The bad news this Christmas Day included the crash of a TU-154 Russian military plane shortly after taking off from the Sochi, Russia, airport. All 92 passengers were killed. The even worse news is that the passengers included 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, including its leader, Valery Khalilov.
The Alexandrov Ensemble is a choir, band, and dance troupe. It is more commonly known as the Red Army Choir, and it is one of two groups that carry that name.
They got some major exposure from The Total Balalaika Show, a film by Aki Kaurismäki. This film could be classified as a sequel to Leningrad Cowboys Go America, but it’s quite a bit more than that, which I will explain in a minute.
It’s necessary to clarify that the Leningrad Cowboys are not now, nor have they ever been Russians. The original lineup consisted of Finnish actors recruited to play the role of the world’s worst rock-and-roll band. If you have a quirky sense of humour, there’s a lot of really funny things in “The Leningrad Cowboys Go America.”
The Leningrad Cowboys outlasted the film, however. They became a Helsinki institution, and in 1993, they organized a major concert in the centre of Helsinki, to commemorate the end of the Cold War, a subject taken very seriously in Finland. The concert was a collaboration of the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov Ensemble, and included Western rock-and-roll, traditional Russian music, dancing, and yes, balalaikas. The Russians were wearing their Red Army uniforms, and the Leningrad Cowboys were attired in Finnish army uniforms. The concert became the film “The Total Balalaika Show.”
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