Alexander Shulgin

Alexander Valeryevich Shulgin (Aлeксандр Валepьeвич Шульгин; born August 25, 1964) is a Russian author and composer.

He was born in Irkutsk, Russia, and currently lives in Moscow.

Shulgin's career began at the age of 19 in Russian rock band Kruiz.

The band is regarded as legendary for being the first rock band from the USSR to tour abroad (1983–1986).

The popularity of The Kruiz was remarkable as they were known as anti-Soviet, and there was no mention of the band in mass media.

With the advent of reorganization of the USSR, in 1985, The Kruiz sold 20 million copies of their first album and in 1987 the album was released by WEA (Germany).

After The Kruiz, Shulgin began working in Germany, where he created "The Taiga Symphony".

This was a combination of Russian classic music with western rock-music with music by Vitally Bondarchuck and lyrics by American composer Richard Niles.

The album featured The Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pavel Kogan and respected Western musicians Alvin Lee, Paul Carrack, Mel Collins, Phil Palmer and J.J. Belle.

Successful in the USSR, it was the beginning of the career of Valeriya who has become one of the most popular singers in Russia.

Shulgin then created "Merry Christmas to the World", an East-West collaboration between Shulgin and BBC Worldwide.

With music by Shulgin and lyrics and production by Richard Niles, it expressed the ethos of glasnost.

London studio musicians performed with members of the Moscow Symphony and the Soviet Folk Orchestra.

Shulgin's adaptation of the 18th century Russian song Flowers won many prizes including "Montreux 1992," "Anigraf 1992," Generation 1992.

Shulgin is also a composer of music for films and TV, his songs appearing in films by Lukas Moodysson and Ken Russell.

He is also the director of the first public TV channel "Spas" and composed all the music for the channel.

As the producer and judge of such popular TV music contests as "Become a Star" (the Russian version of "Pop Star") and "Star Factory" (the Russian version of "Star Academy") Shulgin may be said to be the "Simon Cowell of Russia."

He also judges many other Russian and international contests.

British singer Sam Brown took part in his popular Russian contest "Morning Star" and Shulgin was also a judge on "Donetsk Olympus" (Ukraine).

Shulgin compositions appear on the three-part music compilation Tryptych.

''Tryptych.

His awards for "Song of The Year" include Aeroplane (1994), Something Common (1995), You Are Somewhere Round There (1999), Snowstorm (2000) and Don’t Hurt Me(2001).

Shulgin wrote compositions for the albums "Anna", released in 1995, "Famillia, and "The eyes of the sky colour".

Shulgin helped “FM GROUP” to record their debut album, MADE IN RUSSIA and recorded an album of Alexander Byinov.

Afterwards Shulgin recorded a solo album for “FM GROUP” lead-singer Alevtina Egorova, and also worked with Tatiana Ovsienko, Nastya Shirokova.

Sung by Valeria, the video was directed by Ken Russell who used it in his film "Alice in Russialand" (1998).

Shot in Red Square, the clip featured psychic Uri Geller.

During a special communication, astronauts from the "Star Township" introduced Valeria while in orbit around the Earth.

The clip became the grand finale of the New Year program on the first national TV channel of the Soviet Union.

In spring of 2005, Shulgin got the suggestion to write music for the new music serial with the tentative title “Primadonna”, the serial made for showing on the Russian TV Channel.

For this “Primadonna” serial Alexander wrote 20 original songs, and at the very least three leading themes from the film and all the songs of a composer got into the final variant of “Primadonna”.

Shulgin also wrote all the music filling-out for the new socio-political TV Channel “SPAS” (The Festival of the Saviour).

Shulgin released his first solo album “Predstavlenie” (The Introduction), and Shulgin signed with TheOrchard.com.

The album was released worldwide.

Shulgin wrote material for two albums by Elena Sheremet, Lady-Sax and Lady-sax (The Remixes).

Successful Russian artists who have recorded Shulgin's songs include Valeriya, Alexander Buinov, The Band FM, Yulia Mikhalchik, Drugie Pravila and Tatyana Ovsienko.

Shulgin’s songs have topped the Russian and Eastern European charts such as Bratislava Lyre '93.

As a producer, Shulgin has had more than 20 hit albums, five of which were Number 1.

He has also had ten Number 1 albums as co-producer.

Alexander Shulgin has written many hits in Russia.