1991. But the difficult economic situation in the country forced the group to postpone the release of the album indefinitely. Meanwhile, the group conducted concert activities with lead vocalist Ekaterina Boldysheva. As a result, the third album of the group “Mirage” was released with the voice of Ekaterina Boldysheva in 2008. In 1997, the first album of remixes of the group, “Danceremix”, was published. When recording the album, the vocal parts of Margarita Sukhankina, recorded in 1997, were used. The arrangements for this album were made by the talented sound engineer and composer Roman Mukhachev.
1999-2004
One of the most controversial stages in the group’s development was started by Andrei Lityagin’s decision to revive the Mirage group for the new millennium with a new line-up. Young girls were selected for concert activities, and the albums “Version 2000” (1999), “Dance remix 2000” (2000), “Back to the Future” (2001), “Drop” (2003) were published. The latter included tracks that were planned to be released in 1991 in the album “Not for the First Time”, the rest were albums of remixes of previously released tracks. These albums give rise to a lot of gossip. Some tracks feature the recognizable voice of Margarita Sukhankina, while on others it is different.
2004-2007
In 2004 it happened a large number of significant events for the group. Firstly, in 2004, the publishing house Jam invited Andrei Lityagin to finish the work he began in 1992 and publish the third numbered album of the Mirage group, entitled “Not for the first time.” An agreement was concluded and the publishing house began work. Secondly, there were changes in the young composition of the group - instead of three soloists “singing” in Sukhankina’s voice, 4 girls appeared (Nicole Ambrazaitis, Evgenia Morozova, Elena Stepanyuk, Maria Kharcheva). In 2005, a series of concerts were held dedicated to the 18th anniversary of the group, including a concert at the Olimpiysky sports complex. Almost all former and current members of the Mirage group took part in this concert. Shortly before the preparation of the show, a duet of two former vocalists formed - Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina. But since they could not use the name “Mirage” for their concert activities, they first decided to use the name “Solo for Two”, then - proper names, under which they released the single “Mirage of Love” in 2004, and the album “Just a Mirage” in 2005. These albums did not contain a single song from the former repertoire of the Mirage group and not a single song written by the group’s founder, Andrei Lityagin. After the release of the album, the duo begins active concert activity, which the management of the Mirage group does not like. Andrei Lityagin states in an interview that Sukhankina disgraces him as a composer with her “poor remakes” posted on the Internet, and writes bans on all their concerts. In November 2004, unknown persons brutally beat Margarita Sukhankina at the entrance to her house, and in her interview, Margarita directly points to Lityagin as one of the possible masterminds of the attack. Later, the duo resumed cooperation with Andrei Lityagin and the duet was given the name “Golden Voices of the Mirage Group”, and then “Mirage”. In this regard, the young composition of the group was renamed “Mirage-Junior” and the project began its parallel creative activity, however, they are entitled to perform works from the repertoire of the Mirage group. In 2006 and 2007, three concert albums were successively released, including recordings from a concert at the Olimpiysky, the USSR Disco in St. Petersburg and some other rare recordings. One of the discs was reissued in the “Grand Collection” series. A DVD “Mirage 18 Years” was also published with concert recordings and an mp3 collection, which, in addition to audio files, included a book with the participants’ memories of the Mirage group. In 2005, Channel 1 TV showed the film “Mirage - Empire of Deception”, in which for the first time many things are called by their proper names, and in which Andrei Lityagin and his entourage appear as the organizers of a grandiose deception. Andrei Lityagin himself, in an interview with the Ukrainian TV channel STB, admits that he regrets only one thing - that he did not make “80 Mirages in each city” at one time. In April 2007, at the “Best of the Best” awards ceremony, the Mirage group consisting of: Andrey Lityagin, Ekaterina Boldysheva, Alexey Gorbashov and Alexander Bukreev (director of the group) were awarded medals and diplomas “Professional of Russia” for their contribution to culture and art.
