Often, artists and musicians do not immediately come to their profession, they find a vocation. So Andrei Kostenko, before becoming a member of the Nancy group, studied at a medical school, planned to help people improve their failing health.
Andrey Kostenko was born on the Iturup island, which is located in the Kuril Islands, in 1971. The father of the future musician was a helicopter pilot, and they often moved from place to place. The craving for music manifested itself in him from early childhood, and after the family moved to the city of Kramatorsk, he entered a music school. I studied with pleasure, so I went further - to the music school. And then he entered the medical school in the city of Konstantinovka.
It was at this time that he began rehearsing with a musical group at the local Palace of Culture. And within these walls there was a happy meeting with Anatoly Bondarenko, who was already an experienced musician.
The beginning of a musical career
Together with Anatoly Bondarenko, they will create the Nancy group. But this will be a little later, but for now, Andrei, as a talented organizer, creates his own group and tries to try himself in different musical genres.
Unfortunately, the group broke up, and then Andrey joined the Bondarenko collective as the second soloist and keyboard player. At first this group was called "Hobby". For the local band, the name was suitable, but the musicians had big ambitions, and they began to look for a more suitable name.
Oddly enough, the name for the group was helped by either the witch or the witch. The musicians gave her three names to choose from, and she pointed to "Nancy." This is the name of a girl with whom Anatoly Bondarenko was familiar in early youth and with whom he lost contact when she left for America.
By 1992, the group "Nancy" was already quite famous, and the musicians decided to record their first album, which was called "Smoke from menthol cigarettes". It was this song that later brought the author nationwide fame. And the group toured the regions and planned to record new albums.
This song is still often heard on the radio, and in 1996 a video was shot for it. And what is remarkable - Anatoly Bondarenko wrote the song "Smoke of Cigarettes with Menthol" for ten years, refining it to perfection. And Kostenko masterly performs the keyboard part in it.
Hard times
In the late nineties, it so happened that the group lost the rights to the main part of the repertoire - the recording studios became the copyright holders due to legal subtleties. The band members lost their earnings, and new songs still needed to be written.
Legal proceedings began, there were many attempts to write new music, but there were no hits.
Then Kostenko came up with the idea of attracting other musicians, pop stars to the concerts. Some of the projects were successful, but most of the outside musicians were too demanding and even arrogant, and this practice gradually stopped.
Nowadays the group mostly goes on tour on foreign trips, and the audience welcomes it very warmly. And in Russia for "Nancy" the glory of the "group of one song" was entrenched, although the repertoire has changed significantly since the time of the song "Smoke of Cigarettes with Menthol".
In addition to touring, Andrei is engaged in solo work. He still plays in the band and is also known as Dj Cosmetics. He is also famous as a professional host of corporate events and other events.
Andrey Kostenko is a Knight Commander of the Order of Service to Art.
Personal life
This topic is a secret sealed with seven seals. In the photo on social networks, Andrei can often be seen with girls, but no one knows who his wife is. However, journalists found out that Kostenko has a daughter, Anna.
One of his favorite activities is parachuting and other extreme sports, such as diving.
