Natalya Gulkina: biography and personal life. Natalia Gulkina - biography, information, personal life Official Instagram page Natalia Gulkina

Natalia Valerievna Gulkina (nee Klyarenok). Born on February 20, 1965 in Moscow. Soviet and Russian pop singer.

Natalia Klyarenok, whom everyone now knows as Gulkina, was born on February 20, 1965 in Moscow.

From an early age I was interested in music. During my school years I loved listening to Vysotsky, Deep Purple, Kiss.

She learned to play the guitar, composed songs and sang in companies, pioneer camps, at graduation parties, and also participated in various competitions.

I left school after 8th grade and went to work as a telephone operator.

Natalia Gulkina, while studying vocals in a jazz studio, dreamed of going on the professional stage where her idols - Alla Pugacheva, Sofia Rotaru, Lyudmila Senchina - performed.

Svetlana Razina, one of the studio participants, introduced Gulkina to the young composer and keyboard player Andrei Lityagin. He was looking for a new vocalist for the band for a long time. "Mirage", since Margarita Sukhankina, who took part in the recording of three compositions “The Stars Are Waiting for Us”, “Video” and “This Night”, refused to participate in the recording of the rest of the material for the future album, because she intended to make an opera career at the Bolshoi Theater and did not want to be spotted in a group performing pop music. Lityagin suggested that Natalya record several songs for this group. As a result, Gulkina agreed.

She performed vocal parts for five more songs: “Sunny Summer”, “Mad World”, “I Don’t Want”, “Electricity”, “Magic World”. After adding the instrumental “About Midnight” to the eight recorded compositions, the group’s debut album “The Stars Are Waiting for Us” was released on March 3, 1987.

In 1988, Mirage was preparing to release its second album, Together Again, which Gulkina insisted on creating. At this time, Natalia toured with the group around the country. Lityagin, in order not to distract the singer, again invited Sukhankina to record, with whom the album was recorded. Natalia was offered to learn songs and perform them to Margarita's soundtrack. Gulkina refused and left the Mirage group, deciding to start a solo career.

She said: “Probably the first time I left Mirage was because I had to try my own strength. And circumstances in the group developed that pushed me to this decision. Then several members of the group went on tour at the same time, which, naturally, I could not like. In addition, I learned that I earn less than other soloists. I thought it was unfair and left. By that time, I was already quite popular, so it turned out to be easier for me to start my new path.”

The singer did not understand legal issues and continued to perform those Mirage songs that she performed as the lead singer of the group. Soon the organizers of the group forbade her to perform them.

“I didn’t worry too much about this, but went and wrote the song “The Sun is Burning,” which was immediately picked up by various radio stations. It soon became a hit and I started touring the country with it. Then a new song “I Believe and Love” appeared,” the artist recalled.

At the same time, Natalia met Leonid Velichkovsky on the “Sound Track”. He told her that he had a lot of interesting material and invited Gulkina to watch it. Natalia liked Velichkovsky’s music, and they recorded the album “The Little Prince,” which included the song “The Sun is Burning.” The album was very popular, and at this time the name of Natalia Gulkina was heard.

A group concert was held in Moscow's Gorky Park in connection with the celebration of City Day, which was filmed by television crews from the American channel MTV. The groups “Mirage” with Tatyana Ovsienko, “Fairy” with Svetlana Razina and Natalia Gulkina were invited to perform at it.

“Until that moment, our group didn’t have a name at all. We were announced as Natalia Gulkina - “Ex-Mirage” or simply Natalia Gulkina. And then we grabbed our heads - what to call ourselves? There can’t be two “Mirages” or a “Mirage” and an ex-“Mirage” on stage. They began to come up with some names on the fly. And at this time the MTV film crew enters the dressing room. I am introduced to them as a Russian star, or rather, a star of the USSR, and let them ask what I have, since I am a star. And my husband, now deceased, Kostya Terentyev, suddenly begins to tell them that I have my own train, on which my group and I travel throughout the country. And that we also have an airplane. And how he went to lie! I am terrified. What is he talking about?! And he just wanted to show that we are no worse than their stars. And suddenly one of us has an idea, what if we call our group “Stars”. At first I doubted that we would call ourselves stars - that we are so cool, or what? And then someone said what does cool or not cool have to do with it. There is also the Moon and stars. And they are already shouting to us: “Your exit! How to announce?!” Well, we waved our hand: “Announce Natalia Gulkina and the Zvezda group,” Gulkina recalled.

