Dato and Ligalize to perform 'Janaya' together

A bit of history first. 'Janaya' is based on a folk tune and was used first in an opera by a Georgian composer Zakhary Paliashvili;
later in was used in a legendary Soviet film 'Keto and Kote', which was a kind of a response to Hollywood of the 30-ies.

The song was born again thanks to the unexpected union of Dato and Ligalize.
Originaly they planned to sing another song in Russian only,
but while discussing various music news Dato showed Ligalize the songs he was working on at the moment and Ligalize liked 'Janaya' so much,
that he immediately suggested that he and Dato sing this song together, Dato in Georgian and Ligalize in Russian.

The combination of Eastern melody and modern r'n'b was most unusual, but the main difficulty was to find the right mix of the Georgian parts and Russian rap.
The musicians tried different versions of the song and after painstaking effort found the perfect combination.
Intensive touring didn't let the singers spent a lot of time in the studio and they communicated mainly over the phone.

Working on the song took almost half a year, thought rumours about the duet leaked into the press as early as the end of summer.
When the song was finished, the idea of a video naturally came to mind.

The word Janaya has no direct equivalent in Russian, but is a popular one in Transcaucasian countries, mainly used to express delight in a sweet, pretty, nice girl.

The song was supposed to be included in Dato's set-list last year and Dato was about to sing it in one of his club gigs put at the last moment pulled it out,
thinking that the song was not ready yet. Almost a year later it was revitalised.

Ligalize: (www.ligalize.ru): 'Janaya' is hot stuff. The moment I heard it the song and the idea of working with Dato on it just carried me away.
I particularly love the moment when I sing 'Janaya, Janaya' in Georgian.
This record is also the result of our Russian-Georgian friendship and a great treat for our fans, I hope'.

Dato: I wanted to surprise my fans once more and I hope they'll appreciate our combined effort.
Working with Ligalize was very pleasant and the song turned out to be very good and unusual.