Trololo / Eduard Khil

2010

Date: 27 February 2010 · Place: YouTube, source recording from Soviet Central Television 1976 · Figures: Eduard Khil, baritone · Arkady Ostrovsky, composer · Tags: Found Footage, Cross-Cultural Viral, Vocalise 01. A Soviet Vocalise Returns On 27 February 2010 a YouTube user uploads a 1976 Soviet Central Television performance of the Arkady Ostrovsky composition I Am Glad To Finally Be Going Home, sung wordlessly by baritone Eduard Khil. The piece, originally a vocalise because its English lyric about a cowboy could not be broadcast in the USSR, is rechristened Trololo by Anglophone viewers. Khil, then seventy-five and largely forgotten in Russia, becomes a global figure in his final years. He dies in 2012. 02. The Late Recognition Trololo is the rare meme that delivers a second career to its subject during his lifetime. Khil is interviewed by the New York Times, performs the song at international concerts, and launches an online competition for new lyrics. The episode is also a case study in YouTube as an archival engine that exhumes Cold War television and reframes it as global comedy without acknowledging the original political constraint that produced the wordless form. Sources • KnowYourMeme, 'Trololo' • The New York Times, 'A Russian Singer's Improbable Second Act' (8 March 2010) • BBC News, 'Eduard Khil Obituary' (4 June 2012)