Yuri Eduardovich Loza is a very famous musician who is still loved by many. First a Soviet and later a Russian songwriter and music writer. At one time, he collaborated with such well-known groups as Integral, whose producer was Bari Alibasov, Primus (Yaroslav Angelyuk) or Zodchie.
In the eighties of the last century, he took up his own career, creating a personal recording studio in 1993, which he called “Yuri Loza Studio.” He wrote such famous hits of the eighties as “The Raft”, “Winter” or “I Can Dream”.
Height, weight, age. How old is Yuri Loza
Even fans from the eighties and nineties, who paid more attention to the artist’s direct work than to himself, may still be interested in such interesting facts as height, weight, age. It’s easy to calculate how old Yuri Loza is.
The musician was born in 1954. Now he is already 63. Yuri is a fairly tall man. His height is 185 centimeters. And with this impressive growth, he weighs 90 kilograms. By the way, the presence of a little excess weight does not spoil his colorful appearance one bit.
Music
Upon arrival in Moscow, Yuri Loza played and sang in the capital's restaurants. The musician's repertoire consisted of Soviet and foreign hits. Then the singer joined the Kaleidoscope ensemble, from which he moved to Bari Alibasov’s group Integral. As part of the group, Loza participated in the “Spring Rhythms” rock festival in Tbilisi, which became a landmark event in the history of Soviet rock music. The musician collaborated with Integral for 5 years, but Yuri was upset that his own songs were not included in the repertoire. Only one composition, “Sacred Places,” was sung at the concert and later recorded in the studio by another VIA group “Ariel.”
Loza leaves the ensemble and, with the help of the musicians of the Primus group, records the first album, “Journey to Rock and Roll,” which was released in 1983 on magnetic tape. During the same period, the song “Raft” was written, which later became the singer’s calling card, but the composition appeared on the record only in 1988. The artist included the hit in the collection “What is Said is Said,” which also included the songs “Mother Writes,” “Winter,” and “I Can Dream.”
After the debut album, Yuri Loza joined the Zodchie group, where Valery Syutkin, the future frontman of the rock and roll ensemble Bravo, had already performed. During his four years of work in Zodchikh, Loza wrote about a hundred songs, many of which formed the backbone of the group’s repertoire. In 1986, Yuri released a solo studio album, “Love, Love,” which included the tracks “On a July Night,” “Midnight Blues,” and “One Hundred Hours.”
A year later, the artist gave his first solo concert and finally left the Architects. In 1990, Loza, being the administrator of the Ryazan Philharmonic, pleased fans with the album “All Life is a Road.” After the release of the disc, Yuri decided to open his own recording studio, and in 1993 the “Yuri Loza Studio” appeared.
Yuri Loza's songs gained particular popularity when the singer began his solo career. The late 80s and early 90s were a golden time for the artist. Musical compositions, which were a cocktail of art songs, traditional pop and rock music, were in demand and often reached the top of the charts.
In addition to “The Raft”, it is worth highlighting such hits as “Sing, My Guitar”, “Winter”, “I Can Dream”, “Tosca”, “In Memory of Vysotsky”. As mentioned above, in 1993 the singer created his own recording studio, Yuri Loza Studio. The artist’s last studio album, “Sacred Places,” was released in 2000. The artist presented fans with new tracks - “Station”, “Children’s Eyes”, “It’s Far Away”. Since the early 2000s, only collections of songs have been published.
The artist's video library is not rich in clips. With the exception of the videos that appeared at the beginning of the singer’s creative career - “Winter”, “Irresistible”, “Not So”, in 2003 the clips “Moscow to you” and “So a year has passed” appeared. The latest video for the song “City Yards” appeared only in 2020.
The artist devotes the 2000s to creative searches. Yuri Loza appears in a number of film and television projects - the film “Multiplying Sorrow”, the sitcom “Who’s the Boss?” and the comedy detective “Kings of the Game.”
In 2009, the singer tried himself as a musical playwright and wrote the play “Kultur-Multur”. The performance based on the text of the musician’s work was shown by the Jewish Folk Music and Drama Theater “Kohelet” in 2014.
Biography and personal life of Yuri Loza
Yuri Loza was born in Sverdlovsk on February 1, 1954. The family of the future artist had no connections with the stage. Yura's mother worked as an accountant, his father was a design engineer who, in his free time, simply played the tunes of his favorite songs on the button accordion. But from early childhood, Yura showed a predisposition to the field of music - a beautiful child’s voice and a keen ear for music. When he was seven, his family moved to the village of Shelek, in the Almaty region. The musician spent his entire childhood in this village. While still in elementary school, he became a member of the school choir, and also began to independently learn to play the guitar. Much later, the singer recalled with a nostalgic smile that at his debut performance in this choir, he became overexcited and fainted.
