Childhood and origin of Sergei Penkin
Sergei Mikhailovich Penkin was born on February 10, 1961 in Penza into a large family.
The father of the future singer worked as a machinist, and his mother was a housewife and worked part-time as a cleaner in a church. Despite the rejection of religiosity in the Soviet Union, the Penkin family were believers. This also affected the upbringing of children. Serezha himself not only attended church from the age of three, but also sang in the church choir. At one time I even wanted to become a priest and go to a theological seminary, but then I changed my mind - I didn’t like leading services. According to Sergei, religiosity was instilled in him by his mother - she came from a family of Penza nobles, the Dolinins, and from childhood was raised in an aristocratic, intelligent, Christian spirit.
Sergey Penkin was born in Penza
Sergei graduated from a music school with a degree in flute and piano, studied in a music club at the Penza House of Pioneers, and from high school he began to earn his first money with his talent: he sang in city restaurants, at dances and variety shows.
Sexual orientation and marriage
He always stood out among other stars with his image and outrageous costumes, for which many accused him of homosexuality. According to the artist, there is no truth in this: “It’s unpleasant for me when I am assigned to those people to whom I simply do not belong. And I never allowed anyone to get into my personal life and never will!” he once said. Penkin was married to an English journalist of Russian origin, but family life did not work out. He didn’t want to be a “second-class Russian” on a foreign land, and she had a hard time putting up with his endless tours.
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The early life of Sergei Penkin
After receiving basic secondary education, Sergei entered the Penza cultural and educational school, and after graduating in 1979, he went to serve in the army.
He asked to fight in Afghanistan, but the command decided otherwise, and Penkin ended up in the Scarlet Chevron military ensemble as a vocalist and served as a dishwasher. In the early 1980s, after the army, Sergei moved to Moscow, got a job as a janitor and tried to enter the Music Pedagogical Institute. Gnesins. The attempt to enroll ended in failure, but Sergei did not give up - he tried again and again. In the end, he was still able to enroll on his eleventh attempt. Connections helped - at one of the parties, fate brought Penkin together with Larisa Olshakh, who recommended him to Natalya Andrianova, a member of the Gnesinka admissions committee. Andrianova convinced teachers that a person with a unique voice range of four octaves has the right to study at a music institute.
Sergei Penkin's orientation raises questions
Penkin combined his attempts to enroll and work as a janitor on Ostozhenka with part-time work in restaurants. In the morning the singer swept the yards, and in the evening he put on a colorful, shiny outfit and entertained the audience in the Lunnom restaurant of the Cosmos Hotel. Soon, thanks to Penkin, Lunar became so popular that tables in the restaurant were booked three months in advance - everyone wanted to hear “that guy from Cosmos” sing. Periodically, the janitor Sergei Penkin did not show up for work - at this time the singer Sergei Penkin went on tour. To avoid being fired from work, Penkin was replaced on such days by his friend and namesake, with whom the singer is still close friends. Sergei entered Gnesinka in 1986, but did not give up his work at the Lunny restaurant and often toured the USSR and abroad as part of the Lunny variety show.
One day in 1988, while on tour in Yevpatoria, Sergei Penkin met Viktor Tsoi. The cult rocker offered to perform together, Sergei was somewhat apprehensive, but agreed - he did not know what kind of audience goes to Kino concerts, and this embarrassed him. However, the concert went off with a bang, marking the beginning of a friendship between Penkin and Tsoi, which, unfortunately, did not last long - Tsoi soon died.
Sergei Penkin's voice is mesmerizing
After the tour, Penkin returned to a semi-basement communal apartment on Ostozhenka, where he gathered Moscow bohemia of that time - musicians, artists, poets.
Moving to Moscow
Returning from the army, the musician realized that he needed to move to the capital. He was cramped in Penza, where the chances of success were reduced to zero. Penkin did not have money to live in Moscow, so he started from the very bottom, getting a job as a janitor. At that time, Sergei lived on Ostozhenka; later he will remember these years with nostalgia. Even now, the artist often returns to the places of his youth to plunge into that very atmosphere.
