R,I.P., Eduard Khil, Trololo Guy Extraordinaire

June 4, 2012 - Singer Eduard Khil, also known as "Mr. Trololo," has died. Khil (or Hill) was 77 years old when he died of complications caused by a stroke he had last month. He was well known as a singer in the Soviet Union (USSR) for decades, but virtually unknown elsewhere. Until, that is, he became a worldwide sensation thanks to YouTube when somebody posted a copy of him singing the "Trololo song." It was, initially, derisive. That quickly changed, however, to a weird kind of adoration.

I remember the first time I ever saw "Trololo." I was trolling Twitter and happened across a tweet that said, "Creepy Russian guy sings." That was about two years ago.

Trololo Original HD by Misael512223

How could I resist? I clicked and was taken to YouTube. "Eduard Hill," as he was often called, was indeed kind of creepy (by American music standards), but I was mesmerized. It was so damned weird that I couldn't resist watching it repeatedly, over and over again. I was instantly hooked. And, I admit, the Khil's trance-like enthusiasm and the tune itself made me smile. There is an unexplainable joy to the tune, a crazy goofy joy.

Millions of other people worldwide soon came to feel the same way about this odd song, and with the fascination with the song came geniune interest in the man who sang it.

The tune went viral very quickly in mid-2010, and suddenly hundreds of remixes popped up. The tune and the singer both became cultural memes, so much so that the TV show "Family Guy" paid homage to it (video, left).

The Moscow Times says that Eduard Khil was born on Sept. 4, 1934, in Smolensk, and achieved fame as a singer in the USSR, performing the songs “Loggers,” “The Moonstone” and “Blue City,” among others. More at The Moscow Times.

Goodnight and farewell, Mr. Khil. You will be missed, but the joy you brought to us will last forever.
"Пу́сть земля́ ему́ бу́дет пу́хом" ("May the earth be soft for him").