Biography of Laima Vaikule
Laima Vaikule is a prima of the Baltic and Russian stage, performer of the compositions “Vernissage”, “Charlie” and “I went to Piccadilly”, which became hits for many years. Laima also starred in several feature films, including the crime drama “In Russian Style,” where she played the main role. People's Artist of the Republic of Latvia, also awarded the Order of Friendship (Russia) in 2011 and the Golden Gramophone Award in 2019.
In the photo: Laima Vaikule
Biography
Laima Vaikule became the first ambassador of the pro-Western style on the Soviet stage, both in the presentation of musical material and in the manner of dressing. A deep voice, an accent, polished movements, “a cabaret surrounded by monumental statues” - in the mid-80s this was “not that”, not what was accepted and allowed.
Singer Laima Vaikule
The singer can still surprise you just by appearing on stage. Time and criticism have no power over the Baltic star.
Childhood, youth: Cesis – Riga
Laima was born in the spring of 1954 into the Latvian family of Yanina and Stanislav Vaikulis. In addition to Laima, her parents had three more children: two girls and a boy. My parents rented part of a large wooden house in Cesis. While dad and mom were at work, grandma stayed with the children. It was this house and spending time with her grandmother that became Laima’s first childhood memory. According to the singer, the conditions there were not the best, since the family lived quite poorly: in winter the house froze to such an extent that it was covered with a layer of ice. Then, to keep warm, all three girls slept together on a bed in the kitchen.
Laima Vaikule in childhood
In 1957, when Laima was 3 years old, the whole family moved to live in Riga. My father got a job as a worker, my mother as a salesman, and after some time she was promoted to store director. As soon as the baby grew up, she was sent to kindergarten for five days. Laima recalled that on the first day, when her parents brought her to kindergarten, she rushed to her mother screaming so that she would not abandon her for good. Since then, the fear of never seeing her parents again haunted the girl constantly.
Laima Vaikule's parents
Soon another one was added to it: at the age of 5, after being punished by a nanny in a dark closet, Laima developed claustrophobia. The girl did not tell anyone about her symptoms - in critical cases she only clenched her teeth and tried to breathe deeper. Sometimes at this time the music teacher took the girl to learn new songs with her - only then did the girl feel almost happy.
Laima spent her childhood in Riga
It was kindergarten with a five-day period and non-childish tests that influenced the fact that Laima grew up very quickly. She later commented that she was not offended by her parents for her loneliness, because they had no other choice.
In the early 60s, when Laima was already at school, she really liked to visit her friend in the morning before classes, who lived in a very cozy house. She absolutely loved the tiny canapés that the hostess prepared and served for breakfast. Laima sometimes spent school holidays with her father’s brother on the Riga seaside. There she had fun with her cousins.
When Laima was 13 years old, on one of these holidays all the girls gathered for a party. However, they were worried about one problem - both Laima and her sisters had nothing to wear. Then Vaikule offered to buy fabrics and sew the dresses themselves, despite the fact that she had never touched a sewing machine before and had no idea about cutting. The girls bought the same fabric for all of them and sewed new outfits for themselves. As the singer said, at that party young guys immediately began to court them.
Laima Vaikule in her youth (left)
The girl's character became more complex every year. She, who so desperately needed approval as a child, quietly stopped caring about what people thought of her, becoming more and more independent and even “prickly.” Laima realized from early childhood that she would become a surgeon. The parents were only happy - knowing about the girl’s musical predispositions, they did not show initiative and did not try to support her impulse. While Laima was still a schoolgirl, a music teacher visited their house and offered to send Vaikule to a music school. Dad and mom, after politely listening to the teacher, agreed that it was better for Laima to be a doctor. So in 1967, after graduating from 8th grade, Vaikule entered medical school and began interning in an ambulance. What about talking? Laima Vaikule An important role in Laima’s fate was played by a girl named Ruta, her friend from the first year of college. Outwardly balanced and almost always calm, the girl was simply an exemplary student, in contrast to the rebel Vaikule. To win Laima’s favor, Ruta came up with the most terrible stories about her parents and even “put” her own father in prison, and she herself became the “heiress” of a rich grandmother. She sold her valuables to a pawnshop and practically bought the friendship of the bright and freedom-loving Laima.
One day, the girls, having hidden their briefcases before classes, went into the most popular cafe in Riga and met local beauties who were slightly older. The acquaintance was cemented by drinking port wine at the entrance, which was then considered a special chic among local youth. At the same time, boys appeared in the lives of Laima and Ruta, who made an impression on the young and inexperienced girls. This is how Vaikule began his “adult life”. However, after a series of dangerous adventures, Laima’s relationship with Ruta came to naught.
