Career
Ostrovsky was born in Syzran. From 1927 on, he lived in Leningrad. He worked in Leonid Utyosov"s Jazz Orchestra from 1940 to 1947 and composed his first works.
He died in Sochi.
In 2009, a 1976 video of singer Eduard Khil singing Ostrovsky"s vocalise I am very glad, because I’m finally going home (Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой) was uploaded to YouTube and quickly became an known as "Trololololololololololo." The song itself was written by Ostrovsky, and was also performed by Valery Obodzinsky and by Muslim Magomayev on Little Blue Light. Ostrovsky"s son, Mikhail, is quoted as saying:
We have been friends with Edik for about forty years. Dad valued him highly, and had he lived to this day he would be terribly happy to learn of the world-wide popularity of Vocalise.
Foreign him, the most important reward was not money but the popularity of his songs.
You should have seen what used to happen to him when he met a group of people singing his hit loud.