At the same time, the group was filming the first 2 videos for the songs “The Sun Is Burning” and “I Believe and Love”.

In 1989, the second album “Disco” was released, which became mega-popular, and Gulkina entered the top three singers of the year in the USSR in 1989 and 1990, taking 2nd place according to “Moskovsky Komsomolets”, sharing prizes with Alla Pugacheva and Irina Allegrova.

Natalia Gulkina - Disco

In 1990, after winning the international festival “Inter-Chance”, Natalia toured in China, becoming in fact the first Soviet pop singer to perform in this country. In Beijing, about 20 thousand spectators gathered at the “Stars” concert at the Sports Palace.

In 1991, Natalia Gulkina recorded two albums. The first of them is “You just have to dream,” the songs for which were written by Sergei Lemokh with lyrics by Gulkina (“Ivanhoe,” “This is China,” etc., videos were shot on them) and Oleg Molchanov with lyrics by Arkady Slavorosov. The second is the solo album of the singer “Day Angel”, songs for it were written by Oleg Molchanov and Slavorosov. The singer took 9th place in “Song of the Year” according to Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Natalia Gulkina - This is China

Since 1992, dancers appeared in “Stars”, and collaboration with choreographer Sergei Mandrik began. Over the course of several years, the dancers changed several times, and by 1995 the “Street Jazz” quartet was formed: Sergey Mandrik, Maxim Nedolechko aka “Peps”, Volodya Suvorov and Araik Martirosyan. Gulkina worked with this team until 2001.

In 1993, Natalia founded the New Generation school-studio for gifted children at the Constellation children's creativity center. In the same year, Natalia’s album “Holy Love” was released by the recording company ZeKo Records with the hits “Rio de Janeiro” and “Goodbye, Love.” In this and subsequent years, Gulkina performed concerts in Germany for Russian-speaking audiences.

In 1995, Gulkina entered GITIS at the Faculty of Variety Arts, specializing in “Director of Variety and Mass Performances” on the course of People’s Artist of Russia Andrei Nikolaev.

In 1996, also on the recording company ZeKo Records, the album “Dancing City” was released with the hits “Albatross” and “Melody of Love”, for the latter of which a video was shot.

In 1997, Gulkina transferred to the acting department of GITIS and began studying on a course with David Livnev. In the same and subsequent years, Natalia worked on a new album under the working title “Sail of Dreams”, in the recording of which the Tchaikovsky Big Symphony Orchestra conducted by V. I. Fedoseev and many musicians took part. This album was never released.

In 1999, Natalia successfully graduated from GITIS, receiving a diploma in dramatic theater and film actress.

In 2000, Gulkina recorded a remix of the song “Sunny Summer” from the first album of “Mirage”, for which a video was shot by music video director Viktor Konisevich. Racing driver Alexey Dudukalo, Russian champion in auto racing, took part in the filming. At the same time, two more remixes of Mirage songs were recorded - “I Don’t Want” and “Mad World”.

Natalia Gulkina - Sunny Summer

In 2003, Gulkina tried to organize a new group “Malta” in a duet with the second soloist and recorded 2 new songs, but she soon returned to solo work.

In 2004, at the same time, Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina recorded solo albums, and the latter of them no longer worked at the Bolshoi Theater. One of the journalists concluded that they decided to unite. Gulkina had the idea to revive the Mirage group by creating a duet with Sukhankina, with whom she was not even familiar, although they recorded the first album for Mirage.

