1989. The music video for "Belye rozy" (White Roses) airs on the TV programme Utrennyaya pochta (Morning Post) on Central Television - and within months Laskovyy Mai becomes a national sensation. Twenty years later, in 2009, a biographical film "Laskovyy Mai" will reignite interest in the songs. "Laskovyy mai cover" is a search query that lives steadily in Wordstat: 1,189 impressions per month, while the related "Shatunov cover" gets 2,667. Over thirty-plus years the group's songs have been covered by pop singers, Polish and Ukrainian groups, rappers and rock bands. Let's break down which songs get covered most - and why.
The repertoire: who wrote what
Nearly all the Laskovyy Mai hits that survived into the cover era were written by one man - Sergei Kuznetsov. Born 6 January 1964 in Mednogorsk, Orenburg region. He ran a music club at Orenburg Boarding School No. 2; together with bassist Vyacheslav Ponomaryov he found 13-year-old Yura Shatunov. The group was founded on 6 December 1986. Kuznetsov wrote "Belye rozy", "Sedaya noch", "Rozovy vecher" (Pink Evening), "Nu chto zhe ty", "Leto" (Summer), "Tayushchiy sneg" (Melting Snow), "Medlenno ukhodit osen" (Slowly Autumn Leaves), "Glupye snezhinki" (Silly Snowflakes).
Kuznetsov left the group on 7 March 1989 - due to a conflict with producer Andrei Razin. Several songs Kuznetsov wrote for his next group, "Mama", were appropriated by Razin for Laskovyy Mai and re-sung by Shatunov: "Vzroslye", "Rozovy vecher", "Mesyats iyul", "Ty prosto byl", "Koncheno vsyo", "Bezdomnyy pyos", "Medlenno ukhodit osen". This is an important fact for the cover topic: the original author and first performer are in some cases not Shatunov and not even Laskovyy Mai.
"Belye rozy": the most covered song
"Belye rozy" is the undisputed leader in number of covers. Music and lyrics by Sergei Kuznetsov, written in 1986. The album "Belye rozy" came out in 1988; a 7-inch vinyl single on the Melodiya label (catalogue S62 28083 003) in 1989. Side A - "Belye rozy", side B - "Sedaya noch".
- Sergei Minaev and Vladimir Markin - a parody called "Belye kozy" (White Goats), first performed on the TV programme "50/50". In 2002 the duo reprised the number at the first "Diskoteka 80-kh" festival. Parody is a separate cover genre: the melody stays, the lyrics are inverted. "White goats, white goats, defenceless horns…"
- Mikhail Shufutinsky - an estrada cover of "Belye rozy". Shufutinsky is a chanson and estrada singer, and his version shifts the song into a different vocal register: an adult male voice instead of a teenager's.
- Natasha Urbanska - a Polish singer who performed "Belye rozy" at a New Year's concert in 2008, broadcast on two central Polish TV channels. The song had been popular in Poland since the late 1980s.
- Group "TiK" - a Ukrainian ensemble that released a Ukrainian-language version, "Bili trojandy", in July 2008. It appeared on the album "Tykhiy". Language transfer is a distinct cover type: melody and harmony stay, the lyrics are translated.
- Group "Steklovata" - a project created by Sergei Kuznetsov himself in 1999. The singers were Denis Belikin and Artur Yeremeyev. "Steklovata" went viral with a video for the song "Novyy god" (New Year), but their repertoire also included Kuznetsov's Laskovyy Mai songs.
- Dima Bilan - the song "Pro belye rozy" (About White Roses), released 24 May 2019 as a single from the album "Perezagruzka" (Reboot). The lyrics reference not only "Belye rozy" but other late-1980s and early-1990s hits. Later it was covered by Yura Shatunov himself - a rare case of the original performer covering a cover of his own song.
- Andrei Razin - sings "Belye rozy" in Polish at concerts of the revived Laskovyy Mai.
The group "Serebryanaya svadba" (Silver Wedding) uses a musical phrase from "Belye rozy" in one of their compositions - not a cover but a quotation: a fragment of the melody embedded in another song.
"Sedaya noch": second most popular
"Sedaya noch" is the second most covered track. Also written by Kuznetsov, it appeared on the album "Belye rozy" (1988) as the longest track - 6:14. The full history and a breakdown of its covers are in the separate article; here is a summary.
- "Iskusstvennoe dykhanie" (1996) - rave remixes of ten Laskovyy Mai hits, including "Sedaya noch". The remixes were done by E. Rodionov (solaris station) and V. Afanasyev (C&M Records). Technically not a cover but a remix: work with the source recording.
- Negativ feat. Tati (2009) - a rap version for the soundtrack of the film "Laskovyy Mai". The chorus melody is preserved, the beat replaced with hip-hop.
- ROCK PRIVET (2022) - a rock cover with a guitar arrangement.
