Gelena Velikanova

Gelena Martselievna Velikanova (Гелена Марцелиевна Великановна, 27 February 1922, Moscow, USSR – 10 November 1998, Moscow, Russian Federation) was a Soviet traditional pop performer, popular in the 1950s and 1960s, best remembered for her 1959 hit "Landyshi" (Lily of the Valley). Awarded the People's Artist of the RSFSR title in 1969, Velikanova has lost her voice for a while due to incompetent treatment and had to quit the stage. Awarded with the People's Artist of Russia (1992), she returned in mid-1990s but died in 1998, two hours before her farewell concert in Moscow was about to start.

Gelena Velikanova was born in Moscow; both her parents came from Poland, father Martsely Welikanis, was half-Lithuanian. After graduating the secondary school in 1941 the girl had to abandon her plans of joining the musical college as World War II broke out and the family got evacuated to Tomsk. In 1944 Gelena returned to Moscow, enrolled into the Glazunov Musical college and after the graduation continued her education in the estrada department of the Moscow Art Theater's School Studio.

Career

In 1948 Gelena Velikanova debuted as a professional singer. In 1950 she started to perform regularly as a member of the Mosconcert stuff, singing songs by Soviet and foreign composers: "Mne veselo" (I'm Having Fun), "Pismo k materi" (A Letter to Mother) and others. Soon she discovered in herself a dramatic talent and started to perform (along with lightweight pop and even children's songs) more serious compositions, using as lyrics poems by Sergey Esenin and Novella Matveyeva, among others. Velikanova's musical development has been greatly influenced by her husband, poet Nikolai Dorizo.

In 1969 Gelena Velikanova was awarded the Meritorious Artist of RSFSR title, but soon lost the unique crystal-clear timbre of her high-pitched voice, due to incompetent medical treatment of vocal chords. By the late 1970s she's been all but forgotten. In 1986-1996 she taught at the Gnesin College and in Russian Academy of Theatre Arts.

In the mid-1990s due to a surge of interest in the Soviet music of the 1960s there was came a renewed interest in the singer’s career and she was starting to get accolades she deserved. On 16 April 1998, a personal star was set at the Rossiya concert hall square. On 10 November 1998, Velikanova was about to give her farewell concert in the Actor's House. She died in her flat just two hours before the show was about to start. She was buried at the Vagankovskoye Cemetery, in Moscow.