The singers decided to join forces and record a common album. Natalia invited Sergei Lavrov, with whom she collaborated in “Stars,” as a producer, and introduced him to Margarita. The result of their collaboration was the song “Simply Mirage” and the single “Mirage of Love,” which aroused great interest among the public. The words to the song were written by Gulkina herself, and the music by Vadim Zolotykh.

In 2007, Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina teamed up with Andrei Lityagin and revived the Mirage group. In the same year, a video for the group “A Thousand Stars” was released.

In 2008, Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina took part in the NTV television show “Superstar 2008. Dream Team” and became the winners of this project in terms of the number of audience votes received.

In 2010, Natalia, as part of Mirage, took part in the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, where the group gave two concerts: for athletes and for fans.

On January 15, 2011, Natalia Gulkina left the Mirage group due to disagreements with colleagues, resuming her solo career. Her place in the team was taken by Svetlana Razina. Natalia was forbidden to perform even those Mirage songs that she soloed. But Gulkina, in response, refused to speak with them on principle.

She starred in “The Best Movie-3” and the series “Baby” on the STS channel. In the musical “The Three Musketeers” to the music of Maxim Dunaevsky, Natalia played the main role, appearing in the image of the charming Queen Anne of Austria.

On May 28, 2012, Natalia Gulkina and Svetlana Razina gave their first joint concert in Veliky Novgorod, and also sang a duet of a song from the repertoire of the Vostok group “Mirages”.

In March 2013, Natalia Gulkina supported the public “Movement against Cancer” by joining its coordinating council.

In the fall-winter season 2013-2014, Natalia Gulkina took part in the “Live Sound” program on the Rossiya TV channel. She became close friends with such artists as Sasha Savelyeva, Denis Klyaver, Yuri Stoyanov, Svetlana Surganova and others.

In October 2014, Natalia participated in a project on the Russia 1 TV channel “I Can,” where it was necessary to prove herself both creatively and physically and athletically. Natalia easily coped with the tasks - spinning a pizza on one finger (pizza show), dressed as a Brazilian with Alexander Nosik and danced “Samba”, which created a great sensation among the audience and the jury. She learned how to do magic tricks and was not afraid to transform into a scary quasi-fashion.

In 2015, Natalia released a new single “Clocks”, which includes three songs - “Clocks” (music and lyrics by N. Gulkina), “Mad World” (music and lyrics by N. Gulkina) and a remix of the song “Falcon” (music and words by A. Demidov).

In 2018, she starred in the crime detective film Deadly Training, playing the wife of a hotel owner. The director of the film, Natalia Mikryukova, noted: “By her character, a comedic role would have been more suitable for her, but I offered her a dramatic role. And the actress coped with her task to the highest standards! So everywhere she sings, and here she plays.”

Natalia Gulkina in the program "Alone with Everyone"

Natalia Gulkina's height: 170 centimeters.

Personal life of Natalia Gulkina:

She was married four times.

At the age of 15, Natalia had a passionate love, which resulted in her pregnancy from Sergei Silakov. But the mother forbade giving birth and... “For me there was no dilemma whether to leave him or not, because we were head over heels in love. Of course, I was scared. At first I didn’t even understand when such natural physiological processes as nausea and vomiting began. In general, there was no doubt. But my mother said categorically: “No.” Although Serezha’s mother Seraphim, on the contrary, said: “Let’s leave it, I will help,” said Gulkina.

The first time she married Nikolai Gulkin. At the age of 20 she gave birth to a son, Alexei. They divorced because her husband did not like Natalia’s touring activities.

Then she was married to her director Konstantin Terentyev.

