Teh One Who Knocks
03-22-2023, 10:27 AM
BY SHANNON POWER - Newsweek
https://i.imgur.com/0JGqEBxl.png
The founder of a pop group whose song became an anthem during anti-war protests in Russia has died by drowning aged 34 on Sunday.
Dima Nova—whose given name was Dmitry Svirgunov—founded the popular electronic group Cream Soda, and criticized Russian President Vladmir Putin's alleged $1.3 billion mansion in the song "Aqua Disco." The song was often sung at protests before and in the early days of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine and the protests quickly became known as "Aqua Disco Parties."
Nova fell through ice while crossing Russia's Volga river in the Yaroslavl region, north east of Moscow, according to Russian news website People Talk. He was with his brother Roma and two friends.
Cream Soda announced Nova's passing on Monday on Instagram.
"We had a tragedy last night. Our Dima Nova, in the company of friends, was walking along the Volga and fell under the ice. The Ministry of Emergency Situations are still looking for his brother Roma and friend, Gosha Kiselev. Aristarchus, our friend who also fell under the ice, was caught, but could not be saved. As soon as we have information from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, we will inform you," the group wrote in the caption.
On Tuesday, the group posted photos of Nova and his friend Kiselev, writing "an official identification took place today at 9:00. Dima and Goshi are no more."
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Nova founded Cream Soda with Ilya Gadaev and they were later joined by singer Anna Romanovskaya. Newsweek reached out to them via Instagram and email respectively for comment.
The trio had a big hit in 2019 with their song "No More Parties" and the following year their video for "Crying to Techno" went viral.
Cream Soda released a song called "Volga" in 2017 in which they sung about "going down" into the river where "I will drown."
"In captivity of spring lips I will drown/I'm going down with you," are some of the song's lyrics.
Cream Soda became icons of the anti-war movement when comedian Alexander Gudkov used one of their songs to poke fun at Putin who had been accused of building an opulent $1.3 billion mansion near Gelendzhik on Russia's southern Black Sea coast using the proceeds of corruption.
Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Putin, published a video on YouTube in January 2021 that claimed the palace complex featured a 190,500-square-foot mansion incorporating a theater, cinema and casino.
"Putin's friends, who received from him the right to steal whatever they wanted in Russia, thanked him a lot. But they also chipped in, collected 100 billion rubles and built a palace for their boss with this money," Navalny said in the film made by his Anti-Corruption Foundation.
A Kremlin spokesman at the time dismissed the claims as "pure nonsense."
Dubbed "Putin's Palace," some of the rooms in the mansion quickly went viral as people joked about its hookah lounge and a room with an unknown used simply called "aquatic disco."
Cream Soda turned the concept into a song as a means to criticize the president and then the comedian Gudkov used it in a video mocking the president. The satirical video has had more than 8 million views on YouTube.
The song lyrics include: "You are inviting me to the movies and for a couple of glasses. Inviting me to breathe in the shisha smoke, to chill on the covers, to watch the sunset from your marble boudoir/You just don't understand that it is very old-school."
Tributes have poured in for Nova who had built an international following.
His bandmate Romanovskaya wrote on Instagram: "In the photo Dima sings 'To you.' Dima, my brother, rest in peace. I love you always. See you in the new world with you and Roma."
Konstantin Sidorkov, the head of music and events at Russia's biggest social media platform, VK, also paid tribute on Instagram.
"I lost a close friend today. [With] a lump in my throat and an impossibility to find words to describe what a bright and multifaceted person Dima was," he wrote alongside a series of photos of the pair together. "An incredibly talented musician and designer with plans for the future, sincere and kind, with a big heart. Take care of yourself. Life is as fragile as ice."
https://i.imgur.com/0JGqEBxl.png
The founder of a pop group whose song became an anthem during anti-war protests in Russia has died by drowning aged 34 on Sunday.
Dima Nova—whose given name was Dmitry Svirgunov—founded the popular electronic group Cream Soda, and criticized Russian President Vladmir Putin's alleged $1.3 billion mansion in the song "Aqua Disco." The song was often sung at protests before and in the early days of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine and the protests quickly became known as "Aqua Disco Parties."
Nova fell through ice while crossing Russia's Volga river in the Yaroslavl region, north east of Moscow, according to Russian news website People Talk. He was with his brother Roma and two friends.
Cream Soda announced Nova's passing on Monday on Instagram.
"We had a tragedy last night. Our Dima Nova, in the company of friends, was walking along the Volga and fell under the ice. The Ministry of Emergency Situations are still looking for his brother Roma and friend, Gosha Kiselev. Aristarchus, our friend who also fell under the ice, was caught, but could not be saved. As soon as we have information from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, we will inform you," the group wrote in the caption.
On Tuesday, the group posted photos of Nova and his friend Kiselev, writing "an official identification took place today at 9:00. Dima and Goshi are no more."
CqCq2i-NOo5
Nova founded Cream Soda with Ilya Gadaev and they were later joined by singer Anna Romanovskaya. Newsweek reached out to them via Instagram and email respectively for comment.
The trio had a big hit in 2019 with their song "No More Parties" and the following year their video for "Crying to Techno" went viral.
Cream Soda released a song called "Volga" in 2017 in which they sung about "going down" into the river where "I will drown."
"In captivity of spring lips I will drown/I'm going down with you," are some of the song's lyrics.
Cream Soda became icons of the anti-war movement when comedian Alexander Gudkov used one of their songs to poke fun at Putin who had been accused of building an opulent $1.3 billion mansion near Gelendzhik on Russia's southern Black Sea coast using the proceeds of corruption.
Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, an outspoken critic of Putin, published a video on YouTube in January 2021 that claimed the palace complex featured a 190,500-square-foot mansion incorporating a theater, cinema and casino.
"Putin's friends, who received from him the right to steal whatever they wanted in Russia, thanked him a lot. But they also chipped in, collected 100 billion rubles and built a palace for their boss with this money," Navalny said in the film made by his Anti-Corruption Foundation.
A Kremlin spokesman at the time dismissed the claims as "pure nonsense."
Dubbed "Putin's Palace," some of the rooms in the mansion quickly went viral as people joked about its hookah lounge and a room with an unknown used simply called "aquatic disco."
Cream Soda turned the concept into a song as a means to criticize the president and then the comedian Gudkov used it in a video mocking the president. The satirical video has had more than 8 million views on YouTube.
The song lyrics include: "You are inviting me to the movies and for a couple of glasses. Inviting me to breathe in the shisha smoke, to chill on the covers, to watch the sunset from your marble boudoir/You just don't understand that it is very old-school."
Tributes have poured in for Nova who had built an international following.
His bandmate Romanovskaya wrote on Instagram: "In the photo Dima sings 'To you.' Dima, my brother, rest in peace. I love you always. See you in the new world with you and Roma."
Konstantin Sidorkov, the head of music and events at Russia's biggest social media platform, VK, also paid tribute on Instagram.
"I lost a close friend today. [With] a lump in my throat and an impossibility to find words to describe what a bright and multifaceted person Dima was," he wrote alongside a series of photos of the pair together. "An incredibly talented musician and designer with plans for the future, sincere and kind, with a big heart. Take care of yourself. Life is as fragile as ice."