Ukrainian Singer Pavel Zibrov Admits to “Buying” Hit Song “White Flower on Kalini” for Vodka and Chocolate

Ukrainian singer Pavel Zibrov admitted that he “bought” the music for the song “White Flower on Kalini,” which became one of the young artist’s first hits, for vodka and chocolate. About this Zibrov told in an interview with Ukrainian journalist, founder of the online publication “GORDON” Dmitry Gordon.

“I remember your first popularity – “White flower on a viburnum, like a veil on a girl”. How did you come up with this song?” – asked Gordon.

The singer said that at that time the composer Ostap Gavrish was very popular.

“He’s from the Carpathian region. I was just on tour and stopped by to visit him. I remembered him this way for the rest of my life. He had a cigarette that wouldn’t come out of his mouth. He always had some kind of liqueur. He lived in the village. This He drank the liqueur like that… A cigarette, a liqueur. And he showed me his works,” says Zibrov.

According to the singer’s recollections, on Gavrish’s instrument “half the keys did not work.”

“He has an old piano: it’s 200–300 years old. The Kaisers probably still played on them: with monograms like that… But they were extinguishing the bulls, something fell, half the notes weren’t… The hammers were broken. How did he played it, I don’t know. Only Gavrish could play. And then “White Flower on Kalina” plays – and I said: “I want…” – “What, do you like it?” – “Yes.” – “Take it.” – “Oh, now, a cassette…” The cassette player… He recorded it. “What do I owe you?” Well, now $5 thousand is a good song, 10 thousand in Moscow, they sell it turnkey for $20-30 thousand. And he played enough and said: “Well, the gendelyk is still open. 10 minutes left. Let’s run to Gendelyk. A bottle of vodka and Alenka, a chocolate for a snack.” Yes. Everything. Then everything was bought and sold,” the singer shared.

He recalls that this hit made him feel like a star.

“A week later I made it. Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr, Chernivtsi radio is rewriting all this. And I feel like I’m a star. And not just a star, I’m a star. So I felt like a star. Although before that, I want to say, the song where I felt that I was wildly popular was “Dushi Krinitsya”. This is a song that Andrey Demidenko wrote, and this song also somehow came to me by accident,” said Zibrov.

He added that “White flower on the viburnum” is “such a tempo hit”, and told the story of a curio with a changed text of the song – “a white flower on the viburnum, like Zibrov on a girl…”

“This is Michal Mikhalych Poplavsky: my great friend, the helmsman. Michal Mikhalych Poplavsky filmed the retro program, sat in the front row and told how to sing. He tells Sasha Ponomarev how to sing, Natasha Mogilevskaya, Pasha Zibrov… He sits in the retro program, where the songs are 20–30 years old, and he says: “Here is the song “White Flower on the Kalina”, Pasha, “like Zibrov at the wedding.” I’m so stupid, stupid – and so in the second verse I sang “like Zibrov at the girl’s party” involuntarily. Because he sits in the front row and does this. Do you understand?” says the singer.

The audience, he said, laughed at the improvisation.

“Everyone is laughing. I laughed. Then they cut it out. Apparently, Zibrov sounded one and a half verses, because I didn’t get the chorus after that – and they just cut it off. Well, you can’t show something like that. So I remember Michal Mikha with warmth [лыча Поплавского]…” – concluded Zibrov.

Context:

Zibrov was born in 1957 in the village of Chervonoye, Vinnytsia region. He graduated from the orchestral and then vocal departments of the Kyiv Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky. He was a soloist of the State Pop Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. Since 1994 – director and artistic director of his own Song Theater. Teaches vocals at the National University of Culture and Arts.

Zibrov is a People’s Artist of Ukraine.