Otava Yo


Otava Yo is a Russian folk rock band from Saint Petersburg, formed in 2003.
The band has performed in 30 countries, including Mexico, France, Estonia, China, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Poland, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Belgium, Norway, India, the United States, the UK, Italy, Denmark, Iran and Japan.

History

Alexey Belkin, Alexey Skosyrev, Dmitriy Shikhardin and Peter Sergeev used to do busking together on the streets of St. Petersburg for about 3 years. The positive feedback from the listeners inspired them to officially form a band in 2003. Of the initial members only Dmitriy had formal musical education, but the rest were self-taught. Initially the band was called Reelroadъ and they played The Pogues-styled Celtic punk, but later changed their name to Otava Yo and turned to Russian traditional music.
In 2005 they released their first studio album “Pod Aptekoj”, named after their favorite street performance spot by a homeopathic pharmacy on Nevsky Prospect. Four years later, in 2009, Otava Yo released their second studio album "Zhyli-byli", continuing into a musical direction they called "Russian beat".
The next Otava Yo's album “Rozhdestvo” of traditional Christmas songs released in 2011, marked a deviation from their characteristic musical direction, that they ultimately returned to on their 2013 album "Chto za pesni".
The band's breakthrough came with the video for the song “Sumetckaya”, featuring Russian fist fighters. In 2015 “Sumetckaya” reached the No. 1 position on World Music Network’s February Video Chart and had been viewed for more than 12 million times on YouTube, a number that reached 14 million in 2018, setting the record as the most watched music video by a Russian folk band.
On August 2018 Otava Yo announced that their next album "Lyubish li ty?" had entered the mixing and mastering stage. On September 30, 2018 the band released a video for the song "Kak na gorke, na gore" filmed at the Podporozhsky District in June from the upcoming album.

Members

Current Members
Past Members

Videography