Dima Bilan

Dima Nikolayevich Bilan (Ди́ма Никола́евич Била́н; born Viktor Nikolayevich Belan, Ви́ктор Никола́евич Бела́н; 24 December 1981) is a Russian singer and model.

In 1995, he first performed at a televised music contest, singing Valeriy Meladze's "Aktrisa".

Meladze's 1997 single "Vera" especially became important to Bilan.

In 1998, he first travelled to Moscow to participate in a children's music contest.

He received a diploma from Iosif Kobzon, who was the chairman of the jury.

After moving to Moscow to studying at Gnessin, Bilan started recording his first songs.

Between 2000 and 2003, he specialised in classical singing.

Afterwards, he enrolled at the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts, where he studied acting.

At the time, Bilan lived at an apartment of an acquainted family.

He financed his studies while working as a nighttime stock clerk in a shoe store.

Bilan started his music career during school.

He regularly performed at school parties and for guests at home.

He idolised Valeriy and Konstantin Meladze in his teen years.

His first music video "Osen'" was released in late 2000.

He performed his first music video under the pseudonym Dima Belan.

Although Bilan studied to become an opera singer, he quickly found himself bored with is coursework and dreamt of becoming a pop singer.

Via a classmate, he met Yuri Aizenshpis, who saw potential in Bilan.

Bilan then officially started performing under the pseudonym "Dima Bilan", taking both the first name and surname of his grandfather.

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.

In August 2002, Bilan participated in the first edition of New Wave.

At the end of the contest, he finished in fourth place.

After New Wave, Bilan released a music video for "Boom".

In 2003, Bilan released his debut album Ya nochnoy huligan, which became popular in Russia and was received well among critics.

As a result, he performed its eponymous single "Ya nochnoy huligan" at the 2003 edition of Pesnya goda.

However, Bilan's big break came with the release of the ballad "Na beregu neba", which peaked at #2 at the TopHit radio charts.

The subsequent album Na beregu neba became one of the best-selling albums in Russia of 2004, receiving a gold certification.

Enjoying large success in his native Russia, Bilan was signed up by his producer Aizenshpis to compete at Russia's Eurovision Song Contest 2005's national selection.

With the English-language track "Not That Simple", Bilan was the favourite to win the selection.

However, he eventually finished second behind Natalia Podolskaya despite being on top of the televoting for most of the final.

The Russian version of the song, titled "Ty dolzhna ryadom byt'" became the 21st most-played track on Russian radio in 2005.

He represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with "Never Let You Go", finishing second, and he won the contest in 2008 in Belgrade, with the song "Believe".

He has had several Russian number one hit records.

He is sometimes referred to as "Russia's Iglesias" due to his similarity to the Spanish singer.

Dima Bilan was born as Viktor Belan in Ust-Dzheguta in the autonomous republic Karachay-Cherkessia in a mixed family of Tatar, Karachay and Russian heritage.

Bilan's father was born in Kabardino-Balkaria and his mother in Tatarstan.

After having briefly lived in Tatarstan as a child, Bilan's family relocated to Maysky in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Bilan started playing bayan in the fifth class of school and participated in different music contests as a child.

He became interested in music as he enjoyed singing during school and started to write letters to the Gnessin Musical College, asking them for entrance requirements.

Although the musical college did not respond to his writings, he still went to the auditions and managed to enroll.

In mid-March 2006, Bilan was chosen internally by Russian broadcaster Channel One to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, Greece.