In the mornings he swept the courtyards of the area, and in the evenings he gathered a company of like-minded people in his small room. Due to the shortage, they could not afford to eat delicacies and drink elite drinks, but all this was perfectly replaced by spiritual food. Friends could spend whole nights singing with a guitar, reading their own poems, or simply sharing stories from their lives.
There were more than just friendly gatherings in Sergei’s life. In the evenings he worked at the Lunar restaurant of the Cosmos Hotel. The artist was part of a variety show, the audience was delighted with his bright costumes and original arrangements of folk songs. Restaurant reservations had to be made a month in advance to see the show. Soon the variety show began to be invited to tour abroad.
Penkin set a goal for himself: he had to receive a musical education. Surprisingly, the singer was able to enter the Gnessin Institute only on his eleventh attempt. He applied every year, but constantly failed the entrance exams. But in 1986, chance helped the artist. At a party he met Larisa Olshakh. She, in turn, recommended the musician to her colleague Natalya Adrianova, a member of the selection committee.
The beginning of the career of Sergei Penkin
By 1992, the year he graduated from the Musical Pedagogical Vocal class, Penkin already had his debut album “Holiday” (1991) and international recognition to his credit.
The performer with unique vocals was invited to concerts in London, New York, and Paris. Western accompanists noted the unusual style and special voice of the young performer, his soulful performance of Russian folk songs in the most modern arrangements. Sergei Penkin can be considered one of the founders of Russian show business: he has always been at the forefront of the stage. His stage costumes amazed the audience and still amaze them. Sergei admits that he now has more than 2,500 costumes, each of which he personally designed. He promises to arrange a show of his collection.
Alone with everyone. Sergei Penkin As popular as Penkin was in those years abroad, just as little was known about him in the Union - he was under the close attention of the special services and was practically deprived of the opportunity to give concerts in his homeland. However, with the collapse of the Union, the situation changed - in 1992, the first commercial Russian TV channel 2x2 put Penkin’s concert video for the song “Feelings” in rotation, gave a big concert at the Variety Theater and went on its first tour across the country - “The Conquest of Russia”. Channel One broadcasts Penkin's concerts.
Foreign tours also continue, their geography is constantly expanding, covering Israel, Australia, and Germany. Penkin becomes one of the few Russian performers performing at the Billboard Hall in New York. In 1994, Sergei went with a grandiose program to London, where he performed with Peter Gabriel, and in the same year Penkin made it to the finals of the national Eurovision contest. By this time, the performer already has five albums to his credit, filming episodic roles in three films.
Career
In 1988, Penkin met the then-famous Viktor Tsoi. He offered him a joint tour, which was a great success. Sergei began to be popular in the capital and made friends among creative people.
In 1991, the singer's debut album Holiday was presented, which gave him international recognition. Invitations to perform in Europe and America followed. After the collapse of the USSR, popularity came in Russia, there were a number of concerts around the country. Sergei Penkin, whose sexuality was the subject of much speculation, behaved playfully and relaxed on stage, which was unusual for the Russian audience. Despite this, hard work and genuine talent gave him the opportunity to break into the hearts of listeners and win his audience.
Sergei Penkin in the two thousandth
In 2002, Sergei gives a concert in Moscow with the Silantiev Symphony Orchestra, and in 2003 he again travels to London to perform on the same stage with the author of the song “Feelings” Morris Albert. In 2006, the musician celebrated his 45th anniversary with a grand show at the Rossiya Concert Hall; in 2008, he recorded a joint single with Sarah Brightman, “I Will Be With You.” Penkin released his latest, 22nd album “Duets” in 2010. At the same time, he entered the “Musical Ring” against Lolita Milyavskaya and gave several more concerts with a symphony orchestra. He is currently participating in the transformation show One to One.