She told about meeting Terentyev: “He introduced himself as a cool administrator, said that he had connections in the Ministry of Culture, and offered to put him in touch with the right person. He rented an expensive restaurant, said that the meeting was scheduled there. He ordered a table - black, red caviar, cognacs, wines ... He explained to me: now the right person will come up, we will discuss everything - schedule, fees... Who would have thought that all this was a bluff! He persuaded the waiter, he kept coming up and informing us that our secret patron was delayed. And so until late. And then Kostya says to me: “Well, apparently it won’t work out today, next time then.” Now I’ll pay for the table and take you home." He had a Zhiguli, on the way he turned from behind the wheel and looked at me somehow... In general, my mind was blown away at once! I was ready there , in his car, forever and stay."

I broke up with Terentyev because of his numerous infidelities: “He didn’t just cheat on me, he did it literally at every step and with whomever he had to. In the dressing rooms while I was performing!”

The third husband (civilian) is the leader of the dance ensemble “Street Jazz” Sergei Mandrik. They lived for 8 years. In marriage with him, a daughter, Yana, was born. He was 10 years younger than her and eventually left Natalia, meeting someone his own age.

The fourth husband is pediatrician Sergei Reutov. He was also 10 years younger than Natalia.

“The fourth marriage is complete absurdity. Today I understand: this is an attempt to prove to Mandrik that I can be happy. I was under a lot of stress after the divorce, I thought - that’s it, I’m an old woman, no one will love... And then he appears - pediatrician Sergei Reutov , handsome, 10 years younger than me. Apparently, that’s what got her hooked on: Seryozha, too, like her ex-husband, has an age difference. There was no love at all, I realized this even before the wedding, but it’s too late. Nothing worked out for us "I didn't fool him for long; we parted as good friends after two years. This marriage was self-affirmation. I wanted to prove to Yanka's father that I could be loved," the singer said.

Discography of Natalia Gulkina:

As part of the Mirage group:

1987 - “The stars are waiting for us” (1987)
2009 - “A Thousand Stars” (2009)

As part of the group "Stars":

1988 - “My Little Prince”
1989 - “Disco”
1991 - “You just have to dream”

with the group "Sheriff":

1991 - “Natalie”

Solo:

1991 - “Day Angel”. Magnetoalbum
1993 - “Holy Love” MC, CD
1994 - “You just have to dream” CD
1995 - “Disco” MS, CD
1995 - “Holy Love” MC, CD
1996 - “Dancing City” MC, CD
1998 - “The Sail of My Dreams”, not published
2000 - “Legends of Russian disco” MC
2002 - “Project Malta”
2003 - “Meeting”
2004 - “Queen of DISCO”
2004 - “In the Mood for Love”
2012 - “On my own...”
2014 - “C'est La Vie”
2015 - “Clock”

In a duet with Svetlana Razina:

2012 - “Mirages” song 2012 (author G. Fillipov)
2012 - “A woman cannot be trusted” song 2012 (author S. Razin)
2012 - “Fly, dream” song 2012 (author N. Gulkina)
2013 - “You can’t trust a woman” remix 2013 (author S. Razin)

In a duet with Margarita Sukhankina:

2004 - “Mirage of Love”
2004 - “Ivanhoe”
2005 - “Simply Mirage”
2005 - “New Year”
2005 - “Disco”
2005 - “Music has connected us” remix
2005 - “Night Falls” remix
2005 - “The stars are waiting for us” remix
2005 - “I Don’t Ask Anymore” remix
2006 - “Together Again” remix
2006 - “Wonderful Duets”

Musicals by Natalia Gulkina:

2011 - “The Three Musketeers”, the role of Queen Anne of Austria

Video clips of Natalia Gulkina:

