Dima Bilan
Dima Bilan (Russian:
���� �����; real name Viktor Belan, ������ �����, 24
December 1981 in Ust-Dzheguta, Karachay-Cherkessia) is a Russian pop artist.
Bilan represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Never
Let You Go", finishing second, and he won the contest in 2008, with the
song "Believe". He has had several Russian no. 1 hits and is currently
pursuing an international career.
Biography
When he was only
two years old, his family moved to his grandmother�s place in the city of
Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan. When he was six years old, his family moved to
Kabardino-Balkaria where he went to school with his sister. He took part in
morning performances, recited poems and sang songs.
He graduated from
Gnesins Musical College as a classical vocal performer. Bilan made his debut
when he reached fourth place at the Russian/Latvian festival "New Wave"
in 2002. In 2003, Bilan released his debut album titled Nochnoy Huligan (Night
Hooligan), which included covers of "Caruso" by Lucio Dalla and "Fever"
by Elvis. In 2004, he released his successful single "Na beregu neba"
("At The Sky's Shore") which was also the title of his second album.
Produced by the
late Yury Aizenshpis, a Russian music mogul famous for his work with Viktor Tsoi
in the Soviet Union, Bilan attempted to reach Eurovision previously with the
song "Not That Simple" in 2005, finishing in second place at the
Russian national selection. The video for the Russian version of the song was
reputably the most expensive in the history of Russia's music industry. In
December 2005, Bilan received two golden gramophones for the song "Ty
dolzjna ryadom byt'" (The Russian version of "Not That Simple",
actually meaning "You should be beside me") in Saint Petersburg and
Almaty. During shootings of "Noviye pyesny o glavnom" ("New songs
about the main things") he received the grand prize of the First channel
from the professional jury. Bilan became Showbusiness Man of the Year because
the most voters gave their voices for him according to the version of Rambler.
At the end of a year he accepted an invitation from an American agency to record
tracks for the musical Peter Pan. On 14 March 2006, Bilan took part in "Zolotaya
sharmanka" ("Golden street organ") of "International Music
Awards" in Kiev where he was honored as "Singer of the Year".
Bilan has recently
hired t.A.T.u.'s former PR manager, Sasha Tityanko, to help him break into the
western market.
2006
Representing Russia in Eurovision 2006
In the middle of
March 2006, Bilan was chosen internally by the Russian broadcaster Channel One
to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest, that year in Athens, Greece.
Out of 37 participating countries, Bilan took second place with the dark pop
song "Never Let You Go", equalling one of Russia's best ever showing
at Eurovision � Alsou's "Solo" was runner-up back in the 2000
contest.
Bilan scored 248
points � 44 behind winning song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" by Finland's
Lordi � and received the maximum 12 points from a total of seven countries:
Armenia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The only
countries to not award Bilan any points were Monaco and Switzerland.
Bilan's stage
performance included two dancing ballerinas and a white piano covered in red
rose petals, from which a ghost-like female figure emerged halfway through the
song. Bilan wore a white vest with the number representing his place in the
contest's running order � 13 and 10 in the semi-final and final respectively.
Due to Russia's poor result the previous year, Bilan had to qualify for the
final at the semi-final on May 18. He qualified in the top ten there (finishing
third with 217 points) and moved to the final.
2006 (continuation)
In July 2006 Bilan
was one of the four artists who took part in the biggest musical event in Russia
of 2006 - "The Red Summer" show in Red Square in Moscow, where he
performed on stage with Shakira, The Black Eyed Peas and t.A.T.u.
In September 2006,
for second year in a row, Dima Bilan won Artist of the Year and Song of the Year
at MTV Russian Music Awards. On November 2nd Bilan represented Russia at MTV EMA
in Copenhagen.
On 15 November 2006
Bilan received award for Best Selling Russian Artist and performed at the World
Music Awards in London along with Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Rihanna, Nelly
Furtado and Bob Sinclair. His performance of Eurovision hot single Never Let You
Go at WMAs was broadcast on Channel 4 in UK and 130 more countries, including
United States.
2007
In February of 2007
Bilan started to record his first international album in English in Los Angeles,
Miami and in Philadelphia in collaboration with producer Timbaland and his
production team: Danjahandz, Jim Beanz and Ryan Tedder. One of the new tracks
will be a duet with one of Timbaland's most successful artists - Nelly Furtado.
Also in 2007 he
premiered his first single from new album - Number One Fan. According to Russian
and Eastern Europe radio airplay chart, Number One Fan topped the charts for 8
weeks. Video for this song [1] was shot in London by famous British director
Trudy Bellinger (who made videos for e.g. Girls Aloud, Sugababes and Sophie
Ellis Bextor).
On 4 October Bilan
premiered his second single from the forthcoming album, Amnesia, at the MTV
Russia Music Awards 2007. During this show, Bilan won three most prestigious
awards for "Best Performer"", "Best Song" and � for
the third time in three years - "Best Artist".
2008
In 2008 Bilan is
planning to release 3 albums - Russian, English and Spanish. He is also planning
to release an English album in 81 countries in cooperation with Interscope
Records (Universal Music International Group). He is working on his English
album, with some tracks produced by Timbaland, Danja, Jim Beanz and Ryan Tedder
(OneRepublic). Also his new English album will include a duet with Nelly Furtado.
On 20 February
Bilan went to Miami and recorded a few tracks for his Spanish album with famous
producer Rudy Perez. The Spanish album will include a duet with Nelly Furtado
and a Spanish version of his first international single "Number One Fan"
[1]
In 2008, Bilan once
again represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Believe"
accompanied by Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton and Russian world champion
figure skater Evgeni Plushenko. On 24 May, 2008, Bilan won first place in the
contest, receiving 272 points and seven 12's.
Discography
Albums
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2003 (� ������ ������� � I'm a Night Hooligan)
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2004 (�� ������ ���� � At The Sky's Shore)
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2006 Vremya Reka (�����-���� � Time River)
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2008 06 05 (������ ������ - Against The Rules)
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2008 (New English album)
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2008 (New Spanish album)
Singles
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2003 Ya Nochnoy Holigan (� ������ ������� - I'm a night
hooligan)
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2005 Ty dolzhna ryadom byt' (�� ������ ����� ���� - You
Should Be By My Side; recorded in English as "Not That Simple")
Official Russian Top 100 Airplay Charts no. 2
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2005 Kak Hotel Ya (��� ����� � - How I wanted) no. 2
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2005 Ya tebya pomnyu (� ���� ����� - IRemember You) no. 18
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2006 Eto b�la lyubov' (��� ���� ������ - It was love) no. 1
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2006 Never Let You Go no. 3
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2006 Nevozmozhnoye vozmozhno (����������� �������� -
The Impossible Is Possible; recorded in English as "Lady Flame") no. 1
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2007 Vremya Reka (����� ���� - Time is a River; recorded in
English as "See What I See") no. 2
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2007 Number One Fan (produced by Timbaland) no. 1
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2007 Gore - zima (����-���� - Winter is Sorrow)
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2008 Believe (Produced by Jim Beanz, Eurovision Song Contest 2008)
External
links