- AI cover "Silver Night" (April 2026) - a generated Kanye West voice on an English-language text. It topped the global Shazam chart.
You can hear the original "Sedaya noch" on the track page in the Disco Magic catalogue.
"Rozovy vecher": a song from the group "Mama"
"Rozovy vecher" is the third most recognisable Laskovyy Mai hit, and it has the most tangled biography. Written by Sergei Kuznetsov. The song was originally titled "Rozovy zakat" (Pink Sunset). It appeared on the group's sixth magnetic-tape album, released in April 1989 - after Kuznetsov had already left Laskovyy Mai on 7 March 1989. The album was recorded with Shatunov's vocals over phonogram arrangements Kuznetsov had made before his departure.
Kuznetsov maintained that "Rozovy vecher" and several other songs were written for his group "Mama", but Razin appropriated them for Laskovyy Mai. This makes "Rozovy vecher" a case where the first performer and the "canonical" performer are different people, though the author is the same. There are fewer covers of "Rozovy vecher" than of "Belye rozy" or "Sedaya noch" - but the song remains in the repertoire of the revived Laskovyy Mai and at Shatunov's solo concerts.
Doubles and phonogram: the "first covers"
The peculiar thing about Laskovyy Mai is that the first "covers" of its songs appeared before real covers did. Andrei Razin, having become the group's leader in 1988, created several fake line-ups under the banner "Studio Laskovyy Mai" - they toured the country to Shatunov's backing track. At one point several ensembles travelled the USSR simultaneously, each performing as "Laskovyy Mai". Razin later explained this by saying he had been the first producer of the group Mirazh and had invented the format of touring multiple line-ups to a single phonogram.
Technically this is not a cover - the same recording, a different "performer" on stage. But the phenomenon set a pattern: Laskovyy Mai songs were heard everywhere, even if Shatunov was not on stage. From 28 December 1989 to 10 January 1990 the real Laskovyy Mai gave 13 sold-out solo concerts at the Olimpiysky sports complex in Moscow. In other cities the number of concerts reached eight a day - and not all of them were performed by Shatunov.
Why exactly these three songs
"Belye rozy", "Sedaya noch" and "Rozovy vecher" get covered more than the rest - and not by chance. All three share features that make a song convenient for re-recording:
- Simple harmonic foundation - a minor key, a few chords, a repeating progression. The cover artist does not need to rebuild the harmony, just change the arrangement.
- Recognisable melodic hook - a chorus heard from the first seconds. Without a recognisable hook a cover loses its point: the listener does not understand what song it is.
- Tempo that allows restructuring - the originals are slow and lyrical, leaving room to speed up (eurodance, rave) or slow down (rock ballad).
- Lyrics that work in another language - "Belye rozy" and "Sedaya noch" were translated into Polish and Ukrainian without losing meaning, because the imagery is universal: night, flowers, parting.
For more on how covers of Russian songs change the arrangement - with concrete examples from the catalogue - see the overview of Soviet songs in the italo-disco style.
Kuznetsov and his studio projects
After leaving Laskovyy Mai, Sergei Kuznetsov created a series of groups, each working with teenage voices and the same synthesizer sound. "Chernila dlya 5-go klassa" (Ink for the 5th Grade, 1992-2003) with singer Igor Veryaskin - songs "Ya tebe obyavlyayu voynu", "Pismo", "Dran". "Steklovata" (1999-2005) - Denis Belikin and Artur Yeremeyev; the video for "Novyy god" went viral on the internet. These projects are not covers of Laskovyy Mai but a development of the same handwriting by the same author.
Kuznetsov died on 7 November 2022 in Orenburg, 137 days after Shatunov (23 June 2022). In the last years of their lives they reconciled: Shatunov took Kuznetsov's new songs, and at one concert said that Laskovyy Mai was only Kuznetsov and Shatunov. For more on how Russian synth-pop inherited the aesthetics of European electronic disco, see the article on Russian synth-pop.
Shatunov's attitude to covers
Shatunov's keyboardist Igor Marks told the publication "Abzats" that Shatunov did not like it when his songs were covered. According to Marks, other versions were "purely for hype, to somehow make something, redo it and rope in a foreign artist". He was talking about the AI cover with Kanye West, but the attitude, according to Marks, extended to all outside interpretations.
Detail: Dima Bilan released "Pro belye rozy" in 2019 - and Shatunov covered it himself. A rare case of the original performer covering a cover of his own hit.
This did not stop the flow of covers - and probably could not have. Laskovyy Mai songs are written to be easily recognised and easily re-recorded: the melody works separately from the arrangement, the lyrics separately from the melody. You can hear the Disco Magic eurodance cover in the breakdown of the "Sedaya noch" remix. Each new generation finds its own way to translate them into its register: parody in 1990, rave in 1996, hip-hop in 2009, rock in 2022, AI in 2026. The song stays; the language changes.