Saint Petersburg’s Leningrad (Ленинград) music band, one of the most popular teams in Russia, known for the wide use of obscene lexis in its songs, has presented its single whose name can be translated as “To drink in St. Petersburg” (in Russian, “В Питере – пить”). In spite of a great number of unprintable words prohibited in the press and public in Russia, the work has deserved good remarks from one of the city’s top officials.
The story begins with a manager fiercely reproaching and humiliating his colleagues. The most important component in his short angry speech can be translated as “f**k you”. He comes out of the office and buys two bottles of vodka. A sailsgirl at a grocery where the manager bought the bottle breaks downs with her boss using the same lexis and teams up with the manager.
Together they have a collision with a traffic police car. After one of the policemen in the car has been thrown down into the Fontanka river by gangsters, they all join their forces and start having fun all together.
Further they meet a taxi driver who joins their team. Another scene features a guide at the Russian museum telling uninterested children engrossed in their gadgets about the world famous Karl Briullov’s The Last day of Pompeii painting. Finally, seeing a total lack of interest, the guide says “F**k it all”, which you will hardly ever hear from a St. Petersburg guide in real life, and comes out of the museum to join the policeman who seconds before was riding a horse just opposite the museum’s windows.
All these actions are being accompanied by a singing telling us that it’s very well to sniff up in Moscow, Chelyabinsk is good for wigging, and St. Petersburg for drinking alcohol.
The group eventually dances at the Marsovo pole, an area near the Hermitage, and finishes their walking at the Palace square in the early morning.
This hymn of a middle class protest against daily work routine and bosses arbitrariness was heartily welcomed by Leningrad’s fans with their three million views on Youtube during first three days, and even by the city’s officials.
Unexpectedly St. Petersburg tourism committee chairman Viktor Kononov, former KGB-FSB officer, publicly noted that the Leningrad’s song may stimulate tourists to visit the city. “No matter what your attitude to the Leningrad’s working is, a wish to visit the city may arise”, he said. “You will not necessarily have to follow the song’s author recommendations, just make sure that the city has something to meet everyone’s taste”.
Though the recently appointed tourism chairman’s words provoked some jokes and negative comments from Internet users as the song contains derogatory lexicon, but reflected the song’s spirit anyway.
