City Crazies: Rita Dakota. Singer Dakota: biography and personal life What hits did Rita Dakota write

Rita Dakota (real name - Margarita Gerasimovich) was born on March 9, 1990 in Minsk. The family lived in a poor area of ​​the city, but the girl's parents tried to ensure that their daughter did not feel lack of anything. As a child, the girl walked for a long time with the guys from the yard, preferring to play the Cossack robbers and other “boyish” games.

Young Dakota dreamed of creating music since childhood. She sang songs for neighbor grandmothers, secretly dreamed of becoming a famous composer. The girl wrote her first poem at the age of five. It was dedicated to toys and was called The Steadfast Little Soldier.

Rita Dakota on stage

The mother of the future singer noticed her daughter's talent, and when she was seven years old, she sent her to a music school. At the entrance exams, Rita sang the song "Moscow Evenings". After some thought, the girl was enrolled in piano lessons, and she studied vocals as a free student, joining the school choir. Musical education was easy; together with other children, Rita performed at international festivals and competitions.

At the age of eleven, Dakota became the author of her first song. She wrote her first serious composition, being inspired by the French film "Leon" and the composition "Shape of my heart" by the British musician Sting. She performed this song with a school friend at the graduation party in the fourth grade.

Already at the age of fourteen, Dakota was actively writing songs for her punk band and selling musical sketches to radio stations. In order for the girl and her business proposal to be taken seriously, she had to take one of the adults with her.

After school, Rita planned to enter the music school named after, and learned about the outstanding vocal teacher Gulnara Robertovna. The teacher helped to record demos of Dakota's songs in order to maintain copyright on them. At the same time, Rita became interested in graffiti and learned to draw. Then graffiti artists from Portugal visited Minsk, they saw the singer's drawings and described them as "dakotat". The girl liked this word so much that she made it her pseudonym.

The first steps in her creative biography were participation in the Belarusian talent competition "Star Stagecoach" in 2005. However, the project did not bring victory to the girl, since the jury of the competition accused the singer of lack of patriotism due to the performance of the song in English.

Such an event almost became an obstacle for Rita on the way to achieving her goal, but the girl continued to fight. She firmly decided to realize herself on stage.

The fateful moment for her will be participation in the large-scale Russian reality show "Star Factory". It is the television musical project "Star Factory" that opens up new opportunities for Rita.

"Star Factory"

In 2007, her active professional growth began. A 17-year-old girl came from Minsk to the Moscow casting of the next season of Star Factory simply because she wanted to hand over CDs with her music to famous Russian producers. The Belarusian girl did not at all dream of becoming one of the "manufacturers", but in the end she was taken to the project - she even became its finalist.

When the casting for the Star Factory-7 project was announced, the singer's friends offered her to sell or even donate several of her songs to the contestants for the sake of advertising. If not for the support of friends, Dakota would have abandoned such an idea. The judges favorably reacted to the singer, she went through all the tours and got into the television version of the project.

On the show, Dakota performed exclusively her own songs, and also wrote compositions for other participants. Her hit "Matches" was downloaded from the Internet more than a million times. A bright image, strong vocal abilities and interesting songs made Dakota one of the most memorable in the show.

After the "Factory" Dakota lacked money and the support of friends, she was disappointed in the Russian show business. Then the girl decided to end her career as a pop musician and engage exclusively in songwriting.

Creation

Gradually, Dakota disappears from the screens and creates an independent rock band Monroe. She does not hide her reason for leaving show business, declaring some kind of injustice:

“When I realized that this is a cruel, dishonest, “ostentatious” world, in which there is no place for music, but there are only gossip and deceit, I decided to leave the stage as an artist.”

In the future, the Monroe rock band became a regular participant in the Kubana and Invasion festivals. Together with the group, the girl toured the country, gathering full houses in different regions of the country.

The singer chose her image to match the music - rather bold and aggressive. Dreadlocks, bright makeup, tattoos - Dakota was even called Russian.

