It is difficult to find a person who at least once would not complain about bad Russian music. Many sincerely wonder how these performