Yuri Muzychenko is a successful musician and popular video blogger. The leader of the group The Hatters, widely known among Russian and foreign youth, as well as a member of the expanded composition of the Little Big group, which was supposed to go to Eurovision this year.
Unfortunately, the competition was canceled due to the COVID-2019 pandemic. However, the guys’ music video created a huge resonance among residents of our country and abroad. At the time of publication of the article, the clip has more than 60 million views, about 2 million likes, and is also the undisputed leader in these indicators among other Eurovision participants.
If you are not yet familiar with the work of the group “The Hatters,” we suggest you watch one of their latest works, “The Last Hero.” We are sure that you will definitely want to know more about the personal life and biography of Yuri Muzychenko.
Biography
Youth and the beginning of a creative path
Yuri was born on July 8, 1987 in the city of Gatchina, Leningrad Region. He was the youngest in the family; he has a brother and a sister. He studied poorly at school, and, according to him, was “a goofball.” He preferred music classes to studying, from which we can conclude that Yuri’s surname is truly “speaking.” Yuri studied at a music school and successfully mastered one of the most difficult disciplines - playing the violin.
On the left is Yuri’s brother, on the right is his sister. In the center is himself, the youngest.
Back in the 6th grade, Yuri decided to create his first musical rock band, which he and his like-minded people called “Phobos”.
Then the guys took everything seriously, although now Yuri understands how ridiculous it was: “They came up with a group, called it Phobos.” Let's write "Phobos" on all the fences and walls with chalk. The next day they decided to call themselves “Deimos”! Let's go, they wrote everywhere: “Phobos are freaks!” and began to write "Deimos". We believed in all the stupid things we do.”
Parents were concerned that Yuri would probably not be able to study in grades 10 and 11. Therefore, the whole family decided that Yuri should go to courses at a music school, where he, of course, did not like it, since all the musicians were closed and the program was too serious. Muzychenko was not like that. He decided that this was definitely not his.
Then our young musician decided to try himself at the St. Petersburg Academy of Theater Arts. Muzychenko passed all three rounds of entrance tests, and also passed all five teachers. Initially, he imagined himself at the Youth Theater on the Fontanka River, or at the Comedy Theater. But Yuri was most impressed by the representative of the Licedeev Theater, who, according to him, seemed arrogant, cool, and, in general, just a cool guy. This is how Muzychenko ended up in a workshop where the main genre is clownery.
Perhaps his sudden success in admission is not really so accidental. He was born into a theatrical family - Yuri Muzychenko's father was an actor, and his mother was a make-up artist and head of the workshop of the Omsk Academic Theater. But, despite all this, Yuri also did not forget about music. He continued to practice the violin and also continued to learn to play the drums, keyboards, and guitar.
Creation of a full-fledged rock band
All members of the group “The Hatters”, like Yuri, came from “Litsedeev”. But few people know that even before this, Muzychenko was the leader of another group called “BKMSB”. The name of the group does not mean anything and is not deciphered; according to Yuri, it was chosen as a symbol of freedom and creative chaos, as well as the absence of restrictions.
BKMSB Group
BKMSB is an alternative rock where much attention was paid to the purity of sound. The newly formed group was a great hit for St. Petersburg youth and took part in many musical events, including the music and sports festival “World Without Drugs”, the “Swing” competition-festival, the “Open Windows!” rock festival, and, of course, the street culture festival “Snickers Urbania”, where BKMSB became winners in the “Urban Sound” nomination.
Like any group, BKMSB needed PR and promotion. Thus, we smoothly move on to our next topic.
Blog
In his blog on You Tube, Yuri decided to move away from sports topics and devoted it to interviews with well-known people in the media space. The first video was recorded in 2020 with Vasily Vakulenko (Basta). Within 24 hours, the interview received more than a hundred thousand views, and in less than six months their number exceeded a million.
The second guest on the author’s channel was the leader of the Leningrad group Sergei Shnurov . The new video quickly gained millions of views. Sergey Shnurov agreed to sponsor the release with his participation and paid Yuri 3 million rubles.
An interview with Sergei Shnurov made it possible to conclude a contract with, after which Yuri Dud began to receive a fixed salary for each new release.
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Each interview on the channel is preceded by serious preparation. Yuri carefully studies the biographies of his guests. Yuri's questions are often provocative and scandalous. It is not surprising that the videos on the channel are distinguished by their special style and audacity.
Neither the host nor the guests restrain themselves in their expressions, constantly resorting to obscene language. Dialogue often goes beyond or deviates from the original script.
Yuri's author's releases feature a sharp and lively discussion of issues related to politics, the past and future of Russia and the world, music, cinema, art and television.
