Vladimir Presnyakov (Владимир Пресняков) is a Russian singer from Yekaterinburg. He was exposed to music from a young age, since both of his parents were in the music industry. Presnyakov started playing around with the piano, guitar, and drums as a child, and started writing his own music when he was 11. He began singing […]

Tatyana Bulanova (Татьяна Буланова) is a Russian singer from St. Petersburg. Growing up, Bulanova studied the piano in music school, and also began to play the guitar in her teens. For college, she originally enrolled in the library sciences department of the Leningrad Institute of Culture, but she soon moved to the vocal music department. […]

Shahzoda (Шахзода; real name Zilola Bahodirovna Musayeva, as it is spelled in Uzbek) is an Uzbek singer and actress. Shahzoda grew up in Fergana, in the Uzbek SSR. She was interested in music from her childhood, but has no musical education—she studied management at the International State University of Kyiv, but left the university to […]

Zhenya Milkovskiy (Женя Мильковский) is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian musician who sings, plays the piano and guitar, and writes his own music. Most recently, he is the leader of the band Nerves (Нервы), which blends many elements of R&B, pop, and rap with generally very soft lyrics and vocals. Milkovskiy’s musical education started early, when he […]

Vera Brezhneva (Vera Viktorovna Kiperman, Вера Брежнева / Вера Викторовна Киперман) is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian singer from Dnipropetrovsk oblast. While she was growing up, she acted in local productions at a youth theater. She enrolled in an engineering college after finishing school, but when the group VIA Gra was auditioning for new members in 2002, […]

Anna Sedokova (in Ukrainian Анна Володимирівна Сєдокова) is a Russian-Ukrainian singer from Kyiv and a former member of the pop group VIA Gra. Sedokova was involved in music and dance from a very young age, participating in a Ukrainian folk group from the time she was six. She studied piano at music school and then […]

MakSim (real name Marina Abrosimova Maksimova; МакSим / Марина Абросимова) is a Russian singer, author, and producer. Her stage name was given to her by her brother, Maksim—it was her nickname growing up, and she carried it over to her musical career. It is derived from her patronymic, a Russian naming tradition in which the […]

Brainstorm/ Prāta Vētra is a Latvian pop group. Originally formed in 1989, they have released a number of albums in Latvia, Russia, and internationally, singing in Latvian, Russian, and English. Renārs Kaupers (vocals), Jānis Jubalts (guitar), Gundars Mauševics (bass), Kaspars Roga (drums) and Māris Mihelsons (accordion, piano), met while still in school and started the […]

A Moscow native, Natalia Illinichna Ionova, better known as Glu’koza, was first a child actress working in television. Among other projects, she shot a few episodes of the still-popular kids’ show Ералаш (Jumble; Yeralash). She was discovered in 2002 by the record producer Maxim Fadeev on the set of the Russian war movie Триумф (Triumph). […]