James linked to this.
Fun for those of us about my age, who knew only the Mary Hopkins version. I had thought until now that the song was from the 1970's written to be evocative of earlier, and clearly European experiences. I had thought France, because of the accordion. (Was there an accordion?) Well, think is clearly too generous a word. I had that impression, that is all. My wife thought Eastern European, but also thought it was more modern.
I note again that Eastern European children seem to embrace traditional songs and dances more than American children who seek to distance themselves. The judges are rather obviously drawn from the cool kids in the entertainment biz there. They are stirred, they love it. I had thought that was Romania and the other smaller countries, whose nationalism was suppressed by the Soviets, or whose independence was more recent, such as Norway. Yet this is Russian. Were folksongs and dances suppressed in Russia?
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I had no idea "Those Were the Days" was a Russian song. Puts a different twist on "Back in the USSR," which was also from 1968. But what kind of twist, I don't know.
Students- including university- in Argentina were also more interested in traditional music- both folk and tango. Kids singing tango songs on TV was fairly common. But not many could dance tango.
More Russian children performing folk music:Kalinka in Kaliningrad.
Kalinka Flashmob in Kaliningrad
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