Talk:Nikita (song)

Actress
Any ideas on who plays Nikita in this video? --Pinnecco 01:19, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I found out that after the Nikita video, the accress that played Nikita tried to launch a singing career but failed. However, she released a single called Moscow Nights (don't know if it is in fact THE Moscow Nights) and it was a one hit onder in The Netherlands. Ah, her "stage name" was Anya. --Pinnecco 02:07, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The other frequently given answer is that she is Anya Major, a UK model/actress. I've seen claims about her being a "Russian one-hit artist" as well. The Wikipedia article about Anya Major lists her as the actress in this video, with "citation needed". At http://rock.discogs.com/artist/Anya+(2) is is stated that this Russian artist character is just a made-up role for Anya Major.-- era (Talk | History) 14:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

"the Slavic language"
Slavic isn't a language according to my sources. Moreover, Russian is itself a Slavic language, and so the statement doesn't really make any sense at all. Can anybody enlighten on which Slavic language(s) the referenced webpage is talking about? -- Smjg (talk) 16:32, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

the silly Nikita video
I was born and grew up in Russia and when I first saw the video I was surprised that it was about a female soldier. In Russia Nikita can only be a man's name. Just like the English name John can not be a female's name, Nikita can never be a woman's name. Remember Nikita Khruschev? Anyway, I thought at the time that the video was homophobic because it was hiding this fact. Even now, whenever I see the video it makes me feel disgusted. 66.65.129.159 (talk) 03:42, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, Elton John is openly gay, so thats he's opinion on Nikita. But Nikita is also a French girls name, also used in several other European countries. In Finland Janne is a boys name, but in Norway for example, its a girls name. 83.108.228.148 (talk) 13:16, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I can find no credible evidence anywhere at all that Nikita was in fact a French, or female name, prior to the release of Nikita (song) and La Femme Nikita. My understanding is that the movie never clarifies whether Nikita is a birth name, nickname, etc. Certainly there is a dearth of famous French women in history with this as a given name; I can't find any at all. It appears that the French popularity of the name for girls is only since the movie's 1990 release. Since John's video predates this, was performed by a gay man, and was about a Russian soldier in the early 80s, it seems implausible that it was ever referring to a woman. The websites given referencing Nikita as historically a girl's name have no reliable sources listed, and indeed baby name sites are notorious for rampant copying of other baby name sites' meanings, many of which are fabricated, misleading or just plain incorrect.


 * In essence it would probably be more accurate to say that "Nikita is a boys' name of Slavic origin, but since the release of Elton John's video Nikita has (erroneously) been given to girls, and has thus become popular as a girls' name, particularly in France following the release of La Femme Nikita." SaucyWench (talk) 08:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

"Nikita French name"...bullocks is what it is....and citing La Femme Nikita as proof that it is a girl's name is even more bullocks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.65.51.14 (talk) 09:58, 5 August 2008 (UTC)


 * And why does Elton John keep singing the name as 'Nakita' rather than 'Nikita'? Especially coming from a now (but then not yet) openly gay singer, this is surely the height of hypocrisy - he didn't know what he was singing about, and his later admission that he always knew the name was male makes it, if possible, even worse. I've also never heard of the name 'Nikita' being feminine in French or any other language, and I'm familiar with over a dozen European languages - and the Cold Waar context made it clear it was meant to be Russian. Not one of Elton John's best songs, and his to my mind often superficial output has never impressed me that much anyway.89.212.50.177 (talk) 16:32, 23 December 2018 (UTC)

The video with a woman as a soldier helped the video and also the song to become popular in the former USSR and also to spread the message that "if there comes a time <...> just head towards the west and find a friend". Without this video or with a video where Nikita is a man, it might not have reached many people that it's good it has reached. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.194.11.111 (talk) 22:40, 3 March 2019 (UTC)

Russian border controls?
Could it be that there is something wrong in this wikipedia article? I think it is not a Russian border control, because I think it should be a border control in the German Democratic Republic. In the music-video "Nikita" is wearing a uniform of the NVA, or not? And in the video you can also see German signs and words like "Halt" (=stop). --80.130.204.149 (talk) 16:05, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Its been changed. Its obviously a GDR station if you look at the 3:02 mark in the video. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.211.83 (talk) 00:52, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
 * In the video it is obviously a GDR station and GDR uniforms. That however says nothing about the song. An East German border guard would not have been called Nikita. Str1977 (talk) 22:37, 29 May 2022 (UTC)

Keyboard solo
Wasn't the keyboard solo played by Stephen Bishop? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.76.122.180 (talk) 14:41, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Nik Kershaw
Nik Kershaw is named as one of the background singers (next to George Michael) in the Song synopsis section, but not in the Personnel section. Can anyone find out which is correct? I like these kind of details. On the Wikipedia page about the album 'Fire on Ice' Nik Kershaw is listed as a guitarist, not a vocalist, without specifying which song or songs he contributed to. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.103.25.233 (talk) 19:22, 4 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Um, do you mean the album Ice on Fire? Dom Kaos (talk) 21:14, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

musical description
Thank you to whoever put in the information on the time of the song and other musical facts (and it's written in a way that people with just a small amount of musical training can understand). This sort of information is missing from almost all Wik articles on pop music. Maybe the person who did it here can go to other sites and add that information. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.53.191.77 (talk) 21:12, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive http://www.webcitation.org/5hbo7TA5o to http://www.charts-surfer.de/musiksearch.php
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Song synopsis section
There is something really not right.

For example:
 * In interviews on the time the song was released as a single, John was aware that Nikita was a male name, to avoid heavy speculations that he was really gay (He was married to Renate Blauel during that time), and this song was a very revolutionary song during the Cold War

That is not a sentence!!!! I have no idea what that's trying to say

There have been lots of recent changes to this page by. Can we get some more eyeballs on this? Otherwise, we might want to give this page the cleanup tag, but hopefully that's not necessary.

BaconBach (talk) 19:04, 20 January 2022 (UTC)