Aleksandar Nikolov ( bg, Александър Николов, born June 13, 1987), better known as Alek Sandar ( bg, Алек Сандър), is a music producer, songwriter and recording artist. Born in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, Alek Sandar has been raised in Germany and moved to the United States in 2009. Sandar is known for his singles "P.O.R.N." (featuring Amanda Lepore), "Creature In Me", "Say That You Love Me", "Peaceful Place" (with Andrea), "It Ain't Over" and "You and Me" featuring Bulgarian singer Dess, who is considered to be one of the greatest voices of contemporary Bulgarian music. In 2016, Sandar was one of the top celebrities in the 8th season of ''

VIP Brother ''VIP Brother'' is a Bulgarian reality television game show in which a number of celebrity contestants live in an isolated house trying to avoid being evicted by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize or collecting money for char ...

'', the Bulgarian adaptation of the global reality TV show '' Big Brother''. Alek Sandar is co-founder of the German Berlin-based dance / pop music labe
Splendid Sounds Records
and has further produced music for

Universal Music Germany Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

Payner Payner LTD ( bg, "Пaйнер" ООД) is an independent Bulgarian record label and production company. It was founded in 1990 by Bulgarian businessman Mitko Dimitrov. It is the biggest record label in the country with 80 artists currently signed ...

and more. In 2010 and 2011, Alek Sandar produced the album ''Beast'' for German recording artist Oscar Loya. Alek Sandar further produced remixes for UK based musician

Frankmusik Vincent James Turner (born 9 October 1985), better known by his stage name Frankmusik ( ) (and between 2011 and 2012, by the name Vincent Did It), is an English synth-pop musician. Early life Vincent was born on 9 October 1985 in the Thornton H ...

(2011), French artist

Jérémy Amelin Jérémy Amelin (born July 1, 1986) is a French recording artist. Best known as finalist of French music TV show '' Star Academy 5''. Biography Amelin was born on July 1, 1986 in Montargis, France and raised in Montcresson, France. He was the ...

(2009), Australian singer

Kimbra Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. Known for mixing pop with R&B, jazz and rock musical elements, her accolades include four ARIA Music Awards, two Grammy Awards and s ...

(2012) and Bulgarian singer Andrea (2010). In 2013–2016, Sandar charted big hits in Bulgaria as a songwriter, composing hits like "Samo za minuta" by Galin featuring

Kamelia Kameliya Vladimirova Veskova ( bg, Камелия Владимирова Вескова; born 10 January 1971), better known mononymously as Kamelia, is a Bulgarian singer, actress and TV presenter. Early years Kamelia was born on 10 January ...

, "Nepovtorim" by Kamelia and "Parata ako hvana" by Galin. in 2016, "Parata ako hvana" won a

Planeta TV Planeta TV is a Bulgarian music television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmissi ...

Award for "Club Hit of the Year".

Early life

Alek Sandar was born in

on June 13, 1987. Sandar started playing the piano and singing in the Bulgarian National Group Radiodeca (Radiochildren) at the early age of 5 years. At the age of 8, Alek Sandar composed his first song, a ballad dedicated to his sister. In the same year, Alek Sandar had his first appearance in the prestigious TV show Kato Luvovete (Like The Lions) in front of a national audience. In the following years, Alek Sandar was the Bulgarian voice-over of "

Roo Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book ''Winnie-the-Pooh''. He is a young kangaroo (known as a joey) and his mother is Kanga. Like most other Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy an ...

" in

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Win ...

. In 1995, Sandar and his family moved to

Oldenburg Oldenburg may also refer to: Places *Mount Oldenburg, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica *Oldenburg (city), an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany **Oldenburg (district), a district historically in Oldenburg Free State and now in Lower Saxony *Olde ...

, Germany, where his father works as an opera singer until today. In Oldenburg, Alek Sandar took acting classes and played leading roles in productions of the German National Theater Oldenburgisches Staatstheater. While always excelling in school, Alek Sandar spun records as a DJ at school parties and smaller clubs in Northern Germany for several years and set up his first home studio at the age of 14. After graduating high school, Alek Sandar studied International Business Management at the

Berlin School of Economics and Law The Berlin School of Economics and Law (German: ''Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht''), abbreviated as BSEL, is a public institution of higher education and research founded on 1 April 2009 through the merger of the Berlin School of Economi ...