1988 - The sun is burning (as part of the group Stars)
1988 - The Little Prince (as part of the Stars group)
1989 - I Believe and Love (as part of the Stars group)
1989 - Disco (as part of the Stars group)
1990 - First letter (as part of the Stars group)
1990 - Musical idol (As part of the Stars group)
1991 - Ivanhoe (as part of the group Stars)
1991 - This is China (as part of the Stars group)
1991 - Farewell for a century (as part of the group Stars - concert performance)
1992 - Snake Dance (concert performance)
1993 - Rio de Janeiro (concert performance)
1993 - Jerusalem (concert performance)
1994 - Autumn leaf (concert performance)
1994 - Holy Love (concert performance)
1996 - Melody of Love
1996 - White Albatross (concert performance)
1996 - Are you with me (concert performance)
1996 - Summer (concert performance)
1996 - Let's break up (concert performance)
2000 - Sunny Summer
2004 - Candle in the Wind
2005 - Simply Mirage (together with Margarita Sukhankina)
2007 - 1000 stars (as part of the Mirage group)
2009 - The night flickers (as part of the Mirage group)
2011 - Delete (concert performance)
2012 - Fly, dream (concert performance)
2012 - New Year
2013 - Falcon
2013 - Tears are rain (concert performance)
2015 - In the hubbub of the city
2016 - Clock
2016 - This crazy world (Concert performance)
2016 - I’ll fly away into a sunny summer (Concert performance)

Filmography of Natalia Gulkina:

2007-2015 - My truth (documentary)
2011 - Very Best Movie 3D, The - celebrity
2012 - Baby - Hope
2018 - - Kovalev's wife

Today, the artist’s work is already approaching its decline, but is it worth saying that Natalia Gulkina’s star has finally gone out? Of course not. After all, this woman always knew how to present pleasant surprises to her listeners.

Childhood and family of Natalia Gulkina

Only after graduating from school, the girl got married. So, the singer’s first husband was a man named Nikolai Gulkin. It was his surname that the actress subsequently bore throughout her life.

Thus, in the Moscow jazz studio, our today's heroine appeared under the name Natalia Gulkina. At this point, the girl began to systematically work on her vocals, as well as her acting skills. As a result, very soon fate brought Natasha together with another young singer Svetlana Razina, who in turn soon introduced her to composer Andrei Lityagin.

Natalya Gulkina and the group "Mirage"

As part of the legendary group, the blond beauty took part in the recording of one album. In total, Natalia Gulkina performed vocal parts for the compositions “Mad World”, “Sunny Summer”, “I Don’t Want”, “Magic World” and “Electricity”. These songs were subsequently presented on the album “The Stars Are Waiting for Us” (1987).

Natalia Gulkina - This is China

After the record was released, Natalia Gulkina began touring frequently around the country. For some time she became the main face of the Mirage group, but as it turned out, her collaboration with the group was short-lived. The same endless tours were to blame for everything.

Having written several new compositions, Andrei Lityagin first decided to offer them to Natalia Gulkina, but later abandoned this idea due to the fact that at that very moment the girl was at the other end of the Soviet Union. As a result, the songs were performed and recorded by the old soloist of the Mirage group, Margarita Sukhankina. Natasha herself was invited to subsequently perform these songs to a soundtrack. However, the girl considered this situation offensive and, in the end, decided to leave the group.

New songs by Natalia Gulkina

Natalia Gulkina - Disco

As a result, Natalia found herself without any musical material. But this state of affairs did not last long. Already in 1988, the talented young artist met composer Leonid Velichkovsky, who, in fact, offered her his musical material. As a result of cooperation, the album “My Little Prince” was recorded, which became quite popular in the “perestroika” USSR.

After that, the girl presented two more records to the public - “Disco” (1989) and “You just have to dream” (1991). Both albums became quite popular, and therefore, immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the girl began to tour not only in the countries of the former Union, but also in some other countries. Particularly large concerts of the “Stars” group took place in China.

However, despite the accompanying success, at some point Natalia Gulkina decided to start a new page in her work and eventually presented the public with her first solo album, “Day Angel.” After this, a fundamentally new stage began in the artist’s life and work. The girl recorded new compositions, released records, toured the country - however, over time, Natalia Gulkina’s popularity steadily fell. The once fashionable disco style was replaced by new trends, and therefore, at a certain point, our today’s heroine gave way to other younger stars on the pedestal.

