Dima Nikolayevich Bilan[1] (Russian: Ди́ма Никола́евич Била́н; born Viktor Nikolayevich Belan, Russian: Ви́ктор Никола́евич Бела́н; 24 December 1981) is a Russian singer and model. 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.
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.[3] 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.[4]
Career
1998–2004: Early career, New Wave and first albums
"1998 came about (...) I already studied in the eleventh grade, but I had not graduated yet. During the Winter, I travelled to Moscow and I wrote in my diary [the lyrics of Meladze's "Vera"]: 'To the north, to the north, goes the train from nowhere to Moscow. The conductor sleeps, the drunken neighbours sleep.'. It was true that my neighbours were drunk, it was a couchette car. I was writing and writing and thought: this is exactly how my life is going now. I wrote five pages about it. It helped me a lot back then."[5]
Dima Bilan
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.[6] In 1995, he first performed at a televised music contest, singing Valeriy Meladze's "Aktrisa".[7] Meladze's 1997 single "Vera" especially became important to Bilan.[8]
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.[9] After moving to Moscow to studying at Gnessin, Bilan started recording his first songs. His first music video "Osen'" was released in late 2000. He performed his first music video under the pseudonym Dima Belan.[10]
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.[11] Bilan then officially started performing under the pseudonym "Dima Bilan", taking both the first name and surname of his grandfather.[12]
In August 2002, Bilan participated in the first edition of New Wave. At the end of the contest, he finished in fourth place.[13]
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.[14] The subsequent album Na beregu neba became one of the best-selling albums in Russia of 2004, receiving a gold certification.[15]
2005–2008: Eurovision participations, "Believe" and brief international breakthrough
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.[16] The Russian version of the song, titled "Ty dolzhna ryadom byt'" became the 21st most-played track on Russian radio in 2005.[17]
In mid-March 2006, Bilan was chosen internally by Russian broadcaster Channel One to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens, Greece. 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.
Also in 2007 he premiered the first single from his new album — Number One Fan. According to Russian and Eastern European radio airplay chart, Number One Fan topped the charts for eight weeks. Video for this song[18] was shot in London by famous British director Trudy Bellinger.
On 4 October, Bilan premiered his second single from the forthcoming album, Amnesia, at the MTV Russia Music Awards 2007. During this show, Bilan won three awards, for Best Performer, Best Song and — for the third consecutive year — Best Artist.
Bilan performing at the Eurovision Song Contest final in Belgrade, 2008. He is accompanied by Edvin Marton (left) and Evgeni Plushenko (right).
On 20 February, Bilan went to Miami and recorded a few tracks for his Spanish album with famous producer Rudy Perez. The Spanish album will include[needs update] a duet with Nelly Furtado and a Spanish version of his first international single "Number One Fan."[19]
In 2008, Bilan once again represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade with the song "Believe", accompanied by Hungarian violinistEdvin Marton and Russian olympic and three-time world champion figure skater Evgeni Plushenko. On 24 May 2008, Bilan won first place in the contest, receiving 272 points and seven twelves. His victory's integrity was questioned by Ukraine's officials later in May.[20] The following years, the trio performed at various ice shows, among them the inaugural 2010 edition of the Fantasy on Ice show in Fukui.[21]: chpt. 5
2009–2010
During 2009 Bilan has continued with concerts and he also performed during the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, before handing over the title of Eurovision Song Contest winner to Alexander Rybak of Norway.
In 2010 Dima recorded a demo version of the song "White Nights", which would be competing in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, but he did not enter the contest saying that it would be too soon to return to the contest after just 2 years after his win at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.
In the Summer of 2010, Bilan produced and starred in the short film Театр Абсурда (Theatre of the Absurd, written and directed by Maxim Apriatin and based upon Bilan's song Он хотел (He Wanted To). In the film, Bilan performs monologues in which he shares his opinion on the moral values of the people who live in the Russian capital, as well as quotations from Ecclesiastes, and scraps of the diary of Jim Morrison. The film was released on the Internet in late 2010.[22][23][24]
^World FS (November 2010). ファンタジー･オン･アイス福井公演 [Fantasy on Ice in Fukui]. World Figure Skating (in Japanese). Vol. 45. Bunkyo, Tokyo: Shinshokan (published 20 November 2010). p. 95. ISBN978-4403310638.
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