, École supérieure du commerce extérieur

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Career Beginnings (Splendid Sounds)

At the age of 17, Alek Sandar composes two pop songs for the Serbian-Bulgarian Diva Reni. Encouraged by his first international success, Alek Sandar moves to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

where he meets Jonathan Wuermeling. They form the Electropop duo Splendid Sounds in 2008 and while performing in various nightclubs in

, they release their album and remix EP Scream. In 2009, the French record label X-Cite Records request Alek Sandar to create a Splendid Sounds club remix for French

Star Academy ''Star Academy'', called ''Operación Triunfo'' ("Operation Triumph") in Spanish-speaking countries, is a highly successful television pop music talent contest with viewer voting and reality show elements. Format There are many versions of t ...

celebrity

. In 2010, Alek Sandar produces another track for Balkan singer Reni and remixes the song Neblagodaren for Bulgarian singer Andrea. At the same time, Alek Sandar collaborates closely with German singer Oscar Loya, who gained international popularity representing Germany in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

in 2009. He produces 10 songs for Oscar's solo album Beast. Two years later, Learn Something New, one of these tracks, is released again along with a Remix bundle by the L.A.-based US music label Citrusonic Stereophonic in January 2013. In 2011, Alek Sandar and Jonathan Wuermeling found the independent record label Splendid Sounds Records. In the same year, Sandar produces a Remix for Cherrytree-signed musician

and

Far East Movement Far East Movement (abbreviated FM) is an American hip hop and electronic music group based in Los Angeles. The group formed in 2003 and as of August 2018 consists of Kev Nish (Kevin Nishimura), Prohgress (James Roh), DJ Virman (Virman Coquia), ...

, released by

2012 – now (Alek Sandar)

With the creation of Splendid Sounds Records, Alek Sandar begins a career as a solo singer under the name of Alek Sandar. For his debut single Creature In Me (2012), Alek Sandar delivers his debut as

Creative Director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

in the official music video, including New York avantgarde performers,

Cirque Du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...

artists, high fashion designs by

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. Westwood came to public notice when she m ...

and

Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashio ...

. The video makes a big impact in his home country Bulgaria, where leading Bulgarian Newspaper 24 chasa writes that "Alek Sandar achieved a level no other Bulgarian has achieved yet". In June 2012, Alek Sandar is the opening act of the New York Music Festival and

New Music Seminar The New Music Seminar (NMS) is a Music Conference and Festival held annually each June in New York City. The New Music Seminar originally ran from 1980 to 1995 and was relaunched in 2009. NMS features over 150 CEOs and other executives, presiden ...

Webster Hall Webster Hall is a nightclub and concert venue located at 125 East 11th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues, near Astor Place, in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City. It is one of New York City's most historically significant ...

, New York, making him the first Bulgarian to have participated in this festival. At the same time he qualifies as a winner in an international remixing contest for Australian singer

. In Fall 2012, Alek Sandar releases "I Adore You" and "It Ain't Over" in Bulgaria, the latter one being a duet with DESS a.k.a. Desi Slava, who is considered one of the greatest voices of Bulgarian contemporary music. While the Bulgarian music market has no official airplay chart, both songs rise up to top positions in the leading national pop radio stations and leading media write that "Alek Sandar and Dess write music history". The duet with DESS is a songwriter collaboration between Alek Sandar and Ansoni, a New York-based music producer composing music for film and commercials in Japan. While working on the common project, they form the producer group Boyplay. The success is topped by the follow-up single in Summer 2013. . The single is released on all digital stores worldwide with a remix bundle including progressive house, deep house remixes and a Bulgarian version. Sandar also produces another Bulgarian summer hit: Dess' dance track Baby. 2013 is packed with international performances as the multi-genre singer performs in high-end venues in cities like London, Berlin, Las Vegas, Washington, San Francisco and more. Sandar is invited to be a special guest performer at the famous Vienna

Life Ball The Life Ball in Vienna is the biggest Charitable organization, charity event in Europe supporting people with HIV or AIDS. The event is organized by the nonprofit organization AIDS LIFE, which was founded in 1992 by Gery Keszler and Torgom Petros ...