Despite this, the Russian singer did not give up and continued to fight. She recorded several songs in a duet with Svetlana Razina, took part in the “Malta” and “Disco Queen” projects, and once even made an attempt to represent Russia at Eurovision. However, nothing could restore its former popularity.

Natalya Gulkina today

Personal life of Natalia Gulkina

Currently, Natalia Gulkina is married to her fourth husband, pediatrician Sergei Reutov.

Natalya Gulkina is a famous Soviet singer, who has many popular hits to her credit. Today, the artist’s work is nearing completion, but this does not mean that Gulkina’s star has completely gone out. This woman always presented her listeners with pleasant surprises.

Childhood and adolescence

Natalya Klyarenok (real name Natalya Gulkina) was born in the capital of Russia on February 20, 1964. From an early age she showed great interest in music. First, she learned the basics of singing, and then became interested in playing the guitar. For the first time, the artist began performing on stage at her school. This was followed by concerts at youth parties and pioneer camps.

At a certain point, Natalya Gulkina began to take part in various music competitions, where she often won prizes. After graduating from school, Natalya married Nikolai Gulkin, whose last name, despite the divorce, the actress bore all her life.

Education

In 1995, Natalya Gulkina entered GITIS at the Faculty of Pop Art. Initially, the student wanted to become a director of variety shows. But due to current circumstances, Natasha was transferred to the acting department in 1997, where she studied under David Livnev. In 1999, the girl successfully graduated from GITIS and received a diploma as a theater and film actress.

Carier start

Natalya Gulkina, whose biography is full of happy moments, meets the young singer Razina Svetlana in the capital's jazz studio, where she began to work on her acting skills and vocal abilities. It was she who brought Natalya together with Andrey Lityagin, the producer of the Mirage group, which was little known at that time.

It so happened that it was during this period that the leader of the group was in search of a new vocalist to replace Margarita Sukhankina, who had left the group. After the audition, Gulkina received an offer to fill the vacant position. However, Natalya was not eager to participate in this team, which seemed very dubious to her. After two months of deliberation, the aspiring singer finally gave her consent. This is how her creative career began.

Group "Mirage" and Natalya Gulkina

"Mirage" brought her enormous popularity. As part of the legendary group, the blond beauty participated in the recording of an album with the beautiful title “The Stars Are Waiting for Us,” which was released in 1987. In total, Natalya performed vocal parts for such compositions as “Sunny Summer”, “Mad World”, “Electricity”, “Magic World” and “I Don’t Want”.

These songs, with which the singer toured the country, brought her intoxicating fame. For some time, Natalya Gulkina, whose photos appeared on magazine covers, became the main figure of the group. But her collaboration with the popular group was short-lived.

Endless tours were to blame for it all. Having written new compositions, I first wanted to offer them to Gulkina. But due to the fact that at that time the singer was on the other side of the country, he abandoned his idea. As a result, all the compositions were recorded and performed by Margarita Sukhankina, a former soloist of the Mirage group. Natalya received an offer to perform these songs later with a soundtrack. The singer considered this situation humiliating and decided to leave the group.

Group "Stars"

Natalya Gulkina decides to organize her own team called “Stars”. At first, the singer performed the compositions that she sang while still a soloist of “Mirage”. However, this soon became the cause of a serious legal scandal, and as a result, Gulkina found herself without musical material for some time.

In 1998, fate brought the young talented artist together with the composer Leonid Velichkovsky, who helped her create her repertoire. The result of the collaboration was an album called “My Little Prince,” which became quite popular and in demand. In the next two years, two more records were presented to the public - “You just have to dream” and “Disco”.

Despite the enormous success, Natalya Gulkina decides to release her first solo album, called “Day Angel”. A new stage has begun in the artist’s work and life. She recorded songs, released records and successfully toured the country. But over time, the singer’s popularity steadily fell, because the once fashionable disco style began to be replaced by others

Today, Natalya Gulkina continues to work on new songs. The singer often performs in front of the public at festivals held in the Retro style. In 2011, she took part in the musical called “The Three Musketeers.”

