How Laima Vaikule saved money on Pugacheva at the festival in Jurmala and angered the Ukrainians

The Vaikule festival Laima RendezVous Jūrmala has ended in Jurmala. There wasn’t enough money for Pugacheva’s performance, so musicians from the 80s, a transgender person from Eurovision, and fugitive Russian and Ukrainian stars sang. The latter were indignant that they had to share the stage with Muscovites.

How did the Vaikule festival take place?

“Nurse of the USSR” Laima Vaikule has once again gathered a “festival of Russophobes” – Laima RendezVous Jūrmala – an event named after itself, which takes place in Jurmala, Latvia. Again with a scandal: a number of Ukrainian performers refused to come to Latvia due to the fact that former Russian stars were supposed to sing on the same stage with them.

Like all previous years, the festival is called international. The organizers promised that this year 45 artists from 14 countries should take part in it. Indeed, the deeply retired British scene Londonbeat, as well as the winner of the last Eurovision Song Contest, the 24-year-old “non-binary person” Nemo, appeared on the stage of the Dzintari hall. This is a Swiss rapper and singer who plays violin, piano and drums, Nemo Mettler, who performed at the competition in women’s clothing.

The remaining participants were Russian-speaking immigrants from post-Soviet republics who performed under a variety of flags but supported Western values. At the same time, the backbone of the event, like all previous years, again turned out to be Ukrainians and fugitive Russians.

Hostess of the festival Laima Vaikule and its participants. In the bottom right corner are three black artists from Londonbeat. Their glory ended back in the 90s. It’s strange that there was no place for the Swiss Nemo, who performed in elegant skirts, here

Despite the fact that the latter ardently support Ukraine, and many of them will also donate to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, for Ukrainians even they still remain enemies. A wave of indignation arose in the media and social networks of Square: how can you sing on the same stage with Muscovites? A number of Ukrainian performers publicly announced their decision not to come to Vaikula.

Which of the runaway stars went to Vaikule

This year, the “good Russians” were represented at the festival by Russian foreign agents: Vaikule’s friend, whom she appointed as the festival’s headliner, Andrey Makarevich*, Ggroup “Bi-2”, Maxim Pokrovsky*, opera singer Maria Maksakova*.

They all hid their origins: on the posters Makarevich* and “Bi-2” were presented as musicians from Israel. Pokrovsky* is a singer from the USA, and Maksakova is Ukrainian.

The cost of tickets for one event within the festival ranged from 50–250 euros, depending on the place in the hall

Former Russian artist also appeared at the event Nikolai Trubachwho, like the opera singer, positioned himself as a Ukrainian and sang songs in Ukrainian on stage with Vaikule.

The trumpeter, who lived in Moscow for 32 years and made a career here, has not appeared on a wide stage in recent years, he sang in clubs, and sometimes was invited to music radio stations. After the beginning of the SVO, the artist left the country and since then he calls everything that happens here a madhouse. It seems that since then he has come to Russia only once – in the fall of 2022 for the funeral of his partner in the songs “Blue Moon” and “The Nutcracker” Boris Moiseev.

How Vaikule saved money on Pugacheva

At the festival there was also Alla Pugacheva. The 75-year-old Diva appeared in the concert hall in short shorts. The cameras caught her at the moment when she traditionally danced under the Ukrainian flag Verka Serduchka unexpectedly looked into the hall and said in surprise: “God! Alla Borisovna, hello!” Andrei Danilko (Serduchka’s real name) bowed to her from the waist, and after that, as Ukrainian media wrote, he took off his famous cap with a star and gave it to his Russian colleague.

Last year, Vaikule could boast of joint photos with Pugacheva. And this year her Instagram** is silent

The prima donna did not perform. In 2023, the Galkin*-Pugacheva couple sang “Yellow Leaves” at least from the spot. But this year they were not going to go on stage – they allegedly asked for 400 thousand euros for the performance for two, which Vaikule would hardly have paid for on tickets.

The math is simple: the festival lasts three days, this year tickets for each of the three concerts were sold in the range from 50 to 250 euros. The Dzintari hall has 2410 seats. With an average ticket price of 150 euros, revenue for each day is slightly more than 360 thousand euros. Or about a million euros for the entire festival. From here you should subtract the cost of renting the hall and fees to the performers. Paying more than a third of all revenue for a couple of Pugacheva’s songs, of course, is expensive.

How Vaikule makes money behind the scenes in Russia

Laima Vaikule, who has had a multimillion-dollar business in Russia since the 90s, continues to earn money in a country that she vehemently hates, despite all the statements that she has allegedly parted ways with her Russian partners.

At one time, the former Soviet pop star organized a cosmetics business in Latvia. It’s called Laimalux. Its branch, Laima-Lux Rus, soon appeared in Russia in the form of a joint venture, and now, judging by tax reports, it provides the lion’s share of all profits.

Two years have passed since the announcement of Vaikule’s exit from business in Russia, and the Unified State Register of Legal Entities still lists her Latvian company as the second owner of the joint venture

The founders of Vaikule’s Russian business are her Latvian company Laimalukss SIA and a Russian businessman Shiraz Mamedov. In August 2022, information appeared on the company’s official website that the Latvian company Laimalukss Latvia had allegedly completely withdrawn from Russian business and transferred all assets to Mamedov. However, until now, that is, for two years now, the Unified State Register of Legal Entities indicates that Mamedov in the joint venture owns 51% of the company, and Vaikule – 49%.

Over the past year, the company earned about 300 million rubles, but the company’s accounting showed a simply ridiculous net profit – only four thousand.