2008
In 2008, the publishing house Jam finished work on the album “Not for the first time.” The vocal parts were recorded by the lead vocalist of “Mirage” in the 1990s, Ekaterina Boldysheva, and the guitar parts were recorded by the permanent guitarist of the group, Alexei Gorbashov. The sound of the album is as close in style as possible to the heyday of Mirage. However, Andrei Lityagin stated that this was not what he ordered, and that all the vocal parts in the album were to be sung by Margarita Sukhankina, although before that he had stated in numerous interviews that Ekaterina was invited to the team to perform these songs in 1991 Boldysheva. In defense of his position, Andrei Lityagin went to court, but the Moscow Arbitration Court, represented by Judge L. M. Barabanshchikova, terminated the proceedings due to the plaintiff’s refusal of the claim. The legitimacy of the album “Not for the first time” performed by Ekaterina Boldysheva was confirmed by the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow, represented by Judge I.V. Kananovich, rejecting on July 3, 2009 Andrei Lityagin’s claim against the trading company “Caprice” and the publishing house “Jem”, engaged in distribution album. Currently, Andrei Lityagin, being in a state of protracted creative crisis, has mainly devoted himself to the fight against his former colleagues, feeding on them statements of claim to the courts and filing complaints with Law enforcement. Lityagin himself is known as an ardent advocate of working with a soundtrack. For a long time On his initiative, the soloists in the group performed to someone else’s phonogram. And in the same year, the group “Mirage”, consisting of soloists Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina, wins the television project with the participation of former NTV pop stars “Superstar 2008. Dream Team”.
2009
In 2009, the Astrel publishing house published a book by one of the first soloists of the group, Svetlana Razina, “Music has connected us. All the secrets of Mirage." The book tells the story of the life and work of both Svetlana herself and the legendary group “Mirage”. A new album of the group “Mirage” composed of Natasha Gulkina and Rita Sukhankina called “1000 Stars” has been released.
“Music has connected us,” “Sunny Summer,” “Night is Falling” - these compositions were heard from almost every window in the 80s and 90s. And they were performed by the group “Mirage”. Composition, history of the creation of the team and stages creative development Today many Russians are interested. You will find all the necessary information in the article.
History of creation
In 1985, composer Andrey Lityagin organized an amateur group with the original name “Activity Zone”. He invited guitarist Sergei Proklov and two vocalists (Mikhail Kirsanov and Margarita Sukhankina). Soon the guys recorded their first song, “Information from Newspapers,” in the new wave style.
In February 1986, the team was renamed. This is how the Mirage group appeared on the Soviet stage. The composition remains the same. But the musicians decided to abandon the new wave genre. In a short time, A. Lityagin composed 12 songs in the Eurodisco style. If earlier the main soloist was Mikhail Kirsanov, then in the updated project he had to give way to Rita Sukhankina. The singer participated in the recording of such compositions as “This Night”, “Video” and “The Stars Are Waiting for Us”.
The first composition of the Mirage group did not last long. First Kirsanov left. Then Sukhankina decided to build a career as an opera singer. Lityagin did not try to persuade the boys to stay.
First changes
The producer spent a lot of time looking for a pretty and talented girl who could replace Sukhankina in the Mirage project. The composition of the group (old) was a duet. Lityagin played keyboards, Sergei Proklov played guitar.
Soon, in one of the Moscow cultural centers, the producer found a new soloist. It's about about Natasha Gulkina. She performed vocal parts for 5 compositions, including “I Don’t Want”, “Sunny Summer” and “Magic World”.
In March 1987, the Mirage musical project was marked by the release of its debut album, “The Stars Are Waiting for Us.” A whole team of professionals took part in the recording of the record: Alexey Ryashchin, Konstantin Bragin, sound engineer Andrey Lukinov.
Six months later, the group “Mirage” went on a tour of Russian cities. By that time, the group's lineup (photo above) had been replenished with new members - soloist Razina Svetlana, drummer Sergei Solopov and keyboard player Roman Zhukov (he replaced Lityagin). The guys gave 80-90 concerts a month.
Composition of the Mirage group: 1988
The compositions “This Night”, “I Don’t Want” and “Sunny Summer” were played at all urban and rural discos in the country. The live performances of the musicians were well received by the public. The idol of most representatives of Soviet youth was the Mirage group, the composition of which changed again in 1988. Gulkina Natasha created her own musical project “Stars”. And Razina Svetlana moved to the Fairy group.
Natalya Vetlitskaya became the new soloist of Mirage, but she did not stay in the group for long (at the beginning of 1989 she took up a solo career).
It was Vetlitskaya that the fans of the group saw in the first video clip. The slender beauty performed a medley of three compositions - “Music has connected us,” “This night” and “I don’t want.” In 1988, Inna Smirnova was also involved in the Mirage project. Then she went to the Fairy group.
In the summer of 1988, the recording of the second album “Mirage” took place. It was called “Together Again”. Lityagin again offered cooperation to Margarita Sukhankina. There was no talk of her returning to the group. Rita just recorded the vocal parts.
