Heading abroad means meeting new people, discovering new ideas, and encountering a lot of new brands. What Russian brands are you likely to find in a Russian grocery store? For Americans studying abroad in Russia, this may be one of your only times to try these delicacies – as they are often only available at […]
Nikita Khrushchev, during his whirlwind tour to America in 1959, fell in love with many things. These included, more famously, corn and Richard Nixon’s car. However, when Khrushchev returned to the USSR, he brought with him a renewed conviction not just to grow corn, but to provide the Soviet people with more consumer goods – […]
Former lead singer of the pop group Серебро/Serebro, Elena Temnikova was born in Kurgan, a city 400 kilometers southeast of Yekaterinburg, in 1985. She began playing violin and singing in choir when she was five years old. By ten, she was performing in musical competitions. Shortly after graduating high school, she moved to Omsk with […]
Dimitry Monatyk, known as “Monatik,” (often spelled with Latin letters) is a Ukrainian dancer and singer-songwriter that performs primarily in Russian, and occasionally in English and/or Ukrainian. Born in northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk, 1986, Monatik was a member of the Lutsk Breakdance Crew (DBS Crew) from 2000 until 2006. In 2003 he joined the […]
Alexei “Potap” Potapenko, born in Kiev on May 8, 1981 is a Ukrainian producer, singer-songwriter, composer, water polo player, and vocal coach. He performs in Russian. The son of Lyudmila Potapenko, a world champion diver, Potap was primarily engaged in swimming and water polo as a child. Despite devoting nearly all his free time to […]
The Eska Music Awards is a Polish awards ceremony for national and international music held annually by Radio Eska since 2002. Radio Eska, officially established in 1993, is derived from Radio Solidarity, an underground radio station broadcast illegally during Soviet times. Now Poland’s largest network of radio stations, Radio Eska favors rock, pop, and popular […]
Coals is a Polish duo who draw from dream-pop, electronica, and folk music to create their signature sound. Comprised of vocalist and lyricist Katarzyna Kowalczyk and composer, keyboardist, guitarist and producer Łukasz Rozmysłowski. The duo were born in 1994 and 1995, respectively. The band, whose name inspired by their birthplace, the coal mining region of […]
Originally known as the Gnessin Institute, the Gnessin State Musical College (Государственный музыкальный колледж имени Гнесиных) is an elite music school in Moscow’s Arbat District. In additional to its academic prestige, it’s known as a factory for producing pop stars, including the legendary Philipp Kirkorov, one of Russia’s best-selling and most popular artists, Olga Arefyeva, […]
Marta Markiewicz, who goes by the pseudonym Sarsa, is a Polish composer and singer-songwriter known for her trademark “sarsorogi” hairstyle (pictured above). Born in Slupsk, Poland during the summer of 1989, Sarsa began her career during the 2011 edition of the Polish talent show, Must Be the Music. Three years later she participated in the […]
Novika (Katarzyna Nowicka), a Polish vocalist, DJ, and producer famous for her electronic, deep house, and techno beats, is one of the most active figures in the Polish club scene. Born in 1974, Novika studied piano and flute before rising to fame in 1997 with the DJ duo Boogie Mafia. Together they began appearing in […]
Sopot TOPtrendy Festiwal was a popular and influential three-day Polish music festival in Sopot, Poland active from 2003 until 2014. It consisted of three main events, the “TOP” and “Trendy,” as well as “Cabaret” performances. It was replaced by the Polstat SuperHit Festival in 2015. The TOP concert highlighted the ten most popular artists in […]
Andrzej Smolik, known simply as “Smolik,” is one of the most recognized producers in Poland. Smolik has produced six solo albums and collaborated with countless artists throughout his career. As a musician, composer, and multi-instrumentalist himself, he debuted in 1993 with the band Wiki, continuing on to collaborate with the vocalist Robert Gawliński on […]