Childhood and youth
Wikipedia says that Laima Vaikulis (Latvian by nationality) was born on March 31, 1954 in the family of ordinary workers Stanislav and Yanina Vaikulis, in the small Latvian city of Cesis. Laima also has two older sisters and a brother. She moved to Riga with her parents, sisters and brother in 1957. It was at this time that the girl’s talent for singing began to awaken. In a large family, only the grandmother was associated with creativity, who sang in the church choir. Laima, on the other hand, has been singing since birth simply for her own pleasure, and in the future she only saw herself as a doctor.
At a young age, she was famous for her rebellious character and often played with boys - playing with dolls with the neighboring girls did not inspire her. At times, Laima could even run away from home. The future singer's school years passed quietly. Moreover, her studies were very good. However, in high school she became more interested in developing creativity. At what age did Laima begin her musical career? Laima Vaikule’s development as a singer began in 1966, at a competition for young talents.
But she was not going to give up her dream of becoming a doctor and entered a medical school, successfully combining her studies with singing lessons. When the singer was 15 years old, she was accepted into the city orchestra under the direction of Raymond Pauls. At the age of thirty, she decided to enter the GITIS faculty of directing, continuing to simultaneously perform various compositions, including those from Raymond’s repertoire. The unique manner of performance and interesting voice have become the singer’s “calling card”. You can still recognize her voice even with your eyes closed.
First steps to success
Despite the fact that events in Vaikule’s life ran counter to her dreams of a musical career, Vaikule nevertheless abandoned her studies at medical school - Laima decided that it was better to be “a good singer than a bad doctor,” and began to seriously engage in music and touring.
Laima Vaikule in her youth
Laima first appeared on stage back in 1965 as part of a vocal competition. The event was held in Riga, in the House of Culture of the VEF plant. Then Vaikule went to the competition to keep company with a school friend who was embarrassed to perform solo. At the competition, Vaikule was heard by vocal teacher Leonid Zahodnik and promised to study music with her for free if she, in turn, promised him to become the best singer in Latvia.
At that time, Zahodnik “provided” voices for the singers of Raymond Pauls, so after a while he brought Laima to the famous maestro for an audition. Knowing the character of the teenager, Leonid did not warn Laima that she was going to the Philharmonic for an audition, and not for a performance. The girl was singing as if nothing had happened, when suddenly, somewhere from the back of the stage, Pauls approached her and, patting her on the shoulder, said: “Baby, I’ll take you.” In 1969, Raymond took Laima Vaikule to work at the Riga Radio and Television Orchestra, convincing her that there she could gain experience in order to later become a soloist.
Raymond Pauls and Laima Vaikule
Rehearsals were already in full swing when a familiar musician Vaikule offered her a position as a soloist in the Adjarian Philharmonic. Laima was determined, so the future music director began to try to persuade Laima’s parents to let her go on a tour of the Caucasus. The girl’s parents were against it, but they couldn’t forbid anything to their daughter, who considered herself independent. In 1970, Laima left Pauls and went on a tour of Adjara. At concerts with the ensemble, she performed repertoire in English in various genres. Conversation with happiness. The Laima Vaikule Tour was quite successful until one tragic incident. One day, the car in which the girl was returning from another performance crashed into another car. A fight broke out between the musicians and the passengers of the first car. During the scuffle, a shot was fired. Two musicians from the ensemble were hit by the same bullet.
The wounded were taken to the hospital, and the rest to the nearest police station. The person who shot was an internal affairs officer. In order not to lose his rank, he begged Laima to lie that she heard two shots: the first warning and the second, aimed at a person for the purpose of self-defense. Laima refused to give false testimony, but after the trial, two musicians and the artistic director of the ensemble were arrested for the fight.
Laima Vaikule about life in Adjara However, what happened was not the most difficult test for the singer. The owner of the house where Laima lived in the Caucasus put her out on the street with her things - after what happened, Vaikule stopped being a participant and earning money. The local philharmonic took pity on Vaikule and placed her in a local circus hotel. Some time later, Laima, together with the parents of the musicians who were under investigation, came to court and, according to her own recollections, experienced terrible fear from everything that was happening: two of her colleagues from the ensemble were convicted before her eyes. Later, Laima’s recognizance not to leave was canceled, and she returned home to Riga after her first tour.
Laima Vaikule at the beginning of her career
In the early 70s, Laima returned to her studies at medical school and, having become the most exemplary graduate, began preparing to enter the Riga Medical Institute. However, another phone call from Leningrad changed everything - a familiar pianist invited Vaikule to come to the Northern capital, since his ensemble urgently needed a singer. Music won again - postponing her admission, Laima left Riga to sing in the hall of the Leningrad Hotel for foreign tourists. Also in the early 70s, Vaikule managed to work in Yalta, performing compositions for vacationers in the Nice restaurant on the Black Sea coast. Young Laima Vaikule in Juras Perle From 1979 to 1984, the singer worked in the famous variety show Juras Perle (or Sea Pearl) in Jurmala. This place is often compared to Carnegie Hall, the legendary New York concert hall. For Vaikule, this place became special - it was thanks to it that the singer gained popularity and was able to make good money from her own performances.
