Leonid Parfenov is a cult figure of the Russian TV, one of the most prominent Russian journalists, who has been engaged in the popularization of history for decades, believes that the most interesting thing in life is "to catch one era, survive another and live in a third one." One of the latest Parfyonov's achievements is a two-hour review of the different tunes of the Soviet period, prepared together with the 'Meydeleh' band. The program 'Main songs about old times' helps the audience to remember Soviet decades in the most intelligible forms. It was "both a story and show" - compering and concert performances of previous years in witty modern arrangement.
The 'Meydeleh' art band's name means 'Girls' in Yiddish. Its participants are singers Vika Giessen, Marina Wolf and Anastasia Slepchenko, who graduated from the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts. There are five musicians in the band - a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, a clarinet player and an accordion player. Each their concert is a journey to different countries and eras, cultures and languages. With 'Meydeleh' Parfenov acts not only as a commentator, but performs a few songs himself. Especially he is good in performing the song of the Azerbaijani quartet 'Gaya' - 'Ey həyat, sən nə qəribəsən' ('Life, how beautiful you are') in Azerbaijani and Russian languages.
The 'Gaya' quartet (Arif Hajiyev, Rauf Babayev, Teymur Mirzoev, Lev Elisavetsky) was very popular in the USSR since the 1960s, performing both Western musical masterpieces, and Azerbaijani music. They have traveled all over the Soviet Union with constant sold out as part of the State Jazz Orchestra of the USSR under the leadership of Rauf Hajiyev. In 1966, at the All-Union competition for the best performance of Soviet songs they performed a competitive program, and while the jury was determining the winners, they played American jazz for another hour.
At the same time, the 'Gaya' quartet gave new life to the Azerbaijani folk music and songs of Azerbaijani composers, performing with a three-hour program ' Big City Lights', jointly created by the directors Mark Rozovsky and Yuli Gusman, as well as a costume designer Vyacheslav Zaitsev and a satirist Lyon Izmailov.
'Gaya' performed Azerbaijani folk songs, impressions of 'Orera', 'Pesnyary', 'Samotsvety', scenes from the 'Arshin Mal Alan, spicing it with colorful performances with a tea house, fights and theft of the bride. Their program also included the 'Chicago' band's song and the suite from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Jesus Christ was played by Rauf Babayev, Judas by Lev Elisavetsky, Magdalene by Galina Barinova.