“The main thing is not our shell and musical tastes, but what we have inside. Inside, we are absolutely identical, ”Rita admits in an interview.

In 2015, Rita Dakota became a member of the Main Stage musical project on the Russia-1 TV channel. Her mentor on the project was a well-known producer who was in charge of the pop and pop-rock directions on the show. The singer performed exclusively her songs, which helped her reach the semi-finals of the competition.

However, the most popular for the performer is not participation in various competitions, but the track “Half a Person”, which was released in 2016. Immediately after the release of this composition, her fans were delighted with the new creation. It was this song that prompted Rita to work on new albums, audio recordings and videos.

In February 2017, information appeared in the media that Rita was seriously considering the possibility of leaving Russia. It can change from cold and overcast weather to a warmer oceanic climate in Bali. The famous singer really liked the rest at the popular resort. Online Instagram the girl has repeatedly published photos in a swimsuit on the beach of a beautiful island.

Rita Dakota realized that Bali has become her almost native place: there she not only enjoys her vacation, but lives fully.

Personal life

On the TV project "Star Factory-7" Rita Dakota met a young musician who will become her husband in the future. The love story of Rita and Sokolovsky deserves special attention. The couple met in 2007 at the Star Factory. Initially, they were good friends and even called each other "brother" and "sis".

At the seventh "Factory" Vlad Sokolovsky, together with creates a duet "BiS", which is becoming quite popular. The new team won first place in the charts of radio stations and famous music channels. Blue-eyed and blond Vlad became recognizable in Russian show business and gained a huge army of lovers in love. At that time, Rita and Vlad had absolutely nothing in common, since they did not take part in projects together, and also only occasionally crossed paths at large secular parties.

A few years later, at the birthday party of a mutual friend, the young people met. Years passed, Rita and Vlad changed noticeably, matured and looked at each other differently. The romance between them developed rapidly, and soon they completely amazed their fans with the news of the upcoming wedding.

In 2015, a man proposed to his beloved while on vacation in Bali. Rita, after not very long deliberation, agreed to become his wife, and her first photo in a wedding dress appeared on Instagram. On June 3, 2015, the couple got married in one of the capital's churches, and five days later, the lovers played a luxurious wedding.

In April 2017, the couple's friends revealed that Rita was pregnant. October 23, 2017 Rita Dakota and Vlad Sokolovsky became parents. in a Moscow maternity hospital, a girl named Mia. Young parents talked about their emotions on the Youtube channel.

Rita Dakota now

Rita and Vlad in 2018 continued to maintain their blog, in which they shared the details of their personal lives and creativity. The young family showed footage of rehearsals, friendly gatherings, travels, shared joyful events (whether it was paying off a mortgage or Mia's first successes). The Sokolovskys gave the impression of a successful and ideal family.

In August 2018, fans were shocked. Rita Dakota on her Instagram announced that she was divorcing Vlad because of his many betrayals from the wedding to the last days.

The girl expressed resentment due to the fact that a lot of mutual friends and relatives knew about her husband's betrayals. At the same time, many of them, including Sokolovsky's father, covered up Vlad's betrayals.

At the moment, the couple have already divorced. The divorce process was difficult to call simple, ahead of them was the division of property, since Vlad refused to voluntarily leave everything to his wife and daughter. Represented the interests of Dakota in court. According to Ekaterina, up to this point she had been performing the task of tacitly solving the problem. But the plans to “negotiate behind the scenes and peacefully” did not materialize. Gordon blamed Sokolovsky for this, noting that it was difficult to trust "the one who lied so much." As a result, the newly acquired apartment of the ex-spouses was rewritten to Mia, and Rita is no longer related to the once family business (the chain of grill bars "Brazier").