Guitarist Alexey Gorbashov also participated in the creation of the second record. Andrey Lityagin was responsible for the arrangement. He also acted as a keyboard player. The composition of the Mirage group, names, photos of participants - all this was of interest to a huge number of people. At that time, the Internet did not yet exist. Therefore, the only source of information was printed publications (magazines, newspapers).
Young and beautiful vocalists
In 1989, the band went on a big tour. Two young and attractive soloists performed on stage, joining the Mirage group. The surnames and their names are well known to all of you. After all, these are Irina Saltykova and Tanya Ovsienko. The girls simply opened their mouths to the plus phonogram with the voices of M. Sukhankina and N. Gulkina.
Irina Saltykova performed only a few concerts. After her departure, Tatyana Ovsienko became the “face” of the group. In 1989, she played herself in the musical-comedy film Our Man in San Remo.
The blonde performed the famous composition from the Mirage repertoire - “I Don’t Ask Anymore.” Meanwhile, A. Gorbashov and A. Lityagin were preparing to record the album “Not for the first time.”
Period of E. Boldysheva: 1990-1999.
The producer decided to stop collaborating with Ovsienko. This happened in 1990. Tatyana's place was taken by the dark-haired beauty Katya Boldysheva. Even before she joined the group, the third album was recorded, in which M. Sukhankina’s voice sounds. However, the release of the album had to be postponed. And all because of the difficult economic situation in the country. At the same time, the concert activities of the popular group continued. Unlike other soloists (Irina Saltykova, Tanya Ovsienko, and so on), Boldyreva performed all the songs live.
In the period 1999-2004. The Russian group successfully toured Western European countries.
New compounds
At the end of the 1990s, A. Lityagin accepted three young singers into the group. Unfortunately, their first and last names are not disclosed. But it was they who participated in the recording of the albums “Version 2000”, “Drop” and “Back to the Future”.
In 2004, representatives of the publishing house “Jem” contacted Lityagin by phone and invited him to complete work on the third album, which was never released in the 1990s. The producer agreed. He immediately changed the composition of the group, saying goodbye to three vocalists. Soon 4 girls appeared in the team: Masha Kharcheva, Lena Stepanyuk, Zhenya Morozova and Nicole Ambrazaitis.
Also in 2004, the Mirage group celebrated its 18th anniversary. The big concert, held within the walls of the Olimpiysky Sports Complex, was attended by former and current members of the group (Ira Saltykova, Rita Sukhankina, Svetlana Razina, Alexey Gorbashov and others).
Golden voices
In 2004, two bright and talented singers (ex-soloists of Mirage) teamed up in a duet. We are talking about Natasha Gulkina and Rita Sukhankina. Their creative union was called “Solo for Two”. Then the singers released the single “Mirage of Love” under their own names. And in 2005, their joint album, called “Just a Mirage,” went on sale.
Lityagin was initially against the resulting duet Gulkin - Sukhankin. There was a confrontation between former colleagues (producer and mentees). And only in 2006 they managed to improve relations. Margarita and Natalya again began to collaborate with Lityagin. The producer even came up with a name for their duet - “The Golden Voices of Mirage.” They released three concert collections, which included recordings from performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Conflict situations
In 2008, the publishing house “Jem” completed work on the creation of the album “Not for the first time.” Katya Boldysheva performed the vocal parts, and Sergey Gorbashov performed the guitar parts. However, Andrei Lityagin did not like the prepared musical material at all. He counted on the fact that all vocal parts, as in previous albums, would be sung by Rita Sukhankina.
To defend his position, the producer appealed to the Khamovnichesky Court (Moscow). But his lawsuit against the publishing house "Jem" was rejected. The album “Not for the first time” was finally released. Based on sales results, it achieved “golden disc” status.
In 2009, the next album, “A Thousand Stars,” was presented to listeners. This record turned out to be unsuccessful. Russian radio stations showed no interest in new songs from this album.
Rita Sukhankina and Natasha Gulkina were constantly in conflict with each other. And by the end of 2010, their confrontation reached its peak. As a result, their duet broke up. In January 2011, Natalya left the team. Now she performs solo. At the same time, she is prohibited from performing “Mirage” compositions, authored by A. Lityagin.
Gulkina was replaced by another famous soloist, Svetlana Razina, who performed with the group in the 1980s. She is also the author of such songs as “Where am I”, “New Hero” and “I’m not kidding”.
In December 2011, Sveta announced her departure from Mirage. The singer decided to return to her solo career.
