Khil became known to international audiences in 2010, when a 1976 clip of him singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song "I Am Very Glad, As I Am Finally Returning Back Home" (Russian: "Я о́чень рад, ведь я, наконе́ц, возвраща́юсь домо́й", romanized: "Ya ochen' rad, ved' ya, nakonets, vozvrashchayus' domoy") became an Internet meme, often referred to as "Trololol" or "Trololo",[1] or as the "Russian Rickroll", and the song became associated with Internet trolling.

During World War II, his kindergarten was bombed and he was separated from his mother and evacuated to Bekovo, Penza Oblast, where he ended up in a children's home, which lacked basic facilities and needs, including food.

[3] He was reunited with his mother in 1943 when Smolensk was liberated from Nazi Germany and in 1949 moved to Leningrad, where he enrolled in and then graduated from printing college.

Khil's manner of singing and performance was unique and easily recognizable in Russia (as well as in other countries that were part of the USSR), characterized by his personal charm and his lyrical baritone, which combined a degree of optimism and humor.

Eduard Khil was unique in his extraordinary charm and lyricism, and constant in his professionalism, vocal culture and creative taste.

Many of the songs he performed became part of the golden fund of the Russian stage.In 2009, a 1976 video of Eduard Khil singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song "I Am So Glad I'm Finally Returning Back Home" (Russian: Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой) was uploaded to YouTube[19] and became known as "Trololol" or "Trololo".

[24] According to Khil, the Trololo song originally featured lyrics which described a narrative about a cowboy riding a horse to his farm:[25][26] Я скачу по прерии на своем жеребце, мустанге таком-то, а моя любимая Мэри за тысячу миль отсюда вяжет для меня чулок I'm riding the prairie on my stallion, so-and-so mustang, and my beloved Mary is thousand miles away knitting a stocking for me.The Trololo video first appeared on some sites beginning on 21 February 2010, the most prominent of those being the "Trololo" website trololololololololololo.com[27] that helped push the video into popular awareness, receiving more than 3,000,000 hits in its first month.

[28][29] It gained prominence on 3 March 2010, during a segment on The Colbert Report[30] after appearing on Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld a handful of times over the previous couple of weeks.[when?]

[31] as well as Craig Reucassel of The Chaser on the 2010 Australian TV specials Yes We Canberra!, and in September 2011 on the animated American television series Family Guy in its tenth-season premiere episode, "Lottery Fever".

They contained words like these: "I'm riding my stallion on a prairie, so-and-so mustang, and my beloved Mary is thousand miles away knitting a stocking for me".

"Khil's son has said that his father does not really understand what the Internet is, and was quoted as saying "He thinks maybe someone is trying to make a fool of him," and "He keeps asking, 'Where were all these journalists 40 years ago?

On 31 December 2011, Khil performed the Trololo song again live on a 2012 New Year's Russian holiday television special.

Within the first week of January 2012, the new video of Khil performing his new version of the Trololo song had gone viral on YouTube again, earning over four million hits.

On 4 September 2017, Google displayed an interactive doodle of Khil singing the Trololo song to celebrate what would have been his 83rd birthday.