Mikhail Krug

Mikhail Krug was a famous Russian singer, an unofficial King of Russian chanson. His most successful song «Владимирский централ» (‘Vladimir Central’) is considered a kind of standard for the genre of ‘prison romance’. Mikhail Vorobyov (real name of the singer), who was born in 1962 in Tver, played guitar but never had a music education. In 1987, he became a winner of a local music competition as a singer-songwriter. Two years later, Vorobyov changed his surname to Krug and released his first album Тверские улицы (Streets of Tver). But the true popularity came with the album Жиган-Лимон (Zhygan Limon, 1994) with a hit song of the same name. The biggest hit in Krug’s carer is «Владимирский централ» (‘Vladimir Central’) from the Мадам (Madam) album of 1998. Russian chanson is a peculiar genre of Russian music praising the romance of criminal life, love, and philosophy, and Krug was the one who nailed it. Despite the presence of thieves’ slang in his songs, Krug never been to prison and for his lyrics, he used expressions from the secret police of the USSR’s manual he accidentally bought at a flea market. Mikhail Krug released a dozen of albums and compilations before his tragic death at the age of 40. In 2002, he was killed at his own house. The album Исповедь (Confession, 2003) had been released after his death.