Group "Mirage": current composition
Not everyone knows that the musical group, which was mega-popular in the 1980-1990s, still exists. And he has the same producer.
In September 2016, Andrey Lityagin transferred to the publishing house “Jem” the rights to publicly perform Mirage songs, as well as to use the group’s trademark. Such actions on the part of the producer made it possible to end long-standing conflicts and disputes among the project participants. From now on, Margarita Sukhankina performs with her own group. She is allowed to perform those Mirage songs in which she took part.
The following are the current members of the legendary group:
- Sergey Krylov - keyboard player.
- Alexey Gorbashov - guitarist.
- Grishin Andrey - drummer.
- Boldysheva Ekaterina - vocalist.
In February 2017, Valery Sokolov, the author of many Mirage hits, reminded of himself. He warned new line-up groups from performing compositions without his consent. Only two former soloists, Razina and Margarita, received written permission from him. On March 1, 2017, the license issued to Margarita expired. Today, she also cannot perform songs written by V. Sokolov.
Finally
Now you know what the first composition of the Mirage group was like. We also announced the names and surnames of subsequent members of the team. Of course, it is unlikely that the team will be able to return to its former glory. But “Mirage” still remains one of the musical symbols of the 1980-1990s.
, Natalya Vetlitskaya, Tatyana Ovsienko, Irina Saltykova, Ekaterina Boldysheva - ended with a showdown on the topic: who has the right to perform what, when and where. Today, there is again confusion in the group, where they cannot divide the rights to perform songs. Composer Andrei Lityagin filed a lawsuit against Margarita Sukhankina. Today they are trying to disrupt her concerts, like those of Natalia Gulkina. Meanwhile, a new cast of “Mirage” appeared on the stage. The MK correspondent tried to understand the scandal that flared up with renewed vigor.
The first person we turned to for comment was the guitarist of the old band, Alexey Gorbashov. It is he and Ekaterina Boldysheva who are now called the real “Mirage”.
Authoritative and interested people related to Mirage gathered back in September and discussed the future fate of the team. The group at that time was in complete stagnation. As a result of all negotiations, an agreement was signed. It says that the creative team "Mirage" - Ekaterina Boldysheva, Alexey Gorbashov, Sergey Krylov, Andrey Grishin - has been granted a license to publicly use the group's hits. We are also granted the right to use the Mirage trademark. All other soloists who wanted it have the non-exclusive right to perform hits. Our group “Mirage” tours under the trademark and sings songs that are allowed to be sung under the contract.
Everything seems clear and fine. The agreement dated September 1, 2016 confirms the above, with one exception. He signed with two songwriters, but the third remained out of work. We turned for comments to the person whose name we tried to ignore - the famous songwriter, founder of the group Valery Sokolov, whose luggage includes the group’s most famous hits.
I never cease to be amazed at how Andrei Lityagin has been chasing all the soloists of the Mirage group for so many years, taking turns calling first one or another soloist the Mirage group. Now we see a situation where once again Andrei Lityagin switched sides and found new friends. They were his old opponents - Andrei Cherkasov and Alexey Gorbashov, who tried to sue him for co-authorship of his works.
I remember there was such a story,” Valery Sokolov continued the story, “at the end of the 80s there were many rumors that the Mirage soloists sang to a soundtrack - at that time the soloists in the group were already changing every three to four months - and for this Then you could get a hat. And so the group was summoned to the Ministry of Culture for approval of the program, where it was necessary to sing only live. Andrei Lityagin again urgently called Margarita Sukhankina and asked her to sing at the presentation of the program, since it was her voice that, in fact, sounded on all the albums, and at that moment there was no one else to sing live. Margarita came and sang. And then it so happened that Tatyana Ovsienko performed to her soundtrack at the “Song of the Year-89”, where Andrei Lityagin and I, as authors, received the title of laureates of the festival.
The most interesting thing is that the newly named “Mirage” cannot perform my songs, and this, excuse me, is all the group’s hits: “Music has connected us,” “Night is Coming,” “Snowflake,” “Video,” “Sunny Summer” and many others . Thanks to Andrei Lityagin, a situation has now arisen where only Margarita Sukhankina can perform all the hits, since she has permission from me, from Andrei Lityagin and other authors of Mirage. And the so-called new “Mirage” was left without hits. And at the same time, Lityagin managed to sue Margarita Sukhankina because people equate her name with the name “Mirage”.
