Internet Sensation Eduard ‘Mr. Trololo’ Khil Dead at Age 77

Last week we brought you word that Eduard Khil ‘,aka Mr. Trololo,’ was gravely ill after suffering a stroke.

Now we’ve learned that Khil, whose 1976 Soviet TV performance of the song ‘I Am Glad, ‘Cause I’m Finally Returning Back Home’ became a unlikely viral video hit in late 2009, has died at age 77. The stroke was the cause of his death, according to his manager Tatyana Mamedova.

Khil was a big star in the Soviet Union during the ’60s and ’70s, however his music fell out of favor in the ’80s when Russians were exposed to more music from the West.

He was reportedly baffled when he first learned that ‘I Am Glad, ‘Cause I’m Finally Returning Back Home’ had become an internet hit, but quickly came to embrace the new attention.

What makes the song unique is that Khil sings sounds rather than words. One theory on why he does this is that the original lyrics glamorized American cowboys — something that Soviet censors wouldn’t allow.

However, the grandson of Arkady Ostrovsky, who wrote the song’s music, said that his grandfather gave Khil the tune without traditional words during a dispute with his regular lyricist over whether a song’s words or music are more important to its success.

Whatever the reason for the lack of words, Khil’s non-lexical vocable singing style was what made the song such a hit thirty-plus years later. Check out the tune below.