Heartbreak: how the main crash of all girls of the USSR Yura Shatunov lived, sang, loved and died

Yuri Shatunov is a legend for our country. His hits are known to people of all ages – children and the elderly. Not a single feast is complete without the songs “White Rose” or “Grey Night”.

We could have listened to this painfully familiar voice for many more years, but fate decided otherwise. On June 23, Yuri Shatunov died of a massive heart attack. He was only 48 years old. Still live and live!

Yuri Shatunov was born in the city of Kumertau in the south of the Republic of Bashkortostan. His parents Vasily Klimenko and Vera Shatunova soon got married: the girl was just 18 years old. The father was not interested in his son, so the boy received his mother’s surname and was raised by his grandparents from the cradle. When Yura was 4 years old, his parents divorced and his mother finally married her son.

But Shatunov’s childhood did not become happier because of this: his stepfather was an alcoholic, scandals were the order of the day, and little Yura ran away from home every now and then. At the age of 11, the boy became an orphan: his mother died, and in 1985 he was assigned to an orphanage in the village of Akbulak, and a year later he was transferred to boarding school No. 2 in the city of Orenburg.

At the boarding school, Yury was noticed by the head of the music circle, Sergei Kuznetsov. He offered Shatunov to become an interpreter of his songs: the guy was not satisfied with such an offer – Yura did not see himself in music, he preferred it to sports games such as hockey.

And yet, by the end of 1986, Yura still recorded the first songs, and the group “Tender May” (by the way, the name was invented spontaneously – the line was taken from the song “Summer”) with orphans in the composition began to “tour” local discos and music evenings.

The hits “White Roses”, “Grey Night”, “Well, What Are You” and “Melting Snow” soon followed. In 1988, Kuznetsov recorded his first album, and cassettes with songs were distributed through station kiosks.

So the tape came to the director of the then super popular Mirage group, Andrei Razin, and he was delighted with Yura’s voice. And then I saw the guy with my own eyes and decided to make him a star.

The plan worked: the group “Tender May” tore up all the charts and the girls went crazy with love. It is interesting that Shatunov himself did not care about this: he did not suffer from star disease and always kept his distance from the fans.

The first three years turned out to be the craziest: it seems that no other group experienced such popularity. 8 concerts a day, 40-60 thousand spectators each – can you imagine that?

The fame of “Tender May” began to decline only in 1991 – with the departure of Yuri Shatunov. Then – amazing thing – at the very top, the singer decided to educate himself while preparing a solo album. Titled “Here May Is Over”, the record was renamed “You Know” at some point, but never sold.

A little later, Shatunov returned to his first mentor, Sergei Kuznetsov, who helped him release his first solo albums. Of course, there was no question about the former popularity, but the fans were happy with the new songs of their favorite artist.

In the 1990s, Yuri also released new compositions, but hardly any of you will list them. At the same time, his concerts always gathered their audience.

Yuri Shatunov was not a heartthrob and a ladies’ man. Millions of girls were ready to do anything just to spend the night with him or to be called his girlfriend, but the singer was not interested.

Yuri married once and for life. In 2000, already living in Germany, he saw a girl on the street, he liked her and decided to meet her. The beauty’s name was Svetlana. It was love at first sight.

Despite the certainty that Svetlana is the one, Yuri was in no rush to get married. In 2006, they became parents to a son, Dennis, and after another 7 years to a daughter, Estella. The Shatunovs got married after the birth of their first child – January 12, 2007.

Yuri and Svetlana agreed on the shore: their personal lives should not be made public. Therefore, not much is known about their relationship – but it is clear that these two were happy together. As for the children, the couple also decided not to show them to the press, leaving Dennis and Estella to choose for themselves whether they want such popularity or not.

Yuri Shatunov did not leave music for a moment. In 2019, he released an album, continued touring but interrupted due to health problems, starred in social videos with Zoomers as Dani Milokhin, and participated in some TV programs.

The only thing that overshadowed his measured life were endless scandals with the producer of the Tender May group Andrei Razin. The former colleagues now and then met in court over the rights to the songs. By the way, Yury won the last trial, but Andrey was going to file an appeal.

He did not have time. On the night of June 23, 2022, something terrible happened. Yuri was resting with his friends, but around 11:00 p.m. he felt sick and an ambulance was called. The media published a video (and you can’t watch it without tears) in which friends transfer the artist from the car to an ambulance. Yuri can no longer move on his own and is breathing very heavily, gasping for air hungrily. Alas, the doctors will be powerless. After 20 minutes, Shatunov’s heart stops. The cause of death was a massive heart attack. The soloist of “Tender May” was only 48 years old.

For such a short but bright life, Shatunov became a real legend. Thanks to him, absolutely everyone in the countries of the former USSR knows that roses have defenseless thorns and why the night is gray again. Thank you for your kind, clear creativity, soft voice and warm lines. Rest in peace Yura!

1988 – “White Roses”
1988 – Autumn is slowly leaving
1989 – March 8
1989 – “Pink Evening”
1989 – “On the Roof”

1993 – You know
1994 – “Do You Remember”
1997 – “White Roses”
1997 – “Pink Evening”
1999 – “Diary”
2001 – “Remember May”
2002 – “Gray Night”
2003 – “Falling Leaves”
2004 – “If You Want … Don’t Be Afraid”
2006 – “Record My Voice”
2012 – “I believe …”
2018 – “Don’t Be Quiet”

2020 – “Thank You”
2020 – “I Can’t Stop”
2020 – “Snow sweeps the leaves”
2021 – “About White Roses”
2022 – Don’t argue with me

Photo: Persona Stars