I spoke with Andrei Lityagin’s former partners in the Mirage Music company, who informed me that they would challenge the use of the name “Mirage Group” by Lityagin alone. They also informed me that Lityagin’s copyrights have been in their possession for a long time...
But the rights of Valery Sokolov himself, as the poet told us, are under the collective management of RAO. After discussions with a lawyer, he decided to withdraw his documents and, starting in January, fully represent his interests on his own.
“MK”, in turn, turned to representatives of Margarita Sukhankina for comments.
Margarita has Required documents, signed with the authors, to perform all songs from the group’s repertoire,” said its director Sergei Lavro (by the way, the namesake of director Sofia Rotaru). - If you are interested in Lityagin’s last name, then yes, he sold her a license to use his songs for a large sum. And on this basis we act. I have not seen any claim from him that I am being asked about. In this case, there probably should have been a subpoena.
One of the bright soloists of the former Mirage, Natalia Gulkina, who has been touring solo for a long time, also commented on the situation.
I’ve already seen everything in this group, so now nothing will surprise me. Yes, in September they told me that they allegedly approached all the soloists personally and offered to sing Mirage songs. I recently ran into Tanya Ovsienko and asked her about this. She turned out to be unaware. The only thing I know is that they tried to disrupt my concerts again after this ill-fated September.
To check Natalia’s words, we turned to the director Sofia Rotaru and the head of the Kremlin Concert Sergei Lavrov, who organized Gulkina’s tour of the Urals.
The only person we were unable to contact and comment on the newly flared up scandal was Andrei Lityagin himself, who has changed six cell phone numbers since September.
Scandals surrounding the rights to perform Mirage hits have not subsided for years in a row. And although the public often doesn’t care whose specific performance their favorite melodies are, when they are worn out during showdowns, then the attitude towards them becomes skeptical. It's a pity! The songs are good.
First album group "Mirage" came out 30 years ago. But even today, not a single disco of the 1980s. cannot do without their songs, which today, at the peak of interest in the music of those times, have found a second life. The hits “Music Connected Us,” “This Night,” “New Hero” and others were sung by the whole country, but no one knew what the vocalist really looked like. All the secrets of the Mirage were revealed only many years later.
The history of the group began in 1985, when composer and keyboardist Andrei Lityagin, conservatory student Margarita Sukhankina and the Activity Zone group recorded the song “Information from Newspapers.” A year later, a group called “Mirage” prepared 12 compositions, some of which were recorded performed by Sukhankina. She refused to continue working in the group, as she dreamed of becoming an opera singer. Lityagin had to urgently look for a new vocalist with a similar voice timbre. Natalya Gulkina took this role, they recorded 5 more songs with her and in 1987 they released the album “The Stars Are Waiting for Us” - the first in the history of the Mirage group.
In the first six months, the group, which had never performed on television or heard on the radio, gained incredible popularity. Their cassettes were sold in all stalls. Then Lityagin decides to start touring. For this purpose, another soloist was added to the team - Svetlana Razina. The touring schedule was very busy, the group gave 80-90 concerts a month. At the peak of her popularity, Gulkina decided to leave Mirage and created her own project, Stars. In December 1988, Svetlana Razina married the group's producer Valery Sokolov and soon also left the team, founding the Fairy group with her husband in 1989. Of course, the popularity of new projects could not be compared with Mirage.
Mirage again needed new soloists. Although they could no longer be called “vocalists” - after all, they sang to the soundtrack of songs recorded by Sukhankina and Gulkina. At concerts, people heard the same recognizable voice, and the faces of the performers were constantly changing. Irina Saltykova and Inna Smirnova performed with the group for a short time. Hundreds of fake groups performed simultaneously throughout the country under the name “Mirage”. For a year, Natalya Vetlitskaya worked in the group, she even starred in the first video clip of “Mirage”, performing in her voice a medley of three songs - “I don’t want”, “This night” and “Music has connected us”.
One day the vocalist got sick and didn’t come to the concert. The tickets had long been sold out, and the producer had no intention of canceling the performance. The group's costume designer, Tatyana Ovsienko, was released onto the stage, and she portrayed the lead singer of “Mirage” to the soundtrack. Since then, she began performing with the group. In 1989, the group's second album was prepared - Margarita Sukhankina again agreed to record all the songs, but the album was never released. Her last name was not mentioned anywhere, at her own request - otherwise she would have had to give up her career as an opera singer. Everyone knew her voice, but no one saw her face. And on the posters, fans of the group saw Tatyana Ovsienko, who has since become the leading soloist and face of Mirage. In the same year, the song “Music Connected Us” reached the final of “Song of the Year”.
