Currently 35-year-old pop musician Miķelis Ļaksa with stage name Markus Riva began his career in 2006. In 2014, the guy broke into the Russian show business, and later into Ukraine. He was one of those domestic musicians who, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the morning of February 24, reacted on social media condemning the aggression, and took to the stage the next evening for a concert at the Congress House. In the last days of him ‘Instagram“The account was tracked by 500 people.
In a conversation with Delfi this week, Baiba Sipeniece-Gavare said that all Latvian artists who had gone to Russia to perform or participated in Russian TV shows for the past eight years had been part of a carefully crafted propaganda plan. Singer Markus Riva partially agrees. He gave an interview to the portal “Delfi”, which explains how his path to recognition in Russia has progressed, what the behind the scenes of this business are and with which Russian musicians he is no longer on the way.
In a conversation with Delphi, Baiba Sipeniece-Gavare said: “Russia had a special plan to integrate artists from countries unfriendly to Russia into show business.” What is your vision?
I’ll tell you how it started for me. In 2014 I started the show “I want to Meladze”. Made a group of guys, produced by Konstantin Meladze. I applied. Everything happened in Moscow, but the producers of the show were Ukrainians. By the way, one of them was the current President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. The show was filmed in Moscow, but was shown in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Officially on major TV channels. In Latvia, it was also on cable television. After the success of this show, I started working with Ukrainian producers, which allowed me to start a career in Russian-speaking areas. I sang music that I wrote with Ukrainian authors, participated in many TV shows in Ukraine. I have also spoken at many events and TV shows in Russia, but they are not related … I will say clearly: I am against Putin and against propaganda.
Performed on Russian shows – were they private channels?
Well, they are not related to the political elite and Putin. These are the music channels “MuzTV”, “The first music channel” …
They are all connected.
Yes.
It is important for me to say that there is no witch hunt here to show someone in a derogatory light. But Russia is very solvent. Have you performed at private parties there?
I have spoken, but they have not been oligarchs. These have been ordinary people …
Wealthy Muscovites?
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