Why did the group “Hands Up” break up? What do Sergey Zhukov and Alexey Potekhin do separately?

History of creation and composition

In 1993, a meeting took place that literally changed the lives of two ordinary guys - Sergei Zhukov and Alexei Potekhin. Both young men at that time worked at the Samara radio “Europe Plus”, but dreamed of more than a career as a provincial DJ. The acquaintance of these two creative people was the beginning of the path to fame and success, as well as the actual birthday of the new group.

The first composition of the group “Hands Up”

The roles of the musicians in the joint project were assigned themselves. Sergei Zhukov became a soloist, a performer of vocal parts, and, in fact, the face of the group. It was with him that young beauties most often fell in love, touched by the soulful, albeit simple songs of the group “Hands Up”.

Sergey Zhukov

Sergei was born on May 22, 1976 in Dimitrovgrad, in the Ulyanovsk region. Since childhood, Zhukov was fond of music, graduated from a music school with a degree in piano, and then from the Academy of Arts in Samara.

The second participant in the project, Alexey Potekhin, on the contrary, initially did not dream of becoming a musician. Alexey was born in Novokuibyshevsk (Samara region) on April 15, 1972.

Alexey Potekhin and Sergey Zhukov

The musician’s specialty is very brutal: Potekhin graduated from a river technical school, becoming a shipbuilding technician, and then studied at a technical university. But the craving for creativity turned out to be stronger, and immediately after university Alexey began working as a DJ. And in the new project, the musician acted as a keyboard player.

Music

The young performers recorded their first joint musical experiments in Togliatti, where they went shortly after meeting. These were songs in English. The fact is that at that time Sergei Zhukov liked the work of the Dutch musician Ray Slaingard, who worked in the genre of electronic dance music, and the singer tried to imitate his idol in everything. Even the first name of the team - “Uncle Ray and Company” - turned out to be dedicated to Slaingard.

Group “Hands up”

The history of the formation of the group was accompanied by interesting facts that ultimately led Sergei and Alexei to all-Russian popularity. Without funding, it was difficult for young performers to break into the market, but enterprising musicians found an original way out. They recorded their first compositions on pirated copies of popular authors. The simple tunes were remembered from the first line, and the guys received their first dose of fame, they began to be invited to concerts.

The parties and short performances that Zhukov and Potekhin organized in Togliatti gradually became popular: young people liked the fiery dance music. But such fame was not enough for the musicians, and in 1994 Sergei and Alexey set off to conquer the capital. The artists also consider this year to be the founding date of the group, although at that time the usual name “Hands Up” had not yet appeared.

Sergey Zhukov and Alexey Potekhin

Moscow received the performers warmly: on the very first day, the musicians appeared at a rap music festival and took first place. They started talking about young talents, and the first photos of Zhukov and Potekhin appeared in music publications. However, real glory was still far away.

After their first success, the musicians also encountered their first difficulties: Sergei and Alexey had nowhere to live, and there was practically no money either. The guys worked part-time as DJs, hosted parties and events, but there was a catastrophic lack of funds to promote the project.

"Hands up!" - “Only dreaming about you”

And here Zhukov and Potekhin were again incredibly lucky. The musicians met Andrei Malikov, who, seeing talent in provincial DJs, became the group’s first producer. The name “Hands Up” appeared at the same time - Alexey and Sergey often shouted this phrase at discos from behind the DJ console. But an interesting incident convinced the musicians to finally settle on this version of the name.

The young people left a cassette with songs on Radio Maximum. Since the inscription on the cover said that this music would make listeners raise their hands up, but the name of the group itself did not appear there, radio hosts Olga Maksimova and Konstantin Mikhailov decided to announce the name of the musical group that they considered appropriate - “Hands Up”.

Logo of the group “Hands Up”

A month later, the band’s debut album, called “Breathe Evenly,” was released. The compositions “Baby” and “Student” literally blew up all the charts and discos, becoming the hallmark of the “Hands Up” group for many years. The much-desired fame came instantly, and a month later Zhukov and Potekhin shot two videos and went on tour.

