And yet Russia, goodbye – the other day Verka Serduchka put an end to the long-term dispute that she sang in the final of the European music contest Eurovision 2007: Russia, goodbye or Lasha Tumbai. Andrey Danilko’s out-of-competition performance at Eurovision 2023 removed all questions about how the artist actually relates to Russia and its citizens.
“I completely closed the door to Russia,” the star confesses to one of the Ukrainian patriotic publications. – Maybe in old age, in a wheelchair, I will say (to the Russians): your parents listened to “OK, everything will be fine.”
Where is Verka Serduchka performing now?
Now the star lives at the expense of foreign tours. Judging by the posters published in the artist’s social networks, the first half of the year is scheduled to the eyeballs: the whole of February, the “conductor Verka” performed in Israel, then in Italy and Spain, March – a tour of the cities of Eastern Europe, a big tour of the USA and Canada is planned for April, May Europe again.
The geography of the tour resembles the routes of musicians, singers and stand-up artists who escaped from Russia, there is no Russia in them, and since the beginning of the SVO, Ukraine has also disappeared from the list of Danilko’s performances. Life managed to find only one event in June last year, which Serduchka played in the Kiev metro.
In one of his interviews, Danilko explained the lack of concerts in his homeland by the fact that, they say, the artist does not have the right to entertain the public when there is a war and blood is shed. For the same reason, Serduchka allegedly never went to the front-line territories to speak to the soldiers. The singer did not explain how the Ukrainians who remained in Ukraine differ from those who fled because of the NWO to Europe and the USA, and why it is possible to perform in front of some, but not in front of others, the singer did not explain.
How Russia made Danilko a real star
Despite the fact that the project “Verka Serduchka” appeared at the end of the Soviet Union, for many years Danilko remained on the periphery of the already small Ukrainian show business. True recognition and big money (earned, among other things, at corporate parties with Russian oligarchs, for example, with Roman Abramovich, which the artist himself spoke about) Danilko received in Russia.
Most of the talented Ukrainian artists in the 90s and 2000s, having received their first recognition in their homeland, went to develop success precisely in Russia: the Meladze brothers and their VIA Gra project, including Anna Sedokova, Svetlana Loboda and Vera Brezhneva, who became independent brands, Ani Lorak , Yolka, Potap and Nastya Kamensky, Alexander Revva – this is not a complete list of stars that appeared in Nezalezhnaya, but took place and earned a lot of money in Moscow. And for this they all sang in Russian.
The wide Russian scene has turned Ukrainian Danilko into a star of the first magnitude throughout the Russian-speaking space of the former USSR. According to rumors, at the beginning of the 2000s, Serduchka received 100 thousand dollars for one of the corporate parties. The fees from these performances allowed the artist to live in a big way, but, it seems, did not add gratitude to the country that ensured success.
What does Verka Serduchka own in Ukraine
Having earned money in Russia in the 2000s, Danilko bought an apartment in the very center of Kyiv, a five-minute walk from Independence Square. It is located at Khreshchatyk Street, 25. Here is a building that the people of Kiev have called “the house with a star” since Soviet times. Stylistically, the building belongs to the Stalinist Empire style, its main building has a spire crowned with a recognizable five-pointed element. From the middle of the 2000s, the popular name of the house acquired another meaning associated with the eminent tenant.
KievKhreshchatyk street, 25 on the map of Kyiv, the nearest metro Khreschatyk — Yandex Maps
“House with a star” in the center of Kyiv. At least three apartments here are occupied by Andrey Danilko
A little later, here the artist bought two more apartments worth $ 1.2 million. He combined them with the first into a giant three-level housing, consisting of twelve rooms, six bathrooms and three bathrooms. Danilko even converted one of the rooms into a dressing room. Perhaps Serdyuchka writes some of the videos with his participation directly from his home studio.
At the entrance, the Ukrainian star organized a guard post. The arrangement of a three-story home comfort cost the showman more than a million dollars. At the same time, he lives in these mansions alone.
The “conductor Verka” also has suburban real estate. In the village of Lesnaya Bucha near Kiev, on a plot of 30 acres, there is a four-story mansion with an area of 270 square meters. Its construction began in 2005, Danilko personally made sketches of the future residence. As a model, the artist allegedly took the dacha of Alla Pugacheva near Istra, which he visited every time he came to Moscow with concerts.
According to his plan, on the lower level there is a garage, a private stand-alone boiler room and a small storage room. On the ground floor there is a living room with a fireplace, a kitchen and a small bathroom, on the second level there are three bedrooms and a gym. In addition, the building is equipped with a small recording studio.
According to local residents, the artist purchased the site and the unfinished building in Bucha from a local prosecutor for about $250,000. Once completed and still today, this is one of the largest houses in the area. A peculiar structure, outwardly more reminiscent of a hotel or an office building, is now estimated by Ukrainian realtors at 700 thousand dollars.
Locals also say that here, among the centuries-old pines, far from the noise of the Ukrainian capital, the star appears infrequently, but arrivals are sometimes accompanied by very noisy parties, which attract almost the entire Kiev beau monde.
In everyday life, the artist prefers to move around Kiev in business-class cars of the Toyota brand: at different times he was seen driving a Camry, Land Cruiser and several Lexus, but real rarities are found in Serduchka’s fleet. One of these is a 1974 Rolls-Royce owned by Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.
Danilko owned it for nine years: from 2013 until the end of 2022. The artist bought a limousine at one of the British auctions, giving 115 thousand pounds sterling for it. As Danilko himself says, he never even saw the acquisition live, the car remained in Britain all this time.
For a long time, the showman tried to take the car to Ukraine, hoping to make it the central exhibit in the Ukrainian Variety Museum, but each time there were problems with customs clearance. As a result, in December 2022, the enraged artist sold it at Sotheby’s for 250 thousand pounds. Danilko promised to send the proceeds to the construction of a rehabilitation center for the Ukrainian military.