Many famous musicians, actors, directors, TV presenters, writers, and politicians visited Yuri Dud on his channel. These are both notorious people and recognized masters of their craft.
The most famous video of the channel was an interview with Anastasia Ivleeva.
Yuri’s author’s channel “vDud” is gaining more and more popularity. In addition to interviews, the blogger posts his documentaries on the channel.
Tattoo by Yuri Muzychenko
At the moment, Yuri Muzychenko has his own successful tattoo studio “Backstage Tattoo”. It all started when, to promote and promote himself and his group, Yuri and his colleagues launched a new online series dedicated to tattoos. The project was called “Slaughtered” and gained popularity from the very first release, when Muzychenko tattooed an image of a skull on his hand live. Then Yuri and his team traveled around the Russian Federation and Europe, getting one tattoo in each city, after which they opened a tattoo parlor.
– “The idea is almost general... You know, when several people come up with something all the time, then in general it’s not clear who came up with what. We tried in every possible way to pump up our group “BKMSB”, we decided to shoot video diaries, and it seems that the third issue was about getting a tattoo. Well, he kind of gave up, views and all that. This is where the idea came up to experiment and film a program about tattoos, but with us in it. And our music. That’s what happened, but it took so long that they opened their own tattoo studio.”
In total, 3 seasons of 11 episodes were released, as well as a 4th season, which contained 8 episodes. The guys filmed the third season in Europe.
Personal life of Yuri Itskov
Yuri Itskov does not like to talk about personal things, so little is known about his life outside the stage.
Yuri Itskov with his wife Nadezhda Zhivoderova
Itskov met his future wife, actress Nadezhda Zhivoderova, daughter of the famous Soviet cyclist Leonid Zhivoderova, in 1979 and since then his heart has belonged to her alone. At the time of their acquaintance, 18-year-old Nadezhda had just graduated from the music school at the Omsk Theater, and Itskov was settling into a new place after moving from Irkutsk. According to the artist, it was love at first sight.
Spouse actors are well aware of the realities of the profession, so they treat each other’s problems with understanding. For example, when in 1988 Nadezhda starred in one of the first Soviet films with erotic scenes, “Regional Emergency,” Yuri was not jealous of her in explicit scenes with her on-screen husband Igor Bochkin. Although, the actor admitted, he himself had no idea how “naked” the scene would be until he saw the film in the cinema.
Yuri Itskov and his wife have no children
Itskov’s wife is 11 years younger than him, but the actors call this difference insignificant. Now Natalya Zhiderova, Honored Artist of Russia, plays with her husband on the stage of the Satire Theater. The couple has no children.
Career of Yuri Muzychenko now
After the “Downtrodden” project, Yuri Muzychenko joined the “video blogging party” KlikKlak, created by Ilya Prusikin, the headliner of the scandalous band Little Big. Now Yuri and Ilya are great friends, and some even think that Yuri is Ilya Prusikin’s brother. In fact, this is not the case, although their relationship can indeed be called brotherly:
“Two years ago I would have been very glad that I was going to Eurovision. Now it’s funny to me that my friend and senior comrade came to me and didn’t just offer to pump me up, but said: “Brother, please help me.” What a thrill! I'm not needed for Little Big to win. But I understand that I can take some of the pain if they lose. I feel my cool mission, because a friend is known in need. I mean that I can’t really help in achieving victory, but I can absorb the blow,” he shared in the YouTube show “Without a Soul.”
Ilya Prusikin and Yuri Muzychenko
If we talk about the theater, Muzychenko left the group in 2015 due to internal disagreements in the team, but, as it turned out, this was only temporary, since after a year and a half the artist returned to his old troupe. Former colleagues greeted Yuri warmly, as he came to them with the “Actors” tattoo on his entire back, to show how important they were to him, and what a mistake it was to leave the troupe. True, it was after leaving the theater that the ideal moment came for Muzychenko to take up music seriously. Our musician is putting together a new gypsy-funk-rock band, all of whose members he also invited from Lycedeev.
Yuri sings and plays the violin, Pavel Lichadeev – the accordion, Alexander Anisimov – the bass guitar, Vadim Rulev – the trombone, Dmitry Vecherinin – the drums. The wives of Yuri and Pavel perform backing vocals.
Documentary
Yuri Dud made his debut as a documentary director in 2017. In collaboration with Alexei Aksenov, he presented the audience with the film “Sergei Bodrov - the main Russian superhero .
The following year, Yuri, together with Evgeny Statsenko, filmed a new documentary project “Oleg Tabakov: how he raised free people .