"Hands up!" - "Student"

All the band’s concerts went off with a bang and drew full houses. In the same 1997, the group “Hands Up” took part in several music festivals, and both listeners and colleagues in the pop workshop began to recognize Sergei and Alexey. It is noteworthy that the musicians managed not only to perform and record new compositions, but also to create arrangements for songs by other artists. For example, “Hands Up” worked with Vyacheslav Dobrynin.

Already in 1998, Zhukov and Potekhin confidently broke all records for the number of sales of the album “Make it Loud!”, becoming the most popular performers of the Russian pop scene. “My baby”, “Ay, yay, yay, girl”, “Only dreaming of you”, “He kisses you” - perhaps the whole country knew these songs by heart.

Awards

• 1998 The group received six silver medals, three gold medals and one platinum disc for the huge number of copies sold.
• 1999 The group became the winner of three diplomas at once at the second annual award of the Russian recording industry in the following categories: Russian radio hit (composition “My Baby”);
• Album of the Year ( Turn It Up
  );
• Performer of the Year (Sergey Zhukov, Golden Gramophone Award).

The team received another prize from “Love Radio” for “Kind, Gentle, Affectionate” - the best song about love.

The International Association to Combat Drug Addiction and Drug Trafficking awarded the creative team “Hands Up!” diploma “For personal contribution to strengthening a healthy lifestyle and developing the anti-drug movement.”

• In 1999, the group became the winner in three categories at once at the second annual award of the Russian recording industry (“Russian radio hit”, “Album of the year”, “Performer of the year”).
• In 2001, the group received the “Song of the Year” diploma.
• In 2002, she was nominated for the best Russian music, most often ordered on radio.
• In 2003, Muz-TV named the group the best dance project of the 10th anniversary.

The group has 5 Golden Gramophone award statuettes:

• 1998 - “My Baby”,
• 1999 - “Sorry”
• 2001 - “I’m already 18”,
• 2002 - “He kisses you”
• 2003 - “Into the pool of your eyes.”

Song of the Year Laureates:

• 1999 - “My Baby”, “Sorry”,
• 2000 - “Alyoshka”, “Thought”,
• 2001 - “Kind, gentle, affectionate”, “Little Girls”,
• 2002 - “He kisses you”, “Go away”, “Whirlpool”.

"Hands up!" Now

Now the former bandmates, as is known from the media, do not communicate. Alexey continues to perform with his own band. In the interview, the musician claims that he was treated dishonestly by deceiving him of the rights to the name “Hands Up!”: Potekhin allegedly signed the papers without reading what exactly he was agreeing to.

Alexey Potekhin

Sergei Zhukov also tours and writes new songs. At concerts he attracts full houses. The pop group’s creativity is in demand not only in Russia. In 2020, the musician visited the “Slavic Festival” in Belarus, where Chris de Burgh, Grigory Leps, Stas Mikhailov, Natasha Koroleva, Nyusha, and Yegor Creed also performed.

"Hands up!" - “Crying in the dark”

The musician also released the compositions “Take the Keys”, “Crying in the Dark” and, apparently, is preparing to present another album. Fans will be able to find out about the release of the album on the band’s official website. The musician does not think about finishing his creative biography, unless his children, whom he loves very much, ask him to do so.

Sergei Zhukov at the Golden Gramophone ceremony in 2020

In 2020, the song “Crying in the Dark” brought the team the “Song of the Year” and “Golden Gramophone” awards. In the same year, a video for the single “Dancing” was released. The video was filmed in Mexico. In addition to his main work, the lead singer of the group “Hands Up” does not forget to appear in television projects. So, together with his stage colleague Stas Kostyushkin, Sergei became a guest of the musical TV show “Studio “Soyuz” on the TNT channel.

Discography

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