Sergey Lazarev

Sergey Vyacheslavovich Lazarev (Серге́й Вячесла́вович Ла́зарев; born 1 April 1983) is a Russian singer.

He is most famous for his singing career, when he rose to fame as a member of the group Smash!!.

Lazarev was born in Moscow on 1 April 1983.

From age of four, Lazarev practiced artistic gymnastics, but stopped due to his parents' divorce.

Lazarev got to know about Neposedy's existence merely by accident.

A shopkeeper recommended Lazarev to apply for Neposedy while Lazarev was buying bread.

In 1995, he became part of the children's group alongside Lena Katina and Julia Volkova.

With Neposedy he regularly performed at the Russian television show Morning Star and in 1996, he performed at a concert at the Slavianski Bazaar.

In September 1996 Lazarev won the first prize at the contest Bravo Bravissimo in Italy.

The same year he sang with the president orchestra led by Pavel B. Ovsyannikov.

Next to singing, Lazarev worked as a child actor.

When he was eleven, he performed in the Pokrovsky Theatre and had parts in several plays.

Lazarev also appeared in children's sketch comedy programme Yeralash in 1997

In 1999 he enrolled at Russia's leading dramatic institute, the school-studio MAAT.

In 2000, Lazarev entered Moscow's MKhAT Theatre School and graduated in 2004 as a professional actor.

In May 2004 Smash!!

in cooperation with the Italian band Earphones recorded the song "Obsession".

On 1 December 2004 Smash!!

released the second album, 2Nite.

The band split up only one week after the release, with both Lazarev and Topalov deciding to pursue solo careers.

In 2005 he returned to the theatre scene.

Together with British producer Brian Rawling, Lazarev recorded most of the songs for his solo debut Don't Be Fake that was released in November 2005 and sold more than 300,000 copies in Russia alone.

Don't be Fake's first two singles, "Eye of the Storm" and "Lost Without Your Love", were soon released.

The video clips of these singles were shot in Miami and South Africa, respectively.

The group broke up in 2006.

Since then Lazarev has pursued a solo career.

The third single "Daje Esli Ty Uydiosh (Даже Если Ты Уйдёшь)" ("Just Because You Walk Away" in English) became the biggest single from the album, peaking at #1 for many weeks, remaining on the charts for over six months, coming back to the charts twice more, and eventually reaching #2 in the annual airplay chart of most played songs in 2006.

Due to the massive popularity of the song, the album was re-issued with bonus tracks including 3 versions of the song—the English version (which can be found on the first issue), the Russian version, and a dance remix also sung in Russian.

Lazarev also performed the song at the MTV Russia Awards.

The single was written by American songwriter Gordon Pogoda and Australian writer/artist John Stephan.

The fourth single, "Fake", was plugged and the video clip was shot in London.

Meanwhile, the Fake Remixes EP was published.

This was also promoted to some clubs in the United Kingdom.

After the success of his first album, Lazarev went to the studio and recorded a new album TV Show The video for the lead single, "Vspominay (Вспоминай)" was shot in Moscow.

The English version of the song, "Everytime", was soon released along with the video clip, this one being similar to the Russian version.

Lazarev recorded a cover of "Shattered Dreams", originally sung by Johnny Hates Jazz.

This was the second single of the album and the first international single for Lazarev.

The video was said to be shot in Canada.

He represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, and finished in third place, coming first in the televote.

He represented Russia again at Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel with the song "Scream", and similarly finished in third place.