Sergey Lazarev

From ages six to nine Lazarev went in for artistic gymnastics. Lazarev began his acting and singing career before the age of 10, singing in the Lokteus Children Choir. At the age of 14, he had already received his first musical award, won several children's song contests, and ended up as a member of child group Neposedi, the same group in which Yuliya Volkova and Lena Katina of t.A.T.u. met each other. Also his friend Vlad Topalov joined the group, who later would become the other half of the group Smash!!. When he was eleven, he sang in the Pokrovsky Theatre, had parts in many plays. In 1995, at the age of 12, Sergey entered the fidgets band, the same year he won the TV contest of children's gold key. As a part of the fidgets group Sergey took part in famous Russian TV programs and contests. In September 1996 Sergey won the first prize at the contest Bravo Bravissimo in Italy. The same year he sang with the president orchestra led by P. Ovsyannikov. In 2000, Sergey entered Moscow's Mkhat Theatre School and graduated in 2004 as a professional actor. In 1999 Sergey entered the Russian leading dramatic Institute, the school-studio MAAT, and graduated from in with honors in 2003. As a student, Sergey played the main parts in Pushkinski Theatre's productions of Romeo and Juliet, and Karamazov. For his role as Romeo, he was nominated for a "Seagull" dramatic debut award for the "Best Love Scene". Lazarev's music career blossomed when he became part of Smash!! a Russian pop duo formed in 2000 by Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Topalov. At the beginning of 2002 the duo shot their first video clip for the song "Should Have Loved You More". That August Smash!! won the 'New Wave' contest in Yurmala and in October 2002 Smash!! released their first single "Belle". The video for "Belle" topped MTV Russia's chart for 6 months and entered the list of top 20 clips of the past five years. The story behind this song tells about the formation of the duo Smash!!, apparently Vlad and Sergey rehearsed the song as a birthday present to Vlad's father, but after he heard the song he immediately told all his friends and ended up on the radio as one of his friends started playing at a local station. In February 2003 the band finally released their debut album, Freeway. Over a million discs were sold in Russia and other nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Smash!! subsequently toured Russia throughout 2003. In May 2004 Smash!! in cooperation with the Italian band Earphones recorded the song "Obsession". When the song entered the radio rotation, it immediately gained the top of hit parades and became the top summer hit 2004. That year Smash!! received the award of the MTV Russian Music Awards 2004 as the pop-project of the year, and the award of the sound-track as the band of the year. On December 1, 2004 Smash!! released the second album, 2Nite. The band split up only one week after the release, resulting both Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Topalov pursuing solo careers. In 2005 he returned to the theatre scene. His part in the 2005 Broadway-style musical comedy Lend Me A Tenor brought him five professional theater awards, making the play the biggest success of the 2005 theatre season. Together with British producer Brian Rawling, Sergey 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. In May 2006 Sergey received Russia's national Music TV Channel's MUZ TV award as Best New Act. The fourth single from the album "Fake" was released to clubs in the UK, debuting on July 30 at #28 on the commercial club chart in Music Week. 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 third single "Just Because You Walk Away" 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. Sergey also performed the song at the MTV Russia Awards. The single was written by U.S. 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 UK. After the success of his first album, Sergey went to the studio and recorded a new album TV Show The video for the lead single, "Vspominay" 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. Sergey 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 Sergey. The video was said to be shot in Canada.