Sergei Penkin acted in films
Height, weight, age. How old is Sergei Penkin
For a long time, only a small number of fans listened to songs performed by the artist. In 2020, he took part in the One-to-One show. Since that time, interest in the artist’s work has increased significantly. Fans know quite accurately what the singer’s height, weight, and age are. It is easy to calculate how old Sergei Penkin is, knowing his year of birth. He recently celebrated his 55th birthday.
Height, weight, age. How old is Sergei Penkin
Sergei Penkin, whose photo in his youth and now can be found on the Internet, amazes with his extravagance. He makes his own suits. At the moment their number exceeds two hundred.
The man is actively involved in sports. He skates, skis, and loves to swim in the pool. These hobbies have a good effect on his physical fitness. With a weight of 68 kg, the artist’s height is 172 cm.
Sergei Penkin in cinema
The filmography of Sergei Penkin includes a small number of films in which the musician starred mainly in episodic roles. Penkin’s film debut was an inconspicuous role in the youth drama “Publication” by Viktor Volkov (1988). The following roles are also episodic - “Hotel Eden” (1991), “Ka-ka-doo” (1992), voice acting of one of the characters in the cartoon “New Bremen” (2000). Later, Sergei appeared in several television series with more prominent roles: “Elimination Game” (2004), “Doomed to Be a Star” (2005), “My Fair Nanny” (2008). In addition, Penkin’s major roles are in one of the episodes of the television series “Travelers” (2007) and in the feature film “The Diamond Arm-2” (2010). Two documentaries were shot about the life of Sergei Penkin and were released in the 2000s: “The Eleventh Attempt” by Igor Klebanov and “People’s Artist” by Alexei Ostudin.
Personal life of Sergei Penkin
Penkin met his wife, an English journalist of Russian origin, in London back in the years when he worked as a janitor at Ostozhenka.
For more than 12 years they met rarely, living separately, and got married not so long ago - in 2007. Penkin is 12 years older than his wife, but neither he nor she has any complexes in this regard. Sergey Penkin - Feelings Sergey claims that the main thing is to be “seventeen years old at heart.” They still live separately - she in London, he in his own four-story dacha near Moscow, built according to his own sketches. In his native Penza, Sergei Penkin, still a deeply religious man, built a church and a chapel with his own money, and landscaped the courtyard of his native five-story building. He forbade his three sisters to work and provides them with everything they need. Before her brother’s popularity, one of the sisters was a cook, the second worked at a research institute, and the third at a watch factory. Sergei's brother died at the age of 47, poisoned by counterfeit alcohol. Sergei himself does not have bad habits - he does not smoke and practically does not drink alcohol, considering this destructive for any person.
Sergei Penkin's voice is included in the Guinness Book of Records.
Personal life
The performer's colorful outfits and bright makeup often became the reason for conversations in the media about the singer's gay orientation. Sergei was offended by such assumptions and angry at attempts to invade his privacy.
Sergey Penkin
During his first tour to London, Penkin met an English journalist who had Russian roots. In 2000, the young couple got married, but their life together did not work out. The marriage lasted two years. Sergei lived in Russia, in a country mansion built according to his own designs, and his wife Lena did not want to leave Britain.
According to Sergei Penkin, he remains a believer. The singer was going to marry his chosen one, but it never came to that. Lena couldn’t stand living in two countries and Sergei’s busy touring schedule. The couple broke up.
Penkin did a lot for his hometown. In Penza he erected a church and a chapel in the cemetery where his parents and older brother were buried. Sergei Mikhailovich loves to visit the city of his childhood, where the musician’s sisters are always waiting for him.
Sergey Penkin and Vladlena
In 2020, Sergei Penkin’s personal life was again on the front pages of the tabloids. They started talking about the musician’s affair with 40-year-old Odessa resident Vladlena, the host of a local TV channel. The singer established relationships with the two daughters of his beloved woman from his first marriage. The couple visited Paris, where, according to rumors, Sergei even proposed to his chosen one.
But the wedding did not take place. Due to emotional distress, Sergei Penkin lost 28 kilograms, which he talked about in an interview. Nevertheless, the singer believes in fate and expects to meet his soulmate.
