"Arlekino" (; English: ''Harlequin'') is a song by

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

singer

Alla Pugacheva Alla Borisovna Pugacheva (, ; born 15 April 1949) is a Russian singer and songwriter. Her career began in 1965 and continues to this day, although she retired from performing in 2010 after the international concert tour "Dreams of Love". For her ...

. The song was co-authored by Bulgarian composer

Emil Dimitrov Emil Dimitrov Dimitrov (; 23 December 1940 – 30 March 2005) was a Bulgarian singer, musician and composer. He is considered to be a legend of Bulgarian pop music, and one of the greatest Bulgarian singers of all time. He was popular for his son ...

and Russian poet Boris Barkas. In 1975, the song was recorded in the studio and released on the singer's first solo extended play ''Arlekino''. It simultaneously became a staple at live performances. For this song, Alla Pugacheva was awarded the Grand Prix of the 1975 Golden Orpheus international song contest in

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The single became an international hit in

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...

, the

Baltics The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

and

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. It was most popular in Bulgaria and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Total sales of the single in the

former USSR The post-Soviet states, also referred to as the former Soviet Union or the former Soviet republics, are the independent sovereign states that emerged/re-emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Prior to their independence, they ...

and the world amounted to 14 million copies. In 2023, a remix of the song created by Geoffplaysguitar became the soundtrack to the game ''

Atomic Heart ''Atomic Heart'' is a 2023 first-person shooter video game developed by Mundfish Studio. It was published by VK Play, Focus Entertainment, and 4Divinity. The game is set in an alternate history version of the Soviet Union, during the 1950s. ...

''.

Background

Initially, it was planned that another artist would represent the Soviet Union on Golden Orpheus international song contest, but in the end this honor fell to Alla Pugacheva, the soloist of

Vesyolye Rebyata Vesyolye Rebyata (, which means "''Merry Lads''") was a Soviet Union, Soviet VIA music, VIA (vocal instrumental ensemble) band formed in 1968, in Moscow. It became one of the most successful and best known VIA bands of all time. Its debut album ...

. According to the terms of the contest, it was necessary to perform three songs, including one song in Bulgarian. "Arlekino" came to Pugacheva from

himself; as it turned out, it was a song from his repertoire, with which he won the contest in

Sopot Sopot (; or ) is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomerania Province and has the City with powiat ri ...

in 1964. Pugacheva liked the melody, and the Russian text was written by Boris Barkas. Pugacheva came up with the image of a sad clown for performances and the famous laugh that sounds between verses. She later assessed the song as an ideal combination of text, music and arrangement, which gave her the freedom of creative approach to creating an image, facial expressions, gestures for performance.

Golden Orpheus performances

On 3 June 1975, the Golden Orpheus competition began in Bulgaria. Pugacheva successfully reached the final, where she performed the song "Ty snishsya mne", followed by "Arlekino", and the audience asked her to perform an encore. On 7 June, the final evening took place, when all the winners performed their songs. With the prepared number of Pugacheva, when she was supposed to appear on a huge hand, there was a hitch, because the British singer

Carl Wayne Colin David Tooley (18 August 1943 – 31 August 2004), better known as Carl Wayne, was an English singer and actor. He is best remembered as the lead singer of The Move, a group that he co-founded in 1965. He sings lead on several of the band ...

decided to perform his song for an encore, and at that time a hand with Pugacheva fell on the stage. As a result, Pugacheva stayed on stage until the end of the song and sang the final phrase for Wayne. Pugacheva herself performed "Arlekino" that evening as an encore. The contest was broadcast throughout Bulgaria, it was also watched by eight-year-old Philipp Kirkorov, the future singer and husband of Pugacheva. In the Soviet Union, however, the competition was shown only a month later due to the negative reaction of the chairman of

Gosteleradio The State Committee of Television and Radio Broadcasting of the Soviet Union ( Russian: Государственный комитет СССР по телевидению и радиовещанию) commonly known as Gosteleradio of the USSR (Г ...

Sergey Lapin.

Release

This EP was released on 21 June 1975 in the Soviet Union. It was her first solo EP (with studio recordings); before this, she appeared only on compilations. Alongside the lead single "Arlekino", there were two B-sides: "Posidim, pookayem" and "Ty snishsya mne". Although all songs saw popularity in the USSR, they were released only on her second studio album '' Arlekino i drugiye'' in 1979. After Pugacheva's win in the 1975 Golden Orpheus international song contest,

Balkanton Balkanton () was a state-owned record manufacturing company in Bulgaria founded in 1952. Many of the produced records were, or still are available in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Balkanton's plant in Sofia was equipped for all aspec ...

released a series of live recordings from the contest. All songs in Russian. Sales of the single amounted to a record 14 million copies.

German version

This single was recorded by Pugacheva during her tour in the GDR in April 1976 and released in Germany (GDR) by

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

in 1976. According to the official discography of the singer, it is her third single. The recording of the song "Harlekino" in German was due to the song's high popularity in East Germany. In addition to being released as a single, the German version of the song "Harlekino" was released on two compilations "Amiga Box 3-76" and "Die grossen Erfolge '76".

Track listing

;7" single (USSR) ;7" single (

) ;7" single (

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

)

References

Bibliography

* * {{authority control 1975 songs Alla Pugacheva songs 1975 singles 1976 singles Songs in Russian Soviet songs Melodiya singles