and headlines the first DOMA Art Festival, a massive 2-week art Festival with national media coverage in Bulgaria, along with New Yorker art icon Yozmit. In early 2014, Sandar globally releases his debut-EP
Meteors
Next to the singles with Dess, Meteors features the duet "Peaceful Place" with another internationally successful singer - Andrea - and the autobiographic song "Meteors". With "Peaceful Place", the artists start a campaign in support of minorities around the world deprived of Human Rights, supporting victims in Ukraine, Russia, Venezuela and Syria. The singers premiere the song with a live performance at the yearly

awards, one of Bulgaria's music highlights of the year. International media, including CNN, report about this. In an interview, Sandar says that both artists would have been arrested, if they had released this song with the same video in Russia. The video clip shows Sandar and Andrea holding up the

rainbow flag A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of the colors of the rainbow. The designs differ, but many of the colors are based on the spectral colors of the visible light spectrum. The LGBT flag introduced in 1978 is the most recogniz ...

LGBT flag The rainbow flag, also known as the (gay) pride flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride and LGBT social movements. The colors reflect the diversity of the LGBT community and the spectrum of human sexuality an ...

in a Roma slum neighborhood in Sofia, surrounded by ethnic

Romani people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...

of all ages. The pilot is released on the global music video platform VEVO, making Alek Sandar the first Bulgarian artist with a channel on that video streaming platform. In the video clip, Sandar proves again his talent as director and producer, shooting at world-famous locations such as the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan. The song is also presented to a wide German audience at the concert "Classic Meets Pop" in Oldenburg, Germany, which is considered one of the musical highlights of the year in Northwest Germany. In the beginning of 2016, "Parata Ako Hvana", a song Sandar co-wrote for Bulgarian singer Galin, receives the Planeta TV Award for "Club Hit of The Year". In September 2016, Sandar is one of the protagonists of the popular TV Show in Bulgaria

, the Bulgarian celebrity version of the reality TV show Big Brother, along with other celebrities like the popfolk singers Emanuela and Reni, former football player and president of the

Bulgarian Professional Football League The Bulgarian Professional Football League (Българска професионална футболна лига) or BPFL (БПФЛ) organizes the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group, Bulgarian B Professional Football Group and the Bulgaria ...

Valentin Mihov Valentin Mihov ( bg, Валентин Михов) (born on 18 January 1954 in Sofia) is a former Bulgarian Bulgarian football, football player. He is a former president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) and the Bulgarian Professional Football ...

and international box legend

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...

Life in New York

Openly

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, Alek Sandar's international performances and video clips make him a highly discussed figure in his home country Bulgaria. Bulgarian media frequently refer to Alek Sandar as the male

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

. Even though the musician himself does not perceive his work as extraordinarily avant-garde, TV and newspapers frequently refer to him as eccentric and scandalous, quoting his video clips, nightlife performances and close relations with New Yorker nightlife

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

personalities Amanda Lepore, Richie Rich, Susanne Bartsch and Yozmit. In 2015, Alek Sandar release
"P.O.R.N"
a song talking about our need to display our life on social media by being sexy and seeking likes. The song features international celebrity and transgender icon Amanda Lepore. The premiere of the song was held at Susanne Bartsch's "On Top" Party at the Top of the Standard Hotel, New York, a party named to be one of Manhattan's's top parties by Paper Magazine and Ny Times. The uncensored version of the video clip #YourLifeIsPorn premiered on

Pornhub Pornhub is a Canadian-owned internet pornography website. It is one of several pornographic video-streaming websites owned by MindGeek. , Pornhub is the 10th-most-trafficked website in the world and the second-most-trafficked adult website aft ...

References

External links

Alek Sandar's Official Website

Splendid Sounds Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandar, Alek 1987 births Living people Dance musicians Synth-pop musicians Singers from New York (state) Musicians from Berlin Musicians from Sofia Electro house musicians Club DJs 21st-century Bulgarian male singers Bulgarian pop singers LGBT singers Bulgarian LGBT musicians Bisexual musicians Bisexual men English-language singers from Bulgaria Bulgarian emigrants to Germany Bulgarian emigrants to the United States Big Brother (Bulgarian TV series) contestants Bulgarian LGBT rights activists 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century LGBT people