Russia: “RIP Muslim Magomayev, Soviet Superstar” · Global Voices
Veronica Khokhlova

Foreign Policy Association's Russia blog pays tribute to Muslim Magomayev, “the original Soviet mega-star” who “was many things: a quintessential dandy who also happened to be a People’s Artist of the USSR; a trained opera singer with a Sinatra’s showman touch; a brilliant scion of an family of artists and musicians in an ardently ‘class-less’ society; a globe trotting cosmopolitan performing at La Scala and to sell out crowds at the Paris Olympia whilst remaining a steadfast Soviet patriot who always came back; a consumate gentleman and a sex symbol in the officially sex-less Soviet Union; a ‘national treasure’ moving in the poshest echelons of Moscow society, without giving up his deep ties to his native Baku.”