Viktor Tsoy

Viktor Robertovich Tsoi Russian Виктор Робертович Цой 21 June 1962 15 August 1990 was a Soviet and Russian singer and songwriter who cofounded Kino one of the most popular and musically influential bands in the history of Russian music Born and raised in Leningrad Tsoi started writing songs as a teenager Throughout his career Tsoi contributed a plethora of musical and artistic works including ten albums After Kino appeared and performed in the 1987 Soviet film Assa the bands popularity sparked triggering a period referred to as Kinomania and leading to Tsois leading role in the 1988 Kazakh new wave art film The Needle In 1990 after their highprofile concert at the Luzhniki Stadium Tsoi briefly relocated to Latvia with bandmate Yuri Kasparyan to work on the bands next album Two months after the concert Tsoi died in a car collision He is regarded as one of the pioneers of Russian rock and is credited with popularizing the genre throughout the Soviet Union He retains a devoted following in many exSoviet countries such as Russia Ukraine Kazakhstan and Lithuania where he is known as one of the most influential and popular people in the history of Russian music Wikipedia