Soviet Estrada

Soviet Estrada is the state-organised variety song of the Soviet Union, performed on the estrada (variety stage) by officially approved solo singers and vocal-instrumental ensembles. Working within the monopoly of the #Melodiya# label and state concert organisations, its performers delivered composed, orchestrated songs about love, work, war memory and Soviet life, in styles ranging from wartime lyric song to the soft rock of the VIA ensembles. Figures such as *Alla Pugacheva*, *Muslim Magomayev*, *Sofia Rotaru* and the Belarusian ensemble *Pesnyary* reached audiences in the tens of millions, making estrada the mainstream popular music of the USSR from the 1950s to the 1980s.