Personal life

Natalia had 4 legal spouses in her life. From her first marriage to Nikolai Gulkin, the singer gave birth to a son, Alexei. The artist’s husbands were also her personal director Konstantin Terentyev and Sergei Mandrik, the head of the popular dance ensemble Street Jazz, from whom their daughter Yana was born. Today, Gulkina is in an official relationship with Sergei Reutov, a successful pediatrician.

Natalya Gulkina, whose biography is surprisingly interesting, is a popular artist who became famous thanks to her participation in the groups “Mirage” and “Stars”. The singer’s creative life is full of interesting events.

Natalia Gulkina is a Soviet and Russian singer, ex-soloist of the famous group, leader of the group “Stars”.

Natalia Valeryevna Klyaryonok, as the name of the future disco star sounded in childhood, was born into an ordinary Moscow family. She gets her love for music from her dad. He taught his daughter the basics of musical literacy and taught her first lessons in playing the guitar.

Natalia sang beautifully and composed songs herself. At school parties and at holiday camps, the girls’ performances to the accompaniment of the guitar received their first well-deserved standing ovation. The young singer decided that singing was her destiny. Natalia dreamed of nothing else.

Natalia Gulkina became a singer soon after graduating from school. She married Nikolai Gulkin, but family life was short-lived. But the surname remained forever.

To continue her musical career, Gulkina went to the capital's jazz studio. Here the girl improved her vocals and studied acting. Here the performer met her colleague. And she brought her friend together with the then little-known composer Andrei Lityagin.

Music

At the time of the meeting, Lityagin was just searching. She left the team, deciding to pursue a career as an opera singer. After much persuasion, Gulkina agreed to try her hand at Mirage.

Thus began the stellar musical biography of Natalia Gulkina. The first songs “Mad World”, “Sunny Summer”, “I Don’t Want” and “Electricity” instantly turned into hits. The whole country sang along with the blonde beauty. In 1987, the group released an album called “The Stars Are Waiting for Us,” which included hits performed by Gulkina.

Natalia and the band began touring around the country. The concerts attracted huge stadiums. “Mirage” and Natalia Gulkina were expected in all parts of the USSR. Group leader Lityagin did not dare to interrupt these trips, which brought in considerable income. But it was necessary to update the group’s repertoire, and there was no time for this due to Natalia’s constant absence. Therefore, the composer asked Margarita Sukhankina to record new compositions.

After returning from another tour, Natalia Gulkina was asked to learn the songs and perform with them to Sukhankina’s soundtrack. The singer didn’t like this idea; she thought it smacked of fraud. Therefore, Gulkina left the team.

But if Natalia left Mirage, this did not mean that she quit singing. The singer organized her own musical group, called “Stars”. Out of ignorance, she continued to perform the songs with which she had soloed in the previous group. This led to litigation.

After the ban on performing Mirage hits, Gulkina did not give up. The debut hit “The Sun is Burning” immediately took a place in the rotation of popular Russian radio stations. The second hit written by Natalia Gulkina was the song “I Believe and Love.”

Soon they met Leonid Velichkovsky. The composer suggested musical material, Natalia recorded new songs, which immediately won the hearts of disco lovers. The first joint album was called “The Little Prince”. At the beginning, at concerts where Natalia performed as part of her own group, the name of the singer and the name “Ex-Mirage” were heard. But at one performance, where musicians from the current group “Mirage” were present, Gulkina had to urgently come up with a name for her group. This is how the name “Stars” was born.

The group “Stars” released the album “Disco” in the first half of the 90s, thanks to which Gulkina became the second most popular singer in the USSR. The top three also included. This was followed by the release of the disc “You Just Have to Dream,” for which the leader of the group “Kar-Man” became the songwriter. Both collections sold in huge quantities. Gulkina’s first videos for the songs “Ivanhoe” and “This is China” appeared.

Natalia Gulkina was the first Soviet pop star to go on tour to China. The trip became possible after the singer’s victory at the international festival of pop singers “Inter-Chance”.

