So Long, 'Mr. Trololo'
So Long, 'Mr. Trololo' – The unsuspecting internet sensation, Russian singer Eduard Khil, passed away last month at the age of 77. Originally trained as an opera singer, he had a series of pop hits in the Soviet Union in the '60s and '70s. His 1976 performance of the American cowboy song "I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home" was turned into a 'non-lexical vocable' – no words, just scatting syllables (and in Khil's case, laughing and cowboy-style yipping) because the lyrics were banned at the time. Tape of the appearance on Soviet TV went viral on YouTube in 2009. Since then it has had over 14 million hits. Now the song is simply know as 'Trololo,' which somewhat describes the sound of Khil's accented "La la la's." –EG