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Composed of 14 members, the band was founded in the late 1990s. Leningrad worked in Gypsy punk style and soon became notorious for vulgar lyrics (including much Russian mat) and celebration of drinking. As a result, most radio stations initially avoided the band, which did not stop Leningrad's growing popularity, partly for purely aesthetic reasons, such as the rich brass sound. The band eventually made its way to radio and TV (with profanity bleeped out). Shnurov even presented several New Year's Eve TV shows.
In 2007, the group began experimenting with female backup vocals, finally choosing jazz singer Yuliya Kogan as a permanent band member.
Leningrad disbanded in 2008, and then reunited in 2010. Several new songs and videos have been released since, most of them featuring lead vocals by Kogan rather than Shnurov.
Their music video Kolshchik, directed by Ilya Naishuller, won the Berlin Music Video Awards in 2017, taking the 1st place for the "Best Concept" Category.[1] In 2018, Leningrad's music video Is not Paris, directed by Pavel Sidorov, was the winner of the Berlin Music Video Awards, winning also the "Best Narrative" category.[2]
In March 2019, Shnurov announced, through his daily Instagram poem, that Leningrad would disband by the end of the year, after a farewell tour.[3]
Cultural impact
As Shnurov said himself: "Our songs are just about the good sides of life: vodka and girls that is."
The band was so disliked by the then-mayor of Moscow, Yuriy Luzhkov, that he cancelled all of its attempted large-scale events in the city during his term in office.[4] Leningrad's numerous performances in Moscow were therefore limited to privately owned night clubs and bars.
A particular focus of the band's lyrics are mainstream cultural and political clichés. Kandidaty - pidory ("Candidates are faggots"), the refrain of their 2007 song "Vybory", became a widespread post-Sovietmeme referring to electoral abstention. The 2010 song I Bolsche Nikovo ("And Nobody Else (That I Love"))[5] addresses Saint Petersburg's intended image as "Russia's cultural capital", ridiculed with the use of mat and references to alcoholism and street crime.
Shnurov is also fond of ridiculing Russian pop music and pop rock by covering the songs of popular performers and then inviting them to appear with Leningrad live on stage.
Soundtracks
Leningrad songs appeared in several popular pulp and crime films, notably DMB and Bimmer. Three songs by Leningrad appeared prominently on the soundtrack to the 2005 film Everything Is Illuminated. "Nikogo Ne Zhalko" ("No Pity for Anyone") is one of the songs used in an in-game radio station in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.[6][7] In 2015, Leningrad's song "Lastochka" was featured in the ending credits of the 2014 mockumentary film What We Do in the Shadows.