The concerts were a huge success, but the popular performer understood that she needed to move forward. Therefore, she started her solo career.

Soon the solo disc “Day Angel” was released, with the songs of which Natalia became 9th in the “Songs of the Year” rating of the “Moskovsky Komsomolets” publication. Gulkina regularly recorded new songs and records. Natalia had her own choreographic group, which accompanied the singer in all concerts. In the mid-90s, the artist took up teaching, creating a school for talented children, “New Generation”.

Gulkina did not stop there. Natalia realized that higher education was necessary, so in 1995 she became a student at GITIS, the department of directing pop shows in the workshop of People's Artist of Russia Andrei Nikolaev.

In 2004, fans of the Mirage group received a huge surprise. Natalia Gulkina and Margarita Sukhankina teamed up and started singing together. The artists appeared at the “Disco of the 80s” concert with Gulkina’s song “Ivanhoe”. And in 2005 they released a disc called “Just a Mirage.” Soon a video for the song of the same name appeared.

In 2007, Gulkina, Sukhankina and Lityagin revived Mirage. A year later, the singers became the winners of the show “Superstar 2008. Dream Team,” which was broadcast on the NTV channel. In 2009, the group released the album “A Thousand Stars”. Natalia Gulkina sang 4 songs in it solo, and Margarita Sukhankina sang the same number.

And in 2010, Natalia Gulkina and the group took part in the opening of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Since 2011, the singer has returned to her solo career. The reason was disagreements in the team, where she soon took her place.

Natalia Gulkina continued to appear on stage. The artist sings old hits and new songs. The singer is an obligatory guest at retro concerts that have been held in Russia in recent years. Gulkina is still loved and remembered.

Personal life

Gulkina's first marriage was short. But the singer’s first-born Alexei Gulkin was born in it. The young man followed in his mother’s footsteps and also chose a musical career. Alexey writes music that Natalia calls “complex.”

Natalia Gulkina's second marriage was happy, but quickly broke up. Her husband and part-time concert director Konstantin Terentyev helped the singer build a solo musical career. Possessing an indefatigable imagination, Konstantin once introduced Natalia to European MTV reporters as a real pop star who had her own train and plane. Terentyev died of a stroke in 2006, after his divorce from Natalia.

The third marriage with the director and dancer of the show ballet “Street Jazz” Sergei Mandrik did not work out either. But in this union, a daughter, Yana, was born in 1999.

After the third divorce, Natalia Gulkina’s personal life improved again. The singer developed a relationship with pediatrician Sergei Reutov, who, like Sergei Mandrik, turned out to be 10 years younger than the singer. After the wedding, the lovers lived for two years and separated.

Natalia Gulkina now

Natalia Gulkina still continues to create and record new songs. In May 2017, the singer, together with the musicians of the group “Stars,” released the hit “Eye to Eye.” The release of the song “I’m Choking” soon followed. Performers of the group “Illusia” (“ILLUS!`Ya”), graduates of the musical show “Battle of the Choirs,” were invited to record it. A video for the song was also released. The video director was Vitaly Kapitonov, the stylist was Pavel Lagunov.

Now a new song by Natalia Gulkina is being prepared for release, for which the video “You Have Me” has already been released online. Natalia Gulkina posts announcements of new songs, presentation of videos and information about performances on her account in “ Instagram" There is also a place for family photos. The page periodically flashes photographs taken with Russian pop stars - with the group, as well as with the producer of the “Stars” group, Lion Kuashev.

Discography

As part of the group "Mirage"

• 1987 – “The stars are waiting for us”
• 2009 – “A Thousand Stars”

• 1991 – “Day Angel”
• 1994 – “You just have to dream”
• 1995 – “Disco”
• 1996 – “Dancing City”
• 2004 – “Queen of DISCO”
• 2012 – “On my own...”
• 2014 – “C'est La Vie”
• 2015 – “The Hours”