Subsequently, the biography and personal life of Yuri Loza developed successfully. The first song he learned was “Girl” by the Beatles. It is noteworthy that he sang it in the original, although he did not know the language, since he only studied German at school. Good guitar playing skills and a repertoire that included not only rock, but also lyrics, created Yuri an excellent reputation. After school, he became a student at the Kazakh State University, Faculty of Geography. As a student, Loza fell in love with sports, he even became the owner of the highest category as a football player. For some time, he could not even make a choice between the paths of a professional athlete and a musician, but his love for music still turned out to be stronger than his attraction to sports. Therefore, after completing his first year, he said goodbye to his university.
Later, Yuri became a soldier in the missile forces, he also became the leader of the soldiers’ orchestra there, and subsequently created an entire military ensemble. After demobilization, Yuri tried his hand at the most common working professions, but for the most part he performed music in restaurants or at celebrations, while at the same time studying at the school. Tchaikovsky in Almaty. Thanks to his amateur performances, Loza gained fame in certain circles.
Very soon he became a member of the vocal and instrumental ensemble “Integral”. It was then produced by Bari Alibasov. He performed in this group for six years - 77-83. In 1980, the ensemble became a laureate of the All-Union Rock Music Festival in Tbilisi. They performed on par with venerable stars.
Having received such recognition, the young talent decided that he was finally ready to continue his career on his own. He was never abandoned by his own ambitions and over a hundred texts that Yuri composed, but could not release in the repertoire of the former ensemble.
Having completed his activities at Integral, Yuri moved to the capital. This period of life turned out to be the most difficult for the artist. The point is not only that the Soviet rock stage was going through difficult times: former idols either fell apart or were unable to perform due to the same crises of creativity, and young performers still did not dare to fully appear on the big stage. In Moscow, Loza was left without an apartment and money. The first attempt to enter GITIS was a failure. The artist lived on the remnants of his earnings, which Integral brought him, and since there was no permanent job either, from time to time Yuri swindled with musical instruments.
Without a doubt, the real musical bestseller in Loza’s work was and remains the ballad “The Raft,” which was written by Yuri in 1982, but was presented to listeners only five years later. For the reason that my colleagues from “Integral” did not appreciate this song. The ballad reached its peak of popularity in 1988, appearing in the album “What is said is said.” Even though many years have passed, this composition is still considered a kind of “calling card” of the musician. Although it has differences with the rest of his songs.
The beginning of Yuri Loza's musical career. "Integral"
Returning to civilian life, he tried himself in different professions: for a short time he was a milling machine operator, then a surveyor, but for the most part he played at weddings and in restaurants, while simultaneously receiving a musical education at the Alma-Ata Tchaikovsky Music College. Thanks to his “tavern” performances, Loza quickly became famous in narrow circles and even received the nickname “singer of the city slums.”
In his youth, Yuri Loza was called “the singer of the city slums.” He soon found a place for himself in the VIA “Integral”, which at that moment was led by Bari Alibasov. Yuri Loza has been performing as part of this group since 1977, and in 1980 his first success awaited him - the musicians became laureates of the All-Union rock festival “Spring Rhythms” in Tbilisi, performing on the same stage with such rock giants as Boris Grebenshchikov and Andrei Makarevich.
In the photo: Yuri Loza and VIA “Integral” After recognition, the talented young man felt that he was ready to set out on his own. Creative ambitions haunted him, because over five years of pop performances, the artist had accumulated an impressive amount (more than a hundred songs) of musical material that could not be realized within the framework of Integral.
Yuri Loza and Bari AlibasovIn 1983, Yuri Loza broke off relations with Integral and Bari Alibasov and moved to Moscow. It was a difficult period for the musician, and not only because the domestic rock stage was also experiencing a crisis: the old “giants” were either falling apart, like “Sunday,” or experiencing a creative crisis, like “Time Machine,” and the younger generation of musicians had not yet came out of the "underground". In the capital, Loza found himself without housing and permanent work; he tried to enter GITIS, but did not pass the competition. I had to survive on the remnants of my “integral” earnings, sometimes swindling on musical instruments.
Family and children of Yuri Loza
Yuri Loza lived most of his life with one single woman - Svetlana Merezhkovskaya, who was previously a singer and, like Yuri, performed on the Soviet stage. In 1986, Svetlana gave her husband a son, Oleg, who also showed musical inclinations throughout his childhood and eventually decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, connecting his life with the music scene.