2019 was marked by the release of Yuri’s iconic films: “Kolyma - the birthplace of our fear”, co-authored with Evgeny Statsenko and “Beslan. Remember”, co-authored with Alexander Golovin.
In 2020, Yuri published another project on his channel, “HIV in Russia – an epidemic that is not talked about.”
“Kolyma is the birthplace of our fear”
The two-hour film is dedicated to the people who built the road between Yakutsk and Magadan in the 1930s and felt all the horror and inhumanity of the Stalinist regression machine.
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Yuri Dud, together with the film crew, drove along the Kolyma , interviewing local residents. The famous Russian actor Efim Shifrin and the daughter of one of the pioneers of rocket science, Academician Sergei Korolev, also shared their memories of their repressed parents.
"Beslan. Remember"
The film is dedicated to the events in Beslan on September 1, 2004 , when terrorists seized a school and held students and teachers hostage for two and a half days. During the assault, a large number of hostages died. The film consists of interviews taken by Yuri from witnesses and participants in the tragic events.
In the film, the author emphasized the responsibility of the state, whose political mistakes led to the Beslan tragedy.
Films about Beslan and Kolyma caused a mixed reaction in Russian society, which resulted in heated controversy in the media space and social networks.
Family of Yuri Muzychenko
Wife
Since we are talking about Yuri Muzychenko’s wife, it is worth noting that she helps him in all his endeavors. Anna Muzychenko (Nikitina) was born on March 15, 1982, her zodiac sign is Pisces. She is 5 years older than Yuri, but this does not interfere with their relationship at all.
Anna reports that she was born and lived for a long time in the Evenki villages of Ust-Urkima and Larba, and that she is a representative of a rare, endangered nationality.
Anna met Yura at the Lycedeev Theater. There she worked as a senior in the theater caretaker course and initially ignored Yuri. But, nevertheless, later I could not resist such a talented and interesting person.
Yuri Muzychenko's wife
At the moment, Anna is engaged in acting, is the director of the tattoo parlor they share with Yuri, and is a backing vocalist for the group “The Hatters”.
Anna, like Yuri, also loves tattoos. Photo: Carolina Isay
Life together of spouses
Yuri Muzychenko repeatedly emphasized in an interview that if it were not for his wife, he would have gotten stuck in the abyss of alcoholism, since in his early youth he was fond of alcoholic beverages.
It is Anna who manages the family budget. During the day, spouses can quarrel 10 times and reconcile just as many times.
The family currently lives in St. Petersburg. Yuri and Anna love to experiment with their appearance and both consider themselves clowns and informals. Yes, their age is far from young, they are never shy about experimenting with hairstyles or tattoos.
If we talk about Yuri, he was not only bald. When Yuri was young, he almost never wore a mustache, but over time it turned into the main distinguishing feature of Yuri, and not even a beard, but a mustache. This is a certain feature of the musician, his highlight. And Anna’s distinctive feature is her nationality, and she herself has repeatedly said that she is very proud of her. Yuri's height is 181 cm, and Anna's height is 167 cm.
Yura. Anya. Tattoo.
From all of the above, we can conclude that the personal life of the Muzychenko family is closely intertwined with creativity. Yuri and Anna have admitted more than once that they are looking for inspiration in each other, in their relationship, as well as in their children, or more precisely, in their daughter.
Yura and Anya together. Real love.
About Valentey and Palma
— You wrote about a lot of things, Yuri Mikhailovich. Including about the shepherd Palma, who waited for two years on the runway at Vnukovo for its owner to fly away... This is the mid-seventies?
— 1976, to be more precise.
For this amazing story we must thank Vyacheslav Valentey, a man of amazing destiny. During the Great Patriotic War, he served in the 63rd Guards Fighter Regiment, was shot down, captured, escaped, got out to his own people, many years later returned to his profession, and began flying again, albeit in civil aviation.
Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich was the commander of the Il-18, and it was he who came to the editorial office of Komsomolskaya Pravda to talk about the dog that greets him every time from a flight. If not for Valentey, no one would have known about Palma. The pilot walked around the sixth floor and did not know where or who to turn to. At first they wanted to take him to Vasily Peskov, the chief editorial specialist on fauna. But, as colleagues noticed long ago, Vasily Mikhailovich was not too fond of domestic animals, specializing in wildlife.
- Indeed?
— Yes, Peskov was wary of cats and dogs.
- Marvelous!
- It seems to me that it’s absolutely normal. This is a very common occurrence among those who grew up in rural areas. Vasily Mikhailovich comes from a small village in the Voronezh region. People who live, as they say, on earth, often have a pragmatic, utilitarian attitude towards animals.
