FACTBOX - Russian Iconic Crooner Iosif Kobzon Dies Aged 80

FACTBOX - Russian Iconic Crooner Iosif Kobzon Dies Aged 80

People's Artist of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia's lower house lawmaker Iosif Kobzon died at the age of 80 on Thursday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2018) People's Artist of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia's lower house lawmaker Iosif Kobzon died at the age of 80 on Thursday.

The biography of the late singer is provided below.

Soviet and Russian singer Iosif Kobzon was born on September 11, 1937 in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk Region of then Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

In 1940, his family moved to Lviv. Following the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), Kobzon's father went to war, while his mother with the children and grandmother were evacuated to the Uzbek city of Yangiyol.

After the war, Kobzon's mother with children returned to Ukraine, where Iosif went to school in the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Region. The singer's father, who sustained injuries in wartime, did not return to the family after demobilization.

After the beginning of peaceful childhood Kobzon started singing and engaged in amateur art activities at school.

In 1956, Kobzon graduated from Dnepropetrovsk mining secondary school and was then conscripted into the Soviet Armed Forces. He first served in Kazakhstan, where he was a battery singer, and then in Transcaucasia, where he was invited to join the Transcaucasian Military District Song and Dance Ensemble.

In 1958, after his demobilization, Kobzon enrolled in the voice faculty of the Gnessin Musical and Pedagogical Institute (currently known as the Gnessin Russian academy of Music), but later left his studies in order to perform on stage.

The singer's first album was released in 1962.

In 1964, Kobzon won a music competition in the Polish town of Sopot. In 1965, he took part in the Druzhba international competition, that was held in six socialist countries, and won first places in the events in Berlin, Budapest and Warsaw.

In 1966, Kobzon became a laureate of the All-Union Competition of Soviet Song Performers and a laureate of the Golden Orpheus international song contest two years later.

During his stage life Kobzon recorded about 3,000 songs and visited with tours more than 100 countries.

In parallel with musical career, Kobzon graduated from the Gnessin Musical and Pedagogical Institute in 1973 and the Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute in 1975.

At that time the singer was already engaged in teaching activities. In 1984, Kobzon created a variety arts faculty at the Gnessin Musical and Pedagogical Institute. In 1993, he became professor at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music.

In 1989, he began his political career and was elected a USSR people's deputy. In 1997, Kobzon was elected as a Russian State Duma lawmaker.

The singer often performed in hot spots: in the area of the Chinese island of Zhenbao disputed by China and the USSR, in Chernobyl in then Soviet Ukraine, in the Chechen capital of Grozny, in Kaspiysk in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. In 1988, Kobzon visited Armenia after a devastating earthquake. Since 1980, the singer nine times visited Afghanistan performing concerts for soldiers. Besides, Kobzon was one of negotiators who tried to persuade terrorists to release hostages at the Dubrovka theater center in Moscow during the 2002 Nord-Ost siege and personally saved several people from the building.

In February 2016, Kobzon performed a concert before the Russian Aerospace Forces soldiers at the Hmeimim air base in Syria.

Kobzon was presented with various awards for his outstanding career. In 1987, he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the USSR. He was also a laureate of the USSR State prize and the Lenin Komsomol Prize.

During his career, Kobzon also received a number of foreign decorations, in particular, in Armenia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

In 1991, he was awarded the title of People's Artist of Ukraine, which he renounced in 2014 after the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis.

Kobzon was an honorary citizen of more than 20 cities in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

He was married three times and had two children, a son and a daughter from the last marriage.