In 1990-1999 By the decision of Andrei Lityagin, Tatyana Ovsienko was replaced by a new soloist - Ekaterina Boldysheva. Despite the fact that she performed live at the group’s concerts, the popularity of Mirage sharply declined. Success in the late 1980s in the new decade the group was unable to repeat it.
Tatyana Ovsienko - lead singer of the group *Mirage* | Photo: mirage.su
In 1999, Lityagin made an attempt to revive interest in the project by forming a new cast of “Mirage” from young girls. But complete update did not happen - the soloists again sang in Sukhankina’s voice. In 2005, several concerts were held to mark the 18th anniversary of the group, in which almost all former Mirage soloists took part. And Natalya Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina even began performing together and released the album “Just a Mirage.”
One of the most famous Eurodisco groups of the times of perestroika, Mirage, in addition to dance hits, remained in people's memory also a constant change of vocalists. Among fans, it has become a kind of sport to be able to determine which of the many singers who have been at the Mirage microphone is performing a song.
There was a lot of confusion, both in the late 80s, when several Mirage lineups existed at the same time, and in the 2000s, when all these Mirages began to return in different lineups and sue each other.
Already the very first record immediately posed a lot of riddles to listeners. It all started in 1986, when Andrei Lityagin invited his friend, Moscow Conservatory student Margarita Sukhankina, to sing several of his songs for the recently appeared “Mirage”. Margarita performed, and refused to continue.
She thought that a successful opera career lay ahead of her, and dance songs could cast a shadow on her singing reputation. Lityagin began searching for a new vocalist. The castings took a long time, but after months of auditions, Andrei finally found the voice he was looking for - Natalia Gulkina.
All that was left to do was to persuade Gulkina herself. This took another three months. Finally, she recorded five more songs. Lityagin added an instrumental track to the existing eight and the album “The Stars Are Waiting for Us” was ready.
The album was released on audio cassette in 1987. The popularity that has befallen the group is evidenced at least by the tour schedule - six months after the release of the tape, Mirage gave 90 concerts a month. Lityanin took another soloist to help Gulkina - Svetlana Razina. They became friends and in 1988 they left Mirage together for a solo career, which, however, was not particularly successful. Lityagin was not too upset by this - he already realized that the undemanding Soviet public, who went crazy with the songs of “Mirage,” did not see any problem in the fact that the singers on stage only opened their mouths. The main thing is that it “rocks” from the speakers, but who actually sings it is not so important. She replaced them, but also soon left the group.
To record new phonograms for new concerts, he again invited Sukhankina - this time he did not have to persuade her. This is how Mirage’s second album, “Together Again,” appeared. Two new “vocalists” - and - took cassettes with a phonogram and went on a tour “chess” across the USSR. The profits were huge. Whether it was just two Mirages or whether there were more, no one knows for sure. Soon she left and was then replaced by Ekaterina Boldysheva.
She, unlike the previous “mirage girls,” not only opened her mouth to the recordings of Gulkina and Sukhankina, but could also sing herself. It was Boldysheva who went to Mirage concerts after the collapse of the USSR. In the early 90s, Lityagin wanted to release another album, but decided to focus on touring instead.
Ten years later, Andrei Lityagin tried to revive Mirage - on the wave of interest in retro, it seemed like a successful commercial idea. Several albums were recorded with the new vocalists under the Mirage brand, and a big concert was organized at the Olimpiysky, where Lityagin gathered all the former vocalists of the group. Shortly before this, Gulkina and Sukhankina also decided to take advantage of their former glory and revive the Mirage on their own. They recorded an album of new songs and began touring. Lityagin burst into angry rebuke about the “poor remakes,” and in 2004, Margarita Sukhankina was beaten by unknown persons near the entrance of her house.
Soon after this, the duo made peace with Lityagin and eventually became “Mirage”, and the young composition began to be called “Mirage-Junior”. Later, Boldysheva also joined the conflict, recording her own album “Mirage”. Lityagin had to be dealt with in court, which recognized that Boldysheva’s album was correct. However, conflicts continued within the team - this time Gulkina and Sukhankina quarreled. Both of them have now left the group.
Despite this crazy leapfrog of copyrights for songs, vocalists, rights to albums, rights to names and everything else, everyone who has heard the songs of “Mirage” at least once will easily recognize them, no matter who performed them. In addition, even if there is only one singer on stage, no one can guarantee that someone completely different will not sing for her.