The loudest divorces of Russian show business

Many remember her as a member of the Star Factory. A 17-year-old girl on the air of the Russian First Channel shouted: "Don't eat meat! Listen to rock! Since then, much has changed in the life of Rita Dakota, however, like herself, but few people know about it. Now she lives in Moscow, writes songs for popular Russian artists and soundtracks for films and TV shows. And not so long ago, she gathered a group where she is a frontwoman, and with might and main she is trying to promote it herself. Onliner.by talked with Dakota about life at the Factory, about Russian show business, about how much her songs cost and why she doesn’t live in Minsk, but only comes here to visit.

My story of getting to the "Star Factory" is different from all other stories. As a rule, people who come there dream of getting into the Russian show business with all the ensuing consequences, so they are preparing seriously. I got there quite by accident. I came to try my hand not as a singer, but as an author. I had a goal: to get to Moscow producers and give them CDs with my songs. I wanted to sell them not for $200, as it was in Minsk, but for a higher price. To reach the cherished door, behind which big uncles like Kostya Meladze were sitting, I had to go through all the qualifying rounds as a participant.

I didn't have any prepared songs or costumes. As she slept in the car - in sneakers, in ripped jeans and without makeup - she came to the casting.

"Star Factory" was not a turning point in my life. She was not my goal, much less a dream. And the fact that I got there only helped me to gain a foothold in Moscow, to meet the people with whom I now work, and to show myself as an author who writes cool songs. This project allowed me to stay in the city, where there are more opportunities to realize my musical dreams.

As a person, the project did not change me in any way, but made it clear who I do not want to be. Having been in the center of events on the main Russian federal channel, I realized that I absolutely do not want this. Now I am very happy that I managed to leave show business and at the same time stay in music.

Having got to the "Factory" without connections, relatives and money, I understood that this was a gigantic happiness, so I did not count on any victory. At the end of the first week, it was clear who would win, who would take what place, who was a thug and who was not. When I signed the contract, I did not expect that everything would be so cynical and dishonest.

At the "Factory" I realized that everyone else. What you see on TV is not what is in reality. For example, I never admired Sofia Rotaru. It is clear that a 15-year-old girl who rides a skateboard loves other performers. And when I met her, I realized: she is amazing, so much kindness, love, energy and desire to help you come from her ...

Being small, I was sure that the musicians get high from what they do and sincerely believe in their songs. But it turned out that all the commercially successful teams that we see on Russian channels, as a rule, clearly know that this is a business, and they treat this very coldly and prudently. During the time at the "Factory" I have not met a single artist who would really and sincerely do what he wanted. They all have music they want to play but don't because they already have an image.

Now there is Rita Dakota - the vocalist of the rock band Monroe, and there is Rita Dakota - the songwriter of popular artists. I write music for everyone: from the "manufacturers" - Zara, Nastya Kochetkova, the finalists of the "Voice" project - and ending with top artists, such as Elka. One song was composed by the Belarusian singer Irina Iteira. Inna Afanasyeva calls me when she comes to Moscow, then I “walk” her [laughs - approx. Onliner.by] to your favorite places. But I don't write songs for her.

There were times when I sold movie soundtracks for a high price, and sometimes gave them away for free, when I really wanted to hear my music on the credits of a low-budget arthouse movie. And it's not about the money. Moscow businessmen taught me: "Rita, never sell something, sell time!" I can’t name a specific price, it all depends on the complexity of the work and how interested I am.

Eminent producers very often come to me with such conversations: “I have a friend of the oligarch, and his wife wants to sing. So let's make her an album for 70,000 euros." For uninteresting projects, I do not undertake any money.

I am often asked: “where did you disappear after Star Factory?”, “why don’t you use the popular Dakota brand?”, “why don’t you earn money on corporate parties when you have the opportunity?”, “why don’t you work with cult producers who called you? I want to explain to these people that Dakota is not a brand, it's my name. I don't sell potatoes [laughs - approx. Onliner.by] I am a musician and I want to make music. And if she gathers people, then I will not die of hunger. I don’t have a goal to sell a product, I have a different attitude towards music.

