Background and career
Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina (Russian: Людми́ла Гео́ргиевна Зы́кина; 10 June 1929 – 1 July 2009) was a national folk singer of Russia.
She was born in Moscow and joined the Pyatnitsky Choir in 1947. Her surname is derived from the Russian word for "loud" ("зычный"). Beginning in 1960 she performed solo. She befriended Ekaterina Furtseva, the powerful Minister of Culture of the Soviet Union, and was reputed to be a favourite singer of Leonid Brezhnev. It is known she was a particular favourite of both Kim Il-sung and his son Kim Jong-il, performing in Pyongyang six times at the invitation of the Kims. It was also reported that Kim Jong-il was so fond of Zykina that he invited her to Pyongyang in 2008 in hopes that her performance would help him recover from illness. Olga Voronets was considered Zykina's main rival.
Among Zykina's many honors were the Lenin Prize (1970) and Order of Lenin (1979) as well as the titles of People's Artist of the USSR (1973) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1987). According to Dmitri Shostakovich, Zykina was "more than a brilliant interpreter, she was a coauthor, co-creator of composers".
Her signature songs include Techot Volga and Orenburgskii platok. The asteroid 4879 Zykina is named after her.
