12/14/2010, 3:00 pm
Putin Sings Blueberry Hill for Charity
~
NONPROFIT NEWSWIRE wrote:Boy, that Vladimir Putin is such a card, the life of the party, hey Vlad, get that lampshade off your head, you wild and crazy Prime Minister, you! While serving as a KGB officer charged with taking on political dissent in the old Soviet Union, Putin must have picked up a taste for the music of Fats Domino.
At an event described by the Moscow News as a "charity gig in St. Petersburg in front of a star-studded audience," Putin performed "Blueberry Hill" accompanying himself on the Piano. According to the News, "The glamorous audience thanked Putin for his efforts with a standing ovation." Way to go, Vlad!
The fundraiser, with tickets reportedly going for $15,000, at St. Petersburg's Ice Arena was to help cancer centers buy equipment and medicine. Joining Putin were several Hollywood types, including Kevin Costner who reportedly performed a country song, Sharon Stone, Mickey Rourke, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, and Vincent Kassel.
The Moscow News wrote:Love and spies
When he was called onstage by one of the presenters, Vladimir Putin objected a little before agreeing to sing a note or two.
“Like the vast majority of people, I cannot sing or play, but I love doing it. You will have to endure,” Putin warned the famous guests before taking the stage, RIA Novosti reported.
He played the Russian song Where the Motherland Begins on piano, a song he said he sang with Anna Chapman and her spying colleagues soon after they returned to Russia.
Putin then sang Blueberry Hill with a jazz orchestra. The latter song was made famous by artists as Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, and many others. It may have been one of the songs from the PM's English lessons, as he described learning the language through song in his recent Larry King interview on CNN.
The glamorous audience thanked Putin for his efforts with a standing ovation.








