Soviet Folk Legend Lyudmila Zykina Dies

MOSCOW. July 2. VOSTOK-MEDIA – Yesterday, on July 1, USSR Peoples Artist Lyudmila Zykina has died.
“Recently, in early summer Lyudmila Zykina celebrated her 80th birthday. Several days ago she suffered a heart attack and today her heart stopped beating.” - said a statement published on the website of Channel One television.
Lyudmila Zykina was born to a traditional workers’ family in Moscow in 1929. Before the Great Patriotic War she was studying in school for working youth and during World War II she was working as a turner in a Moscow machine tool factory.
The singing career of Zykina began after she won a All-Russian singing competition for youth in 1947. And following her successful performance in the competition she was made a member of the Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Chorus.
Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev were all charmed by her vocals, which consequently brought the living legend an official blessing to travel to the West.
Zykina toured the Soviet Union at least six times and gave concerts in 92 countries. Her songs are marked with sincerity, soulfulness and a high degree of inner intensity.
The funeral will take place on July 4 at Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.