Leonid Nikolayevich Agutin (russian: link=no, Леонид Николаевич Агутин; born July 16, 1968) is a Russian pop musician and songwriter,

Meritorious Artist Merited Artist of the Russian Federation (russian: link=no, Заслуженный артист Российской Федерации, ''Zasluzhenny artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii'') is an honorary title in the Russian Federation. The title is ...

of Russia (2008). He has been active since the 1990s. He has released ten albums and three compilation albums.

Personal life

Agutin’s mother is Jewish, father is Russian. He was born in Moscow on July 16, 1968. His father was Nikolai Petrovich Agutin, a musician, and his mother was Lyudmila Leonidovna Shkol'nikova, an elementary school teacher. His father was a singer in the Soviet band VIA "Golubiye Gitary" (Blue Guitars) and worked as a manager for the popular Soviet musical groups "Veseliye Rebyata" (Happy Kids), "Poyuschiye Serdtsa" (Singing Hearts), and "Pesniary" (Songsters). Along with receiving a regular school education, the young Agutin also completed a course of musical study on the piano at the Moscow

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

school "Moskvorechie". He later served in the army on the Russia–Finland border. In 1991, Agutin began to tour former Soviet republics as an opening act for other performers. Two years later, he graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Culture. In 1997, Agutin married the stage performer

Anzhelika Varum Anzhelika Varum (russian: link=no, Анжели́ка Вару́м), real name Maria Yurievna Varum (russian: link=no, Мари́я Ю́рьевна Вару́м; born 26 May 1969), is a Russian singer and actress, and an Honored Artist of the Rus ...

, his second marriage. Agutin has two daughters, Elisaveta with Varum, and Polina with the Russian ballerina Maria Vorobyeva. Away from music, he enjoys collecting crosses and playing

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

. He is also a self-avowed believer in the predictions of astrologists.

Career

In 1991, Agutin started touring the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

with a musical act. He took part in and won the 1992

Yalta Yalta (: Я́лта) is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Cri ...

international pop music contest, and also won a similar contest in

Jūrmala Jūrmala (; "seaside") is a state city in Latvia, about west of Riga. Jūrmala is a resort town stretching and sandwiched between the Gulf of Riga and the Lielupe River. It has a stretch of white-sand beach, and a population of 49,325 in 2019 ...

in 1993. Agutin released his first solo album, ''Bosonogiy Malchik'' ("Barefoot Boy") in 1994, which was a success and launched his career. The album ascended the charts and he won Russian Grammy awards for "Singer of the Year", "Song of the Year", and "Album of the Year". The album included the hits "Hop hey, la la ley" and "Golos visokiy travy" (Sound of the Tall Grass). In 1995, Agutin released his second album, titled "Dekameron". It was another commercial success and, along with

Philipp Kirkorov Philipp Bedrosovich Kirkorov PAR (russian: Филипп Бедросович Киркоров; bg, Филип Бедросов Киркоров, Filip Bedrosov Kirkorov; born 30 April 1967) is a Bulgarian-born Russian pop singer. He is a five ...

Valeriy Meladze Valerian Shotayevich Meladze, ka, ვალერიან შოთას ძე მელაძე (born 23 June 1965), known professionally as Valery Meladze , is a Georgian singer and a Meritorious Artist of Russia. He is the brother of c ...

, and Lubeh, Agutin became one of the most successful recording artists in Russian Grammy balloting.

Cosmopolitan life

Agutin released the album '' Cosmopolitan Life'' with the guitarist Al Di Meola in 2005, which gained success and worldwide recognition as a result of the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

. Following the festival, the Austrian directors

Hannes Rossacher Hannes Rossacher (born 16 October 1952, Steyr) is an Austrian film director and film producer. Rossacher has worked with Rudi Dolezal since 1976 in their production company DoRo Productions. His contributions to the ORF youth program "Ohne Maulko ...

and

Rudi Dolezal Rudi Dolezal ( sl, Doležal, born 5 February 1958) is an Austrian film producer and film director best known for his music videos. He has directed and produced videos for artists such as Tom Waits, the Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, M ...

DoRo Productions DoRo Produktion Ges.mbH DoRo Productions is a film company based in Vienna, Austria. DoRo was named after the surnames of founders Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher. History Dolezal and Rossacher, also known as the "Torpedo Twins", first start ...

made a documentary about the lives of Agutin and Di Meola, called ''Cosmopolitan Live'', released in February 2008.

Discography

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Agutin, Leonid 1968 births Living people 20th-century composers 20th-century Russian singers 21st-century Russian singers 21st-century composers Honored Artists of the Russian Federation Russian male composers Russian pop singers Singers from Moscow 20th-century Russian male singers 21st-century Russian male singers Russian National Music Award winners Winners of the Golden Gramophone Award Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine