Working with Margarita Pozoyan on “Не обещай” and “Без остатка”
Margarita Pozoyan is the kind of vocalist for whom a generic arrangement would never be enough.
She came to national attention as a finalist in the first season of The Voice Russia, reaching the final with Dima Bilan’s team and performing with artists including Bilan and A’Studio. Her performances from the competition remain available in the official Channel One archive.
But television recognition is only one part of her work. Margarita is also a songwriter, vocal educator and producer who writes most of her own music. In an interview with VLV Magazine, she explained that she does not maintain one permanent creative team. Instead, she chooses collaborators according to the character and style of each song.
I became one of those collaborators, creating the arrangements for two of her releases: “Не обещай” and “Без остатка.”
“Не обещай” (“Don’t Promise”)
“Не обещай” was released on September 4, 2019, followed by its music video later that year.
Margarita had already written a deeply personal song built around her own vocal identity. My role was to create the musical environment around it: to give the composition structure and development while leaving enough space for the voice and lyrics to remain at the center.
With a singer of Margarita’s range, the temptation is to make every section large and vocally demonstrative. The arrangement needed greater restraint. Its purpose was to support the emotional movement of the song rather than compete with the performance.
“Не обещай” became the beginning of our work together and established the creative understanding that led to a second release.
Performance at the New Year's concert in the Kremlin (excerpt)
Finding the Sound of “Без остатка” (“Without a Trace”)
“Без остатка” was released on December 2, 2020.
The production history of this song was more complex. Margarita later said that the song itself came to her almost immediately, but that she spent a long time searching for its proper sound. The music video was offered and filmed before the record was complete, and the song changed substantially between the version used during filming and the final release.
That made the arrangement more than a decorative layer added to an established demo. The musical identity of the record was still being formed.
I created the arrangement that became part of the finished version, building a production capable of carrying Margarita’s vocal performance and the song’s emotional intensity. The final sound also needed to work with a video centered on movement and physical expression. Margarita described its concept as emotion communicated through dance, gestures and looks rather than words alone.
The completed record brought those elements together: the songwriting, the vocal, the arrangement and the visual interpretation all served the same emotional direction.
Arranging for an Artist Who Knows Her Voice
Working with Margarita was significant because she came to both projects with an established identity. She was already an experienced performer, songwriter and vocal professional who understood what her songs were meant to express.
The arranger’s role in that situation is not to impose an unrelated style. It is to listen closely, recognize what is essential in the material and construct a complete musical form around it.
“Не обещай” and “Без остатка” required different decisions, but they shared the same foundation: emotionally direct songs written for a distinctive voice. My responsibility was to give each one an arrangement that allowed those qualities to reach the listener intact.
The second collaboration also mattered for a simpler reason. An artist who chooses different collaborators depending on each song’s needs returned to work with me on another important release. For a producer and arranger, that continued trust is one of the clearest measures that the first project succeeded creatively.
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