Yuri always talks about his family with genuine warmth and love. The family and children of Yuri Loza were and remain significant support and support for him.
Solo artist career
Without stopping performing with Zodchimi, Yuri Loza begins to release solo albums - “Tosca”, “Love”. It is worth noting that after the conflict with “Primus” in 1984, Yuri recorded a record called “Concert for Friends”, where he tried his hand at a new genre - chanson.
Yuri Loza and Bari Alibasov
In 1987, the singer performed at his first solo concert, after which he left the group. In the same year, he released the song “Raft”, which became his most famous composition (written in 1982). Later, Yuri gets a job as an administrator at the Ryazan Philharmonic, without stopping recording songs. In 1990, a new album was released - “All Life is a Road . The beginning of his solo career brought the singer even greater popularity; his compositions took first place on the charts. The reason for this was a successful mixture of styles.
Yuri Loza after the performance
In 1993, Yuri founded his own sound recording studio. Yuri Loza’s last studio album was “Sacred Places,” released in 2000.
The singer has several video clips behind him, filmed at the beginning of his solo career.
Yuri Loza with a dog
Son of Yuri Loza - Oleg Loza
Oleg was born, as mentioned above, in 1986. Now he is already 31 years old. Having begun to show a love for music from childhood, after school Oleg successfully graduated from the Gnessin School with a degree in choir conductor. And then the capital’s State Conservatory. Tchaikovsky, majoring in opera performer and vocal teacher.
The son of Yuri Loza, Oleg Loza, began his career in Zurich. At first he worked at a local opera theater as an assistant director, and now he performs as an opera performer, a baritone.
Biography
Yuri Loza is a Soviet and Russian singer, composer and songwriter. Fame came to the artist as part of the group “Zodchie”, but the famous song “Raft” was already performed solo.
Yuri was born in Yekaterinburg, into a family of employees. My father worked as a design engineer, and my mother was an accountant. Almost immediately after the birth of the baby, the parents moved to Verkhny Tagil, and at the age of 7, Yura ended up in the then capital of Kazakhstan.
Singer Yuri Loza
In Almaty, Loza first became interested in music. At the age of 13, he learned to play the guitar on his own and even performed at amateur art evenings as part of the ensemble of the Remstroytekhnika production association. Hobby played a decisive role in the development of the biography of Yuri Loza. But there were still four years left before the important step.
At that time, the young man did not see himself as a professional performer, so he entered the Faculty of Geology at the Kazakh State University. After two years of study, Yuri dropped out of university, joined the army, and after demobilization he entered the Alma-Ata Music School.
Yuri Loza in his youth
The young man studied at the percussion instruments department, but did not receive a diploma here either, as he moved to Moscow, where he began a professional career as a guitarist and vocalist. In 1983, Yuri Loza tried to enter GITIS, but did not pass the competition. The musician managed to obtain higher education only twenty years later - in 2003, the man graduated from the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics.
Yuri Loza's wife - Svetlana Merezhkovskaya
Yuri Loza’s wife, Svetlana Merezhkovskaya, like her husband, once performed on the Soviet stage. Many knew her under the pseudonym Suzanne. Svetlana has several musical records to her credit, as well as an award received at the All-Union Artists' Competition.
At the age of 41, she graduated from the Literary Institute as a poet and later published a collection of her own poems. Together with her husband, she writes lyrics for songs, and also edits and criticizes Yuri’s songs. Today Svetlana already has several poetry collections to her name.
Personal life
Our hero has never been a womanizer and a conqueror of women's hearts. From his youth, he strived to find a worthy girl and start a family with her. In the end, that’s what happened.
For more than 30 years, Yuri Eduardovich has been married to his beloved woman, Tatyana Merezhkovskaya. In her youth she was a singer and performed under the pseudonym Suzanne. She has several released records to her credit. Now Tatyana is a poetess. Not everyone knows that it is his wife who is the editor-in-chief and critic of the lyrics that Yuri creates.
In 1986, the couple had a long-awaited and only son, Oleg. He grew up a long time ago and graduated from Gnesinka. The guy managed to work in V. Zaitsev’s modeling agency as an assistant director. His parents have no doubt that Oleg has a bright future ahead of him.
Instagram and Wikipedia Yuri Loza
Many fans who want to refresh their memory with facts from the biography of their former idol or observe his life today look for the Instagram and Wikipedia pages of Yuri Loza.
Yuri has a Wikipedia page, like most of the stars of yesteryear and today. But Yuri is in no hurry to get an Instagram account. Maybe he doesn’t want to make his personal life public, or maybe he just doesn’t consider it appropriate. Which, however, is not surprising. Not many pop stars over 40 have accounts on any social networks.
