Aida Vedishcheva

Early life

Aida Vedisheva was born in Kazan (administrative center of Tatar ASSR) in the doctor's family of scientist, professor of dentistry Solomon Weiss and surgeon Elena Emelyanova, who arrived from Kiev just before World War II. In 1951, the Ministry of Health offered professor Weiss to open faculty of therapeutic dentistry in Irkutsk, Siberia. There, Vedisheva finished her School and Music School.

Afterwards, (by her parents' request) she enrolled into the Pedagogical Institute of the foreign languages, where she studied both the German and English languages and at the same time she was performing in the student theater of the musical comedy. Upon graduating from the institute, Vedisheva left for Moscow, to fulfill her dream of becoming an actress-singer. She tried to enroll into the Supreme Theatrical Institute of Shchepkin but failed. After that, she began her singing career due to her strong and beautiful voice.

Music career

Aida Vedisheva began her singing performance career in the early 1960s, in Orel State Philharmonic Society. Vedisheva sang in the famous jazz orchestras of Oleg Lundstrem and later of Leonid Utёsov orchestras. From 1966 on, she was performing along with the "Meloton" ensemble as well as the Vocal-instrumental ensemble (VIE) "Blue Guitars" led by Igor Granov. The same year (1966) Vedisheva became a laureate of the First "All-Union Competition of Soviet Song". She achieved the national recognition after singing "Song about bears" in 1967 for the movie Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (seven and a half million records were sold). The song from the movie-musical "Red, blue, green" (1967). In 1968, for the song "Geese, geese" ("Gusi, gusi") she received a diploma at the Sopot International song festival (the Polish Baltic Sea coast). That was followed by such songs/movie soundtracks as "Volcano of desires" ("Help me") for the movie The Diamond Arm (1968), the soundtrack for the movie "White Piano" with the song "I'll wait for you", "The first spring". With the song "Comrade-Friend" (1970)Vedisheva won the 1st prize on the competition at the Moscow radio station "Youth". The record of this song was sold by millions by the record firm "Melodia" and became the hymn of youth of 1970's. The next hit from Aida came in (1972), soundtrack "Forest deer" from the movie Way to go Nastia!". These popular songs of Ms. Vedisheva has been sold by firm "Melodia" in circulation of 30 millions copies.

Despite her great success among the listeners, she met numerous obstacles from the Soviet officials. They did not like her creativity, her new ideas which she brought to the show-business and because of her love of freedom in Art. Among such obstacles there were cases when her name not making into movies' credits, prohibition of concert tours abroad, even cancellation of concerts, cold receptions on television, erased tapes with her recordings on the radio. For example, her song "Forest deer" was recognized as the Song of the Year, but on the television instead of Aida it was performed by Loktev ensemble. From the mid-1970s on, Vedisheva's name disappeared from the credits of some movies and cartoons. In 1980 she finally left with her mother and son to the United States, New York. She exchanged her celebrity status for one precious reality - Freedom!

In New York, Vedisheva had to start her singing career from the ground up. She enrolled into Brooklyn College, taking course of theater program, where she studied American history of Hollywood, Broadway, cinematography and dance. At first, Vedisheva resided in New York City, then she moved to Los Angeles. In the USA she was able to receive recognition, creating her own theatrical One Woman Show, performing at Carnegie Recital Hall, Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center and other venues under the pseudonym "Amazing Aida" (that's how she was called by the press of Miami, Florida). At that time her repertoire included: numbers from the popular Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies as well as the great hits of French composer Michel Legrand, her Russian hits, as well as Jewish folk songs.

In the beginning of the 1990s, Aida Vedisheva was diagnosed with stage III cancer. Despite doctors' precautions, Vedisheva insisted on her surgery and went through chemotherapy - treatments to which the disease yielded.^[1]

In 1998 Vedisheva put on the show Miss Liberty for the new millennium. After the September 11 attacks she wrote the musical "Masterpiece and the singing Liberty" and dedicated it to the Statue of Liberty. The musical was performed on Broadway in 2007.^[1]

In 1985 she moved to Los Angeles, California. In 2001 her biography was included in the Historical Book "Who is Who in Russian Speaking California", Copyright 2001 American Russian Business Council, Control Number 2002100217.

In movies

• White piano — Road Song (music А. Zatsepin, words О. Gadjikasimov)
• White piano — First Spring (music А. Zatsepin, words О. Gadjikasimov)
• White piano — Song about Dushanbe (music А. Zatsepin, words О. Gadjikasimov)
• Way to go Nastia! — Forest deer (music Ye. Krylatov, words Yu. Entin)
• Kidnapping, Caucasian Style — A small song about bears (music А. Zatsepin, words L. Derbenev)
• The Diamond Arm — Help me (music А. Zatsepin, words L. Derbenev)^[2]

In cartoons

• Umka — Bear-mama lullaby (music Ye. Krylatov, words Yu. Yakovlev)
• Katerok — Chunga-changa (music V. Shainsky, words Yu. Entin)