However, Ilya “Ilyich” Prusikin not only became a musician, but also reached the heights that many dare not dream of. The group recently celebrated its 7th anniversary, they toured Russia, Europe and not only, have their own label, were awarded with the love of fans, tickets to Eurovision 2020 and a whole bunch of prizes, and all the songs of the Little Big group are 100% hits!
Ilya Prusikin, photo © iliyaprusikin
From the first interviews, Ilyich noted that he pursues the only goal - to bring his project to the world level and to prove to everyone that "the Russians are also cool". Today, the goal seems to be achieved - the photos of the Little Big band members are decorated with posters of the world's leading concert venues, and the scale of the project is truly amazing ... It's hard to believe, but it grew out of an April Fools' joke, the continuation of which was not planned at all.
In 2013, Ilya decided to joke - he posted video on YouTube where he collected all the stereotypes about life in Russia. The video “Every Day I'm Drinking” is filled with the frenzy of Russian reality, as foreigners imagine it - vodka, bear, balalaikas, earflaps, folk dances, ice-hole swimming and crazy drive made the impudent video that “shot”, according to artists, completely unexpectedly.
On the set of the clip “Every Day I’m Drinking”, photo © littlebigband
Ilya did not plan to make a project on its basis, but suddenly got an “answer” - the musicians were invited to perform at the opening act of Die Antwoord. For a month, friends literally recorded six songs, which on July 2, 2013 blew up the Moscow club A2.
The name of the group was also invented on the go - the height of the former members of the team Olimpia Ivleva and Anna Kast does not exceed 130 cm, and against their background Ilyich and Makarov looked boldly tall. Two guys and two girls, big and small - let Little Big be! So the artists decided seven years ago and perform under this name to this day, although the "small" members of Little Big left the group long ago.
Little Big concert in Moscow, December 2019, photo © littlebigband
Now on the account of the musicians - four full-length albums and an arsenal of clips, one more expressive. However, today the stupid, full of satire and drive creativity of Little Big has become less aggressive. “I'm awesomely kind now and don’t want to do things I’ve done before,” says Prusikin, who recently became dad. In contrast to the stage image, Ilyich leads a healthy lifestyle and cares about his family.
It seems that the artist is on the right track - Forbes reports that the collective's income has already exceeded one million US dollars. At the same time, the guys write the songs themselves, and the videos are shot with a permanent clip-maker Alina Pyazok, who made the very first video in general from scratch. “For “Every Day I’m Drinking” I took the last 15 thousand off my credit card, and the same amount someone gave. Continuing later in the same vein, we often wondered if we were doing it at all right. Today we see that we do!”, says Alina.
On the set of the clip «Go Bananas», photo © littlebigband
Artists work very hard. They give up to one and a half hundred concerts a year, write songs, shoot videos. With the song "Skibidi" the whole planet really lights up! The clip scored nearly 400 million views on YouTube, and the corporate dance became viral - even #SkibidiChallenge was launched on Instagram.
In the spring, the Russian group Little Big was supposed to represent Russia at Eurovision 2020. The video for the song “Uno” was uploaded to the YouTube channel of the contest on March 13, and in half a day it was watched 2.5 million times! In the video, Dmitry Krasilov danced with LB - a man in a blue jumpsuit, nicknamed Pukhlyash, just captivated the audience! However, the new idol of millions according to the rules of Eurovision could not perform at the competition ...
«Uno»
And then the incredible happened - the question was finally decided in favor of the “crazy Russians”! Alas, the happiness was short-lived, and the Eurovision was canceled for the first time in 65 years ... On this occasion, Dima is not tired of joking: “This is because of me. Until I was going to go, everything was fine! ”
However, everything is not so bad - an online concert will be held in May, at which all participants will perform the announced songs. And this means that the planet will still see the grandiose show Little Big, and the incendiary dances of Pukhlyash!
