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St. Petersburg Park To Be Named After 'Mr. Trololo'


Singer Eduard Khil at the Golden Gramophone music prize awards ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow in November 2011.
Singer Eduard Khil at the Golden Gramophone music prize awards ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow in November 2011.
Authorities in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, have officially approved the renaming of a city park after Eduard Khil, a Brezhnev-era singer dubbed "Mr. Trololo" whose warbling went viral on YouTube decades after his heyday.

Khil died on June 4 at the age of 77 after suffering a stroke.

He had been living in relative obscurity until he was catapulted into stardom once again in 2010, when a clip of his 1976 song "I Am Very Happy Because I Am Finally Coming Home" became a global Internet hit.

The video was watched by millions of people on YouTube, and sparked an online petition asking the elderly baritone to launch a world tour.

Khil was a household name across the former Soviet Union before his Internet renown. He was awarded the prestigious title of People's Artist of Russia in 1974 and was honored with the Russian Order for Services to the Homeland in 2009.


He performed his "trololo" vocals after he and a collaborator decided that the suggestive lyrics of a song were too "naughty" to pass Soviet censors.

Khil took his renewed fame in stride, telling RFE/RL that he wasn't even aware of the buzz around his clip until he heard his 13-year-old grandson humming the tune.

After millions of people viewed the video, thousands signed an online petition begging the elderly Russian baritone to launch a world tour and bring his "trololo" tune to audiences around the globe.

Based on reporting by Interfax, fontanka.ru, and RFE/RL

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

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