Monroe play "punk rock" or maybe pop punk or punk rock. I don't like labels, so I can't pinpoint exactly. All the musicians in my band were once members of the cult rock bands that once formed the punk rock scene in Russia: Cockroaches, Double Fault, Jolly Roger, Spitfire.

We started to make our music with the certainty that it would not pass the “format” theme. However, the first clip was taken by all the top Russian TV channels. We recorded the album in St. Petersburg at the cult studio "Dobrolet" with Andrey Alyakrinsky, where they made their recordings of "DDT", "Spleen", "Leningrad", Tequilajazzz. The record turned out to be completely unique for Russia. This is Western mainstream rock, only in Russian.

At the presentation in Moscow, people yelled songs from our album, which has not yet been released. For us it was not clear. Where?

The Monroe band is me. Her songs are me. If people don't like my music, then they don't like me.

I've always wanted to be in a band. I never had a dream to perform pop hits under a mini-disc in a chic dress with heels. In this case, I will be a more unhappy person than playing in a band, being less in demand and earning less.

Our "bilivers" [Members of the Monroe group call their fans that - these are people who believe in them - approx. Onliner.by] launched a whole war with one TV channel so that our video would remain in rotation, and the other two flew out. They went to the management with complaints, spammed all their mail, got to the program director and got their way.

Organizers of festivals and concerts call us and say almost the same thing: “God, what kind of fans do you have? These people are calling and shouting “bring Monroe!” or “when is the Monroe concert? Are tickets already on sale?“.

I do not come across the Belarusian music market at all and do not know it. But Russian today is changing a lot. Before, I could not even think that it would be possible to record a real punk song and shoot a video for it, which would be played on top music channels. Today it is possible! There are many groups in Moscow that gather 4,000 people at solo albums, they are not in the mass media at all, except for the Internet. I have had occasion to communicate with producers and managers of artists who appear on all federal channels and magazine covers, but they don’t have concerts. These people, whom everyone knows, collect 15 people for solo concerts with tickets.

If you travel around Belarus, you can hear rock bands on the radio, in Russia - no. There are two rock radio stations there: on Nashe Radio they play Russian rock of the nineties, and on Radio Maximum - 70% of Western music. There are no platforms for promoting such groups, so everyone is slowly promoting word of mouth on the Internet.

In Minsk, driving around the city infuriates me wildly. People move very slowly and create traffic jams where there would be the greenest road in Moscow. There are free roads in Minsk, green traffic lights, but everyone trudges like turtles. People in Moscow walk fast, drive fast, talk fast and eat fast food fast.

I am a night person, and it is important for me that at night I can do everything that I do during the day. This is impossible in Minsk! You can drink coffee in three establishments, it is unrealistic to put money on the phone, the kitchen in the establishments closes at ten in the evening, the last movie screening is at nine in the evening. In Moscow, even a manicure can be done at two in the morning.

In Minsk, all people are equally poor, everyone earns relatively the same money, and everyone has the same opportunities to go on vacation. There is no such thing as a Bentley driving, and next to it is a dirty "nine" with hungry grandparents. In Moscow, this is all the time. But it's dirty and everyone hates each other.

I don't believe in awards, awards, figurines, plates, covers and media - it's all husk. If people come to your concerts, then you are worth something. I don't make music for parties and show business, I make it for people.

Biography of Dakota

Dakota - biography

Gerasimovich Margarita, better known in show business as Dakota, was born in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on March 9, 1990. All her childhood, little Rita lost in “war, tanks and Cossack robbers” with the boys from the yard, leaving Barbie dolls lying under the bed, and in the evenings, together with all the same yard children, she gave “concerts” for grandmothers from her house, perched on the high porch of one of the entrances and singing ditties and songs from the repertoire of Natasha Koroleva and Kristina Orbakaite.

Rita's mother, noticing the musical gift of the child, namely: the ability to pure intonation, write poems and invent her own melodies, sent her to the music school No. 1 named after Alexandrovskaya for piano class.

