Мираж

Soviet/Russian pop group from Moscow, active since 1986. Founded by Andrey Lityagin and Valery Sokolov. Descends from the group "Зона Активности".

The group is known to have had many soloists during various times, most of them performing to the vocals of Margarita Sukhankina and Natalia Gulkina. The music is in the Eurodisco style and, especially in the 1980s, was inspired from groups such as Modern Talking or Bad Boys Blue.

In 1986/87, the first album "Звезды нас ждут" (The Stars Await Us) was recorded together with the vocalists Margarita Sukhankina and Natalia Gulkina. In March 1987, the album was released and began to circulate on reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes through the Soviet Union. Afterwards, a concert line-up was formed with the soloists Svetlana Razina and Natalia Gulkina, who performed to the studio recordings (non-live vocals). During that time, a "hype" came up and the group began to tour through the Soviet Union.

In 1988, recording sessions for the second album "Снова вместе" (Together Again) began. It was decided to use Margarita Sukhankina's vocals for that album, what led Natalia Gulkina to leave the collective. She founded the group Звёзды. She was replaced with Natalia Vetlitskaya. Soon Svetlana Razina also quit and founded her collective Фея. During that time, the guitarist Alexey Gorbashov joined the group and became a symbol of recognition for Mirage. After some time as the only soloist, Natalia Vetlitskaya left the collective. Tatyana Ovsienko, a customier working for the group, was sent on stage and developed to the figurehead of the collective. Irina Saltykova was engaged as a second soloist and quit in 1989.

In late 1990, Ovsienko was replaced with Ekaterina Boldysheva. The group transformed into a live performing collective and toured through the former Soviet Union states and later through Europe.

By 1999, a new line-up was formed. Later known as Mirage Junior (Мираж Junior), three young women performed to the vocals of Sukhankina and later to their own recordings.

In 2005, Lityagin engaged Gulkina and Sukhankina as official soloists. During that time, a second "hype" came up. The group began to perform in TV shows regularly, visited talk shows and had many concerts. In late 2010, Gulkina left the group due to continually disagreements with Sukhankina. Svetlana Razina rejoined the group for some time in 2011 and left again, also due to disagreements with Sukhankina. Sukhankina stayed as the only soloist until 2016. She became replaced with the collective of Ekaterina Boldysheva (including the well-known guitarist Alexey Gorbashov), who is currently the only collective legally allowed to call themselves "Мираж".

Since 2016, the official band members are:
Ekaterina Boldysheva (Екатерина Болдышева) - vocals, keyboards
Alexey Gorbashov (Алексей Горбашов) - guitars, back-vocals
Andrey Grishin (Андрей Гришин) - drums
Sergey Krylov (Сергей Крылов) - keyboards

Former soloists of the project:
Svetlana Razina (1987-1988, 2011), Natalia Gulkina (1987-1988, 2005-2011), Inna Smirnova (1988), Natalia Vetlitskaya (1988), Tatyana Ovsienko (1988-1990), Irina Saltykova (1988-1989), Ekaterina Boldysheva (1991-1999, since 2016), Margarita Sukhankina (2005-2016).