I'll tell you a story from my own childhood. Before the war, my father was a leading artist at the Kyiv Youth Theater and had a draft exemption, but on June 27, 1941, he volunteered to go to the front. He was seriously wounded near Rzhev and became disabled, but after the hospital he returned to the stage. My left leg did not bend at the knee, even my father went on tour with my mother, she helped me get dressed. And in the summer, our whole family went to the village of Ukrainka near Kiev. Previously, it was called Zlodiivka, and during the civil war, Ataman Zeleny’s gang, which included up to thirty thousand fighters, was based there. I even talked to Zeleny's ex-lover. Sweet toothless grandmother... However, this is not about her.
We rented a room in an ordinary peasant hut. Marusya, the owner of the house, had a dog named Borsch and a cat Zhora. The cat was a thief, always carrying sausage, trying to strangle the neighbor's chicken. Marusya spoke wonderfully in Ukrainian: “Oh, bida me with Zim Zhor!” There was never any fear of domestic animals there. A dog is needed to guard the yard, and a cat is needed to catch mice.
Now we return to the shepherd Palma and the pilot Valentey. Vasily Peskov was not interested in his story. Maybe my intuition was wrong or I simply didn’t believe what I heard.
- And you?
- And so did I at first.
- What was confusing?
— Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich said that the dog sees off and meets the IL-18. It seemed to me that this could not happen.
Still, I decided to go to the airport and see with my own eyes. We went together to Vnukovo, and there I was convinced that what was said was true. Technicians, gas station workers, and tractor-trailer drivers confirmed Valentey’s story.
Strictly speaking, the fact that the dog was running around the airfield was a violation of all safety rules, but Palma behaved carefully, and besides, the airfield staff protected her. Only after a while did it become clear why the dog was waiting for “Ila”. Its owner flew off on such a plane and never returned.
But this became clear after publication in Komsomolskaya Pravda. The note turned out to be small, but caused a colossal resonance. The editor received bags of twenty letters. I really regret that they were not preserved. There were amazing stories! Even stories about how during the war, combat pilots took dogs into the cockpit of a fighter. We, of course, published something in the newspaper, but much disappeared without a trace. Alas.
The owner of Palma also wrote. That it was really him was determined by a detail that was not mentioned in the note. The dog's right eye was damaged, and the author of the letter pointed out this circumstance.
- Why didn’t he then return for the abandoned dog?
“He flew off to work in the North, problems piled up, got busy, and forgot. You know how it happens in life. First - one thing, then - another. Again, everyone is different. I don’t rule out that the owner wouldn’t even remember about the dog if it weren’t for the newspaper publication.
By the way, it’s not a fact that Palma is a real nickname. The letter said nothing about this; the people who fed the dog at the airport spent a long time going through different options until they found the one to which she began to respond. Maybe her name was Alma or Alma.
After the publication of the article, not only compassionate readers, but also responsible comrades became interested in the fate of the abandoned dog. Efforts began to take Palma to a shelter. Some guys from the knacker came and tried to catch him, but nothing came of the idea. The people came to the defense and covered the dog. Yes, she didn’t give in, she didn’t let anyone get close, she always kept her distance.
I can show you photographs taken then, in 1976. Do you see? The palm tree lies at a distance and is ready to take off and run away at any moment. And here is Valentey near the IL-18. A good guy, open, sincere.
Daughter of Yuri Muzychenko
On November 26, 2010, our couple had a daughter, whom they named Lisa. According to the couple, the girl inherited all their talents. Although she quit the violin, she is enthusiastically studying at art school. Photos of the girl often appear on her parents’ Instagram. They say that Lisa has long surpassed her parents in charisma and many other qualities.
Muzychenko family together
To summarize, we want to say that Yuri is not just a wonderful musician, actor and video blogger, but also a wonderful husband and father. You need to look up to people like Yuri Muzychenko both in terms of creativity and in terms of building your life and starting a family.
Childhood and youth of Yuri Itskov
Yuri was born on May 29, 1950 in Moscow, in the family of theater director Leonid Itskov (1908-1979) and actress Alexandra Itskova. His father was a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, but without graduating, he entered the studio at the Moscow Tairov Theater. Leonid Itskov met his future wife, a native of Arkhangelsk, after the war.
Yuri spent his entire childhood behind the scenes of theaters throughout the Soviet Union. Following his parents, he visited Vladivostok, Dushanbe, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Khabarovsk, Magadan... And from an early age the boy decided to follow in their footsteps, without even thinking about anything else.
After graduating from school, Itskov tried to enter the capital’s theater school, reached the third round, but “cut out.” The guy decided not to waste a year and go to study at the Far Eastern State Institute of Arts (Vladivostok), which he successfully graduated in 1970.
