Viktor Tsoi

Viktor Robertovich Tsoi (Russian: Ви́ктор Ро́бертович Цой; 21 June 1962 – 15 August 1990) was a Soviet singer and songwriter. He co-founded Kino, one of the most popular bands in the Soviet Union at its time.^[1]

Viktor Tsoi
Виктор Цой
Viktor Tsoi in 1986
Born	Viktor Robertovich Tsoi (1962-06-21)21 June 1962 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	15 August 1990(1990-08-15) (aged 28) Latvian SSR, Soviet Union
Cause of death	Car crash
Resting place	Bogoslovskoye Cemetery, Saint Petersburg
Occupations	Singer songwriter composer actor
Years active	1978–1990
Spouse	Marianna Tsoi ​ (m. 1985)​
Children	1
Musical career
Genres	Post-punk new wave gothic rock punk rock
Instruments	Vocals guitar bass guitar
Labels	AnTrop Melodiya

Life

Tsoi was born and raised in Leningrad. He started writing songs when he was a teenager.^[2] He made lots of music - ten albums in total. After Kino was in the 1987 Soviet film Assa, it became very popular. This lead to Tsoi having a leading role in the Kazakh new wave art film The Needle.^[3]

Russian stamp devoted to Viktor Tsoi, 1999

In 1990, after their large concert at the Luzhniki Stadium. Tsoi moved to Latvia with another member of Kino, Yuri Kasparyan to work on Kino's next album. Two months after the concert in the Luzhniki Stadium, Tsoi died in a car crash.^[4][5] Tsoi and his music are still widely popular.^[6][7][8]