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Should probably have mentioned rapper Ти́мати (Timati) in passing. The self-style "Black Star" isn't particularly good but he'
s very popular and has the money to bring in collaborators like Snoop, P. Diddy, Busta, etc.
Anyway, давай!
У is for Ульи (Ul'i / Hives)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGUoADT32-o
Only ever moderately popular but still well regarded in Russia's alternative rock circles, Ульи have been going since the late 90s with a mixture of indie, punk and bardic influences.
Ф is for Фабрика (Fabrika / Factory)
For unwavering quality over the course of the last decade, i'm not sure there's a pop group in Russia that can match Фабрика. That said, they haven't overly taxed themselves with only two albums (both classics) since they finished in second place on 2003's edition of Фабрика звёзд. Although most of their songs are upbeat modern pop, they're unusual in incorporating influences from Soviet-era musicals at times as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf8uUYxSwXM
Damn it, there was meant to be more Fabrika:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qNkRsla1L4
Жанна Фриске (Zhanna Friske)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfAdljwQANM
Best known in the west as Alice from the Night Watch films, Фриске has been a huge star as a singer, actress and general it-girl since her days in girl-group Блестящие. She usually sticks to bubbly reggae-tinged pop like her delightful eponymous single from 2008 - a song that bears more than a passing resemblance to her US counterpart's Stars Are Blind.
Митя Фомин (Mitya Fomin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vem__5si6Us
Former lead singer of the entertaining Hi-Fi, Фомин took his brand of camp electro-pop solo a couple of years ago with great success. He drafted in the Pet Shop Boys for Огни большого города (City Lights), a reinterpretation of Paninero, and scored one of his biggest hits to date.
Ц is for Центр (Tsentr / Centre)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cELuIu_toZM
I haven't posted much Russian rap music, largely because not much of it is any good. Domestic hip-hop is very popular though - it used to take up as much space as Russian rock in record shops, back in the days when there were still record shops to take up space in. Центр are fairly typical - nothing special, quite dated from an international perspective, but definitely listenable.
Ч is for Чика из Перми (Chika Iz Permi / Chick From Perm)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK0xcXDMmV8
"Мои пророки - это нации клубов, Диджеи, геи и Паша Дуров"
With no official singles or albums, Чика из Перми exist pretty much exclusively through occasional Youtube clips and club appearances but they're probably my favourite Russian pop group in a decade. As far as i can tell, they were initially formed when the lead singer, Alice, asked one of her friends to help her record an electro-pop song to promote the sushi bar she's a waitress at. The excellent Роллы (Rolls) was the result. With a variety of different women fronting the videos, most of the songs are semi-affectionate, semi-vicious parodies of Permian party girls and their home town's culture of weekend nihilism. The closest they've come to crossover success was causing a minor moral panic with я каждый день бухаю, a cover of a punk song about youth alcoholism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJpP3fp4uvE
Катя Чехова (Katya Chekhova)
The recent Nyusha material, with more of a trance / house feel than the R'n'B pop of her debut, reminds me a little of Катя Чехова at times. There's a similar combination of dancefloor focus and a strange sense of detachment. Крылья (Wings) is particularly good. idek what's going on with the dancers in the clip above.
чичерина (Chicherina)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VattDdtdafQ
One of the best pop-rock stars to break through in the late 90s / early 00s Yulia Chicherina's debut album Сны (Dreams) still stands up really well today.
Katya Chilly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9M_rqFEzv0
'Electro versions of traditional Ukrainian folks songs' doesn't necessarily sound like a winning concept but in the hands of Katya Chilly something that could have sounded quite crass and gimmicky becomes absolutely remarkable. Her 2006 album я молодая (Ya Molodaya / I'm Young) is a classic.
two years pass...
two years pass...