Invited to the sauna. The star of the TV series "Coffee with Cardamom" for the first time told how she auditioned for "VIA Gra"

The popular actress Olena Lavreniuk ("Coffee with Cardamom," "Dzidzio Kontrabass," "11 Children from Morshyn," "Mountain Woman: At War") has revealed for the first time that she auditioned for the "VIA Gra" band as a student and was shocked by the offer she received from the band's management.

The actress spoke about this in an interview with OBOZ.UA. Olena Lavreniuk recalls that at first her photo was shown to Konstantin Meladze, and then a meeting was scheduled in Kyiv, which for some reason took place not in the company's office, but in a car.

"I've never talked about this publicly before," says Lavreniuk. "The fact is that my mother owns a small hotel and restaurant near Lviv. And they often put artistic groups there. And my mother, because she was very proud of me, hung my photos everywhere. And one of the managers of "VIA Gra" saw me. They were just looking for a third singer for the group, and it was, as I remember now, after the song "Attempt Number Five" was released. This manager took my photos and showed them to Konstantin Meladze. And I was invited to a casting call in Kyiv."

"I arrived. For some reason, the meeting took place in a car," the actress continues. "They asked me if I could dance and sing. I answered that yes. Then they asked me where I studied. And that was it. In the evening I had a train back home. But the manager hinted that I should stay. He asked me in a veiled way, but everything was clear: would I like to go to the sauna with them? I categorically refused and rushed to the train station."

Earlier, the singer SoloKha admitted in an interview with OBOZ.UA that she had also tried out for the band as a soloist. She was shocked by the offer of Dmytro Kostiuk, one of the band's producers: "It was one of the auditions – once a year or once every six months, they selected girls. As a rule, if you want to get married successfully, go to "VIA Gra." At that time, I was asked if I was ready to work not on the stage, but somewhere a la a sauna. And whether I was ready to accept the attention of men. That is, it was a straightforward question, veiled in very specific terms. I was 18 or 19 years old. What could I say if I only became a woman at 18? For me, there is only one man for life. I had such thoughts at the time."

In an interview with OBOZ.UA, Aliona Vinnytska, the first lead singer of "VIA Gra," told how Konstantin Meladze took revenge on her for leaving the group: "He was always very afraid that someone who left would succeed in free swimming. He wanted to show that we were nothing without him. By the way, we played on this in the song "Dolls." It's about him there. And of course, he knows about it."

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