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Bashkortostan Village to Name Street After 'Mr. Trololo'

Eduard Khil performing the song "Loggers" in an undated video.

Soviet vocalist Eduard Khil, who passed away Monday, will be honored by a small town in Bashkortostan that Khil called home long before he began his singing career or became known to millions as "Trololo Man."

The town of Rayevsky, where Khil lived from 1941 to 1943 after Germany invaded Russia in World War II, will name a street after the singer, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported. Khil lived in an orphanage in the town before returning in 1943 to his hometown of Smolensk on Russia's western border.

Khil went on to become a popular crooner, performing the songs "Loggers" and "The Moonstone," among others, and returned to Rayevsky in 1992 to give a free concert.

The town now has plans to name a street in a new development after the one-time resident, local administration head Damir Mustafin told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The 77-year-old singer died early Monday after suffering a stroke in April that left him in a coma. Following a decades-long career as a singer in the Soviet Union, Khil dropped out of the spotlight until 2010, when a video of him singing his wordless 1966 song "I'm Very Glad That I'm Finally Coming Home" went viral online, earning him the moniker "Trololo Man."

Khil will be buried at 4 p.m. Thursday in Smolensk Cemetery in St. Petersburg, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported. A funeral service will be held for him that day at the Arkady Raikin Estrada Theater in the northern capital.

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