With pop stars
The beginning of a creative journey
When Vaikula was 12 years old, her first appearance on stage took place.
At the Riga VEF plant, a competition of young singers was held in the cultural center. Laima not only took part in it, but also won a diploma. After the competition, she was invited to sing with a big band. She agreed, and creativity gradually began to pull the girl into its whirlpool.
While performing with the group, Laima also began taking music and vocal lessons from maestro Zahodnik, who worked with the singers of Raymond Pauls - he sang and gave them voices. Zahodnik had Vaikule as his favorite student, so he decided to show her to Pauls. At the age of 15, the girl passed the selection and began to solo in the Riga Radio and Television Orchestra, led by Raymond Pauls.
When Laima was 18 years old, she began performing in restaurants, and in 1979 she began performing as a soloist in the famous Jurmala variety show “Sea Pearl”. In addition to singing songs, the girl herself was also involved in choreographing dances, selecting musicians, and designing costumes. In those years, in the Baltics, the show of this variety show was considered the most colorful, and Laima Vaikule became increasingly popular among viewers.
In 1984, Vaikule went to Moscow and became a student at GITIS, choosing the directing department. By this time, she performed with the vocal-instrumental ensemble "Lima", performing pop songs in Russian and Latvian, as well as several musical compositions from the Western repertoire. The poet Ilya Reznik drew attention to the young performer and offered her cooperation - recording the song “Night Fire”. The composition was then often played on the radio, and it also entered the final of “Song-86”.
Career blossoming
After a number of successful performances, Laima finally decided to choose music education. In 1984, the singer entered GITIS in the department of pop directing. At the same time, Laima again began collaborating with Raymond Pauls. In addition to Western compositions and songs in Russian, Latvian songs also appeared in Vaikule’s repertoire, which she performed together with her own group “Lima”. At the same time, Raymond Pauls wrote the song “Verokoko” for Vaikule.
Laima Vaikule in the 80s
In 1986, the young singer was noticed by Ilya Reznik - he invited Laima to perform the composition “Night Fire”, written based on his poems. It was first heard on the radio; after some time, Laima performed this composition on the TV show “Song-86”. In the same year, the singer became a participant in the Soviet-Italian concert, performing the famous “Vernissage” in a duet with Valery Leontyev. Valery Leontyev and Laima Vaikule - Vernissage (1986) 1987 gave her another popular hit, “It’s Not Evening Yet” and participation in the creative evening of Raymond Pauls, held in the popular Rossiya concert hall. They started talking about Vaikul as a new Soviet pop star, showing great promise. After participating in the Czech Bratislava Lyre competition, where she was awarded the main prize, Laima became a fairly recognizable singer in the Union. Feeling a resounding approaching success, Vaikule began working on a solo program.
The singer has always had a keen eye for fashion trends
In 1988, Laima Vaikule’s first independent concert took place. It is also quite symbolic that the performance took place in the same hall where two years earlier the singer performed at the creative evening of her inspirer, Raymond Pauls.
Laima Vaikule in the 90s
In 1989, at the invitation of American producer Stan Cornelius, Lima went to America to film on TV and work on her first album. At the same time, a Soviet-American film about the singer appeared on the screens above. Western media called Vaikule the “Russian Madonna,” and the audience applauded the singer even at foreign concerts.
Russian Madonna
The 90s in Laima’s creative career were marked by the recording of new albums - Vaikule managed to release seven new records recorded in Russia and Latvia. Vaikule's recordings were successfully sold out not only in the territory of the former Soviet Union, but throughout the world. Not without large-scale tours - since 1991, Laima has visited many European countries, Japan and the USA with concerts. In 1993, the singer received a special prize from the Prince of Monaco at the World Music Awards, performing the song Breakin' Away. Laima – Breakin Away Since the early 2000s, Laima has become a regular guest at the New Wave festival in Jurmala, as well as a huge number of national music concerts that were broadcast on federal channels. Also, until 2014, Vaikule took part in “Voting KiViN” several times as a jury member.
On the stage
In 2020, Laima had a conflict with producer Igor Krutoy. The reason for this was the relocation of the New Wave festival from Jurmala to Sochi. In the year of the cancellation, Vaikule organized her own festival Laima Rendezvous Jūrmala in Jurmala, in which performers from different countries took part. Krutoy did not accept such a step and repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction in the media about this.
Vaikule and Krutoy had a fight after the New Wave was postponed
Personal life of Laima Vaikule
While still a medical school student in the late 60s, Laima almost overnight ceased to be the “ugly duckling” that she had considered herself to be since school. Then she had several adult suitors at once - students of the medical institute. The guys did not suspect the presence of rivals, and each considered himself the only one in the girl’s life.
In her youth, Laima Vaikule had a lot of fans
Therefore, at the age of 16, Vaikule, desperate to choose the most worthy, organized a kind of knightly tournament for them. The future singer invited all her gentlemen to her birthday, deciding that in the end the least jealous one would stay with her. As expected, the guys were disappointed and left, and the only boyfriend left at the holiday began to explain to the obstinate girl how she had humiliated everyone. Many years later, Laima recalled these events as follows: Arriving to work in Leningrad in 1970, Laima met bass guitarist Andrei Latkovsky in the ensemble. The young people met in Riga, but then 16-year-old Laima did not impress the musician. A few years later, a grown-up, charming girl stood in front of him, and the young man immediately lost his head. Soon Andrei and Laima developed romantic feelings for each other.
Laima Vaikule and Andrey Latkovsky in their youth
From the very beginning of the relationship, Latkovsky protected Laima - the young man always checked whether she was dressed warmly and did not allow Vaikule to go out in dubious companies. According to the singer, Andrei was romantic and courteous, so he made a tremendous impression on her.
They returned to Riga to Vaikule's parents together with the news of their union. Next, Laima would meet the Latkovsky family. According to Vaikule, then the most important thing for her was to please her lover’s grandfather, Vikenty Latkovsky, a famous statesman. The charming singer succeeded with interest - her son’s new girlfriend impressed Andrei’s parents so much that they began to insist on a wedding.
Visiting Laima However, Vaikule herself was not ready for marriage. In addition, just at that time, the lovers got a job on a cruise ship that sailed abroad - as official spouses, they were not allowed there. And after the end of the tour, Andrei and Laima did not return to the issue of marriage, continuing to live in a civil marriage.
In one of the interviews, Laima talked about her early pregnancy, which occurred while studying in medicine - then the girl had to have an abortion. For a long time, Laima could not tell her mother about what happened to her. Later, Vaikule learned that she would never be able to have children again - for many years of a happy life, Vaikule and Latkovsky never had any offspring. The singer regrets her early abortion for many years, commenting on what happened to herself like this: Laima Vaikule also has a special opinion about marriage. According to the singer, she did not seek to get married, wanting to maintain her freedom and independence. However, they have lived together with Andrey for many decades and in 2020 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their acquaintance.
Laima Vaikule and her common-law husband
Laima believes that partly thanks to the absence of a stamp in the passport, he and Andrey managed to preserve the most important thing in the relationship between a man and a woman - mutual respect. Latkovsky became for her not just a close person, but also a devoted friend.
The singer loves animals
The singer realized this especially clearly in 1989, when American doctors gave her a terrible verdict - oncology. After the complex operation that the singer required, her common-law husband was regularly with her. According to Vaikule, it was thanks to Andrei that she coped with a terrible illness and began to live again.
Personal life
The personal life of Laima Vaikule rarely appears on the pages of tabloids and the yellow press. The star did not use scandals to increase her rating and did not share private details.
Laima Vaikule and Andrey Latkovsky
Laima Vaikule’s first and only common-law husband remains Andrei Latkovsky, a former bass player and producer. The couple has been together since 1970 - since they met. For many years, Vaikule and Latkovsky have been spouses, best friends and partners in creative work. Andrey was there when Laima became seriously ill. It was he who helped to survive without leaving his beloved one step.
The couple has no children. Laima Vaikule gives her unspent maternal love to young singers: she was one of the founders of the competition for young pop singers “Jurmala”.
Laima Vaikule with her husband
The artist is going to age beautifully and is sure that she should not become a slave to her appearance.
“A living wage means decent shoes, healthy teeth, a good manicure, well-groomed hair, and everything else depends on the look.”
Even Vaikule’s stage makeup is minimalistic. Laima claims that she has not yet resorted to plastic surgery. However, based on individual photographs, a number of fans decided that the singer had undergone injections of fillers and botulinum toxin.
Minimalist makeup of Laima Vaikule
Agreeing with the demands of the time, Laima started a personal website and an Instagram page. Photos in the account illustrate working moments and everyday life at home, meetings with friends and colleagues. Some photographs show four-legged pets - it is known that Vaikule has especially tender feelings for dogs.
Laima Vaikule now
Almost until the end of March 2020, preparations were underway for the new Laima Rendezvous Odessa festival in the Vaikule country house in Jurmala. However, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted these plans, and Laima and Andrey had to go into forced self-isolation. According to the singer, she only goes outside to walk the dogs in the forest, and the rest of the time the family lives the same life as before, but much more on the Internet. On social networks, the Latvian prima often shares her thoughts with subscribers. For example, in one of her posts, Vaikule called quarantine a unique chance to rethink her life.
