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Eduard Khil

Eduard Khil
Эдуард Хиль
Eduard Khil in 2009
Eduard Khil receiving a 4th class Order For Merit to the Fatherland in 2009
Born Эдуард Анатольевич Хиль (Eduard Anatolyevich Khil)
(1934-09-04)4 September 1934
Smolensk, Western Oblast, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died 4 June 2012(2012-06-04) (aged 77)
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Cause of death Complications from a stroke
Occupation Singer
Years active 1955–2012
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Website http://edhill.narod.ru/ (Russian)

Eduard Anatolyevich Khil (Russian: Эдуа́рд Анато́льевич Хиль; IPA: [ɪdʊˈart ɐnɐ'tolʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈxʲilʲ] (often transliterated as Edward Hill); 4 September 1934 – 4 June 2012) was a Russian baritone singer and a recipient of the People's Artist Award of the Russian SFSR. Khil became known to international audiences in 2010 when a 1976 recording of him singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song "I am very glad, as I'm finally returning back home" (Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой) became an Internet meme, often referred to as "Trololol", or "Trololo" as an onomatopoeia of the song, or the "Russian Rickroll". The song is now commonly associated with Internet trolling.

Khil was born on 4 September 1934 in Smolensk to Anatoly Vasilievich Khil, a mechanic, and Yelena Pavlovna Kalugina, an accountant. Life as a child was hard on Khil. With his family breaking up, he was brought up by his mother. During the Great Patriotic War (WWII Eastern Front), his kindergarten was bombed, he was separated from his mother and evacuated to Bekovo, Penza Oblast where he ended up in a children's home, which lacked basic facilities and needs, such as food. Despite this Khil regularly performed in front of wounded soldiers in the nearby hospital. He was reunited with his mother in 1943 when Smolensk was liberated from Nazi Germany and in 1949 moved to Leningrad, where he enrolled and then graduated from printing college. In 1955, Khil enrolled in the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied under direction of Yevgeny Olkhovsky and Zoya Lodyi. He graduated in 1960. During his studies, he began performing various lead operatic roles, including Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro.


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