Чи-Ли

Biography

Nicknamed Chi-Li (Чи-Ли), this group of six musicians and two dancers was initially formed by singers Sergey and Irina. The group’s dance rhythms are usually combined with rare-to-find contralto in commercial type of music. You might think that they sound similar to Cher, but Chi-Li’s pop is made in a different style and has a singer with a younger voice. The main vocalist, Irina, earned the nickname Chili when her friends discovered the history of her father. Her mother told that he was living...

Nicknamed Chi-Li (Чи-Ли), this group of six musicians and two dancers was initially formed by singers Sergey and Irina. The group’s dance rhythms are usually combined with rare-to-find contralto in commercial type of music. You might think that they sound similar to Cher, but Chi-Li’s pop is made in a different style and has a singer with a younger voice.

The main vocalist, Irina, earned the nickname Chili when her friends discovered the history of her father. Her mother told that he was living in Chile. It's still unknown whether story is true or it is a mother's desire for comforting a child without a father, but the singer is known by her full name only in the official documents.

Sergey, band's future composer and arranger, met Irina at the university student concert in Kaliningrad, Russian Federation. “It was an extremely incredible acquaintance, - says Sergey, - I was wearing my new leather pants thinking it was cool. And then this beautiful girl came next to me and pulled me by these pants. I thought it was a hint to close relationship, considering myself a superstar. But later I have found out that she just wanted to check if these were genuine leather pants”.

Soon, the future members of Chi-Li met again at the stage in that university. Sergey was rehearsing at the back of the stage while Irina was in the front with her fellows of one of KVN student teams (Wikipedia definition for KVN). When Sergey heard Irina talk, he has immediately proposed her to sing back-vocal. Without doubt, she accepted his proposal and they began their cooperation.

At the beginning, Sergey was the frontman of the duet. He was the composer, the arranger and the leader all-in-one, while Irina was only performing the back vocals. In the year 2002 they recorded their demo album and left for Moscow show business arena. Despite the fact that Irina and Sergey spent a month of performances in Moscow, labels and radio stations made no reaction. After coming back to Kaliningrad, the artists were invited to tour in Kraków, Poland for summer. After a while, they have performed in minor clubs and on festivals attended by up to 40 000 people. The artists weren’t receiving their feedback because their recordings were found below average.
Once, the ideas of making Irina the main vocalist and naming the duet after her nickname emerged. The ideas were so good that their track Снегом замело has occupied the third place in one of Poland's top FM radio station charts for a couple of weeks, winning over well-known t.A.T.u, while Chi-Li's track Преступление has gripped the order chart of the radio in Russia.

Today, the complete group on the scene are
Irina (Russian: Ирина Забияка)
Sergey (Russian: Сергей Карпов)
Misha, the guitarist (Russian: Михаил Калинин)
Sveta, the dance troop (Russian: Светлана Полякова)
Kroha, the dance troop (Russian: Наталья Крошкина)
Ivan, the keyboardist (Russian: Иван Новиков)
Taras, the bass guitarist (Russian: Тарас)
Maksim, the drummer (Russian: Максим)
...
The group's official site is http://www.chi-li.ru. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.