Rita traveled all over Europe with the choir, and this choir repeatedly became the laureate of international competitions, the only world choir received the blessing of the Pope himself in the Vatican, and such people as the singer Bianca, one of the most successful pianists of our time Dmitry Vlasyuk and others became the natives of this choir celebrities. All the years of her studies, Rita was one of the best students. When the time came for the final exams, the girl became seriously ill, lay in the hospital for several weeks and was released from passing all the exams, offering to put all her "excellent" marks in the certificate. However, Rita did not agree with this, deciding that no one would dare to take away such an event from her, and it seemed to her that it was all dishonest. In the end, after two days of strumming on a children's synthesizer under a hospital bed, tearing up a certificate exempting from tests, Rita passed all the exams with excellent marks and received a red diploma in a career-oriented piano class.

At the age of 16, the future singer entered the Forte pop vocal studio, where many stars of the Belarusian show business studied.

In the summer of 2007, Margarita took part in the casting of "Star Factory-7".

The singer's talent is also recognized by such big names as Max Fadeev, Viktor Drobysh, talented composer and sound-maker Arkady Ukupnik. Also, many European and Western promoters who worked with such masters as Tina Turner, Pink, Whitney Hewston, The Doors became interested in Margarita's work, and the guys from the legendary Bad Boys Blue band became interested.

Now Dakota is actively working on her first solo album, writing songs for other artists (for example, Dakota is the author of two songs on the debut album of the BiS group: “I will find you” and “Mr. DJ”.

The singer is recording her first album, preparing for her debut video and going to enter GITIS. And on December 5, the artist's first solo concert took place, where she presented her two-hour life program.

« Rita- a girl with character. But, as a rule, she always hits the mark,” says (25) about his wife in our interview. And here you can not argue: do not be Rita Dakota(26) with character - how to get such success from her debut single, which blew up iTunes and YouTube(more than 2.7 million views) at the end of October last year?

“I don’t like to revel in victories for a long time”, – responds to statistics Rita, although he agrees: to finally go to the “singing authors” (“so, it turns out, now I need to call myself?”) Was the right decision.
Now Rita working on a new "bomb".

Top, Reebok; jacket, jeans, Mango

After the song took off on the charts, I have no choice: there will be an album (and more than one!). People believed me, supported me, I can't let them down. So I went back to the studio closet again.

I remember how my friends called me and shouted: “Hurrah! Track number one iTunes!"; "Hooray! We already have 2 million views in YouTube!» And I said: “Oh, you can call me back, I'm writing a song”.

Many people ask what is success "Half a Man", because my other songs did not shoot like that. But the absurdity of the situation is that "Half a Man"- indeed, my first solo work, and there were simply no “less successful” ones before it. On I sang "Matches", the composition became the most downloaded song of the entire television project from the first to the seventh season, according to "Wikipedia". And after that I went into the shadows and didn’t release anything solo anymore, there was no desire. Perhaps she remained in the field of view because she wrote songs for top artists ( Christmas tree(34),Loboda(34),(38),Anita Tsoi(46) and many others), soundtracks and even songs for Eurovision, they continued to talk about me, but only as an author and composer. So that "Half a Man" This is truly a solo debut.

I didn't expect anything. I just released the song and the video, by myself, without labels, producers and rotations, and quietly freaked out about what happened to the track next. They say that this has never happened before, so that the debut broke into the first lines of the charts and did not go down for so long. This proves that miracles happen if you do something sincerely and from the heart.

Like my favorite rapper said Oxxxymiron(32) in one of the battles, “it is embarrassing for a poet to call himself a poet, he is shy and timid; and if he overcomes himself, then you are the **** eternal child, ”and I agree one hundred percent. Let others call me a poet or a musician, and preferably posthumously. And who is more in me? Man and woman. But I'm still primarily a composer and songwriter..

It seems to me that there is absolutely nothing in me from that girl 10 years ago who performed at "Factory". If a person does not grow, does not develop, does not change his views on things, then he is a fool or unhappy, stuck in a certain period. But the same devotion to my work and faith in good and holy art remained in me.

I was born in Minsk, in the most ordinary working-class family. Mom was a kindergarten teacher, and dad was a recording engineer. My grandfather played a huge role in my upbringing. He instilled in me a wild desire to become a musician: I watched him play the piano, the guitar, and dreamed the same way. He died the day I left "Factory" which is also symbolic. As if he sent me to another world, and he went to his own. Therefore, in general, "Factory" is one nightmare for me.. But there I wrote a song "I knew everything"(which I performed on the project) dedicated to my grandfather, and people on the street still stop me and thank me for helping them get over the loss. Although I sang it only once.

Top, Reebok; trench coat, ZDDZ x Legrorn (Tsvetnoy Central Market)

All people have complexes in one way or another. For example, for a long time I felt like the most stupid person in my environment.. It seemed to me that I was not erudite or educated enough, did not sleep at night, swallowed hundreds of pages, tried to enter a serious university to the detriment of my career. At some point, I looked at myself from the outside and ... I felt sorry for myself. There is no limit to perfection. You will always be stupid on a par with someone more erudite and educated, but will he be happier? Show me an incredible beauty and I will show you someone prettier than her. But which of them is happier in marriage, harmonious and loved? Everything is relative.

I try to be as sincere as possible on social media. Post real photos without enlarging your lips on them and without reducing your waist, write posts filled with real thoughts, emotions. Answer people's questions, get in touch. I think everyone who knows me does not see the difference between an artist / blogger Rita Dakota and a girl Rita from their environment. The only thing you need to know about me before going for a rapprochement is that I watch "The Battle of Psychics" and dip cheese in strawberry jam. ( laughing.)

Jacket, Adidas; jacket, ZDDZ x Legrorn (Tsvetnoy Central Market)

But my lyrical hero (who appears on stage) still exists a little apart from my physical body, so to speak. I let him suffer, die, thump and worry in every possible way, even if I myself have been in the happiest marriage for several years. Some of my "painful" songs, including "Half a Man", were written before the meeting with Vlad, some stories are simply peeped in other people's dramas and experiences, while others are simply invented. I do not want to talk a lot about creativity, its themes and subtexts. If it doesn't speak for itself, it's lousy. I want to believe that mine - says ...

I am neither for nor against plastic surgery. I have a friend who is a plastic surgeon. She says she makes the world a better place, but I think she makes silicone boobs. ( laughing.) If you hate your nose and having it redone makes you feel a little better, go ahead and redo it.. Although it's not about him at all, it's obvious. But I would vote for a bill to ban plastic surgery under 30. I think at this age you are already smart enough and spiritually oriented to make conscious decisions of this kind. I'm sure the number of people who want to remake their nose/chest/lips would be drastically reduced.

A public person should not talk about his personal life if he does not want to. For example, Lisa, better known as Christmas tree, not like in an interview, even in songs he does not mention this. Only at concerts sometimes, smiling, she says that she is loved and happy. It's very cool, I think. This is her adult conscious choice, I respect and support it. Vlad and I had another choice - to speak openly about our love.. And these two paths cannot be considered the only true ones. As dad likes to say Vlada: "Everything in the world is the way you want it." I think that other people's discussions cannot affect the adult holistic relationship of two married and married people.

Top, shorts, Adidas jacket; pants

I don't know anything about any victims. It seems to me that the concepts of “victim”, “sacrifice”, “sacrifice” have nothing to do with love at all, any book on psychology for dummies will confirm this. For me, this is tantamount to questions like “how difficult is it to balance the need for food and going to the toilet?” Both are an integral part of the existence of any person. Relationships and work, as well as creativity, self-development, friendship and other important things are integral parts of our social and spiritual development.

Bomber, ZDDZ (Tsvetnoy Central Market); shorts, Reebok

Dreaming is very cool! I dream every day. I even have a visualization board. I believe in the power of sincere pure desire. It works, tested. There are specific goals, and all sorts of stupid dreams like "touch a whale" or "fly in a balloon."