Little Big, a project by Alina Pyazok and Ilya Prusikin, which started on April 1, 2013, with the music video Every Day I’m Drinking (featuring Olympiya Ivleva and Anna Castellanos), quickly transformed from a joke into a full-fledged band. Prusikin recalled that the impetus was an invitation to open for Die Antwoord: in a month, they wrote six songs and shot music videos. Viral videos brought them fame in Europe and their first international tours.

However, the band's lineup changed: in 2016, actress Anna Kast left, and in 2018, singer Olympiya Ivleva, leaving Sofya Tayurskaya as the sole vocalist. In 2020, Yuri Muzychenko, Florida Chanturia, and dancer Dmitry "Pukhlyash" Krasilov joined Ilyich and Sofya to perform at Eurovision. The contest was canceled due to the pandemic, and in the summer of 2021, musician Anton Lissov confirmed that cooperation with Pukhlyash had ended. Why did Krasilov's life also end in December 2023? He would have turned 32 on June 22. Let's recall his story and the biographies of other band members who left too soon.

Dmitry Krasilov

The boy from Zarinsk suffered from ridicule since childhood due to thyroid and weight problems caused by growth hormone. Despite this, he perfected his choreography, professionally engaging in hip-hop, jazz-funk, and vogue. In the fourth season of "DANCES" on TNT, Krasilov, nicknamed "a hundredweight of charisma," reached the second stage. After moving to Moscow, he appeared in KVN and a bank advertisement, and in 2020, he became widely known thanks to Little Big's music video for the song Uno, which garnered over 300 million views.

Although Pukhlyash did not make it to Eurovision, and his collaboration with the band ended after the TACOS and SEX MACHINE music videos, his recognition helped his career. Dima became a host of "Karaoke in the Big City" and "Let's Go" on MUZ-TV, a jury member of the "Fantastika" program, starred in TV series and commercials, began to sing, and appeared on "Evening Urgant."

Krasilov earned enough for a two-room apartment in Chertanovo Yuzhnoye, an SUV, and a vacation in the Maldives for his mother. In his personal life, he was unlucky: before his popularity, he was evicted from a rented apartment when his girlfriend found a more suitable groom. "I want to find someone who will always be by my side. I think this should not happen online. The main thing is that I feel good with her, and she with me: sitting silently on a bench, holding hands, and watching the sunset," the dancer mused on "Evening Urgant." His dream did not come true.

Back in 2020, in the program "Live Healthy!", Elena Malysheva warned the artist about the consequences of liver steatosis. Endocrine system diseases led to acute heart failure. Krasilov worked himself to exhaustion and died on December 18, 2023, at the age of 29. Six months later, Little Big dedicated a music video for the track Lobster Popstar to him.

Anna Castellanos

Cuban Jose Castellanos came to Leningrad, where he met a worker from the "Bolshevik" factory. They had a daughter, Anna, but a year later, Jose returned to his homeland. The mother raised the girl alone, who was diagnosed with achondroplasia (dwarfism). Thanks to her mother's love, Anna grew up to be a self-confident person. After graduating from the library faculty, she was denied a job and found work as a duty educator at a school. There, she easily befriended children but not colleagues, who disliked her penchant for bright outfits and additional creative activities under the pseudonym Anna Kast.

"They didn't consider that at school I earned only seven thousand rubles a month," Anna fumed. "Everything else was not easy at all; I worked a lot and hardly slept. During the day, I worked at school, at night as an animator, and then took unpaid leave to go to film shoots. I was shown on TV, they wrote about me in newspapers, and my colleagues told me that I was disgracing the school with all this."

No obstacles prevented Castellanos from accepting an offer from her old acquaintance Alina Pyazok to participate in a project with Ilya Prusikin. Anna brought singer Olympiya Ivleva, whom she knew from the "Little People" community. Anna Kast gladly starred in Little Big's music videos but left the band in 2016. According to one version, due to a conflict, according to another, due to the impossibility of combining touring with pedagogical activities, which she considered more important.

In any case, Anna also left the school, opening a tattoo parlor that thrived thanks to her fame. In 2020, the business declined due to the pandemic, but the artist did not despair.

In 2019, Anna participated in the program "Four Weddings," where she married Rodion. Subsequently, a friend of the actress explained that it was a staged event for the show. The last months of the ex-Little Big member were spent in solitude and poverty, living on a disability pension. Volunteers visited her, and one of them found the 39-year-old Castellanos dead on March 1, 2021. She died of cardiomyopathy.

Polina Sokolova

Just 3.5 months after Anna Kast's death, the band lost another bright participant in their music videos. Polina Sokolova shone in the "Rubens' Beauties" project and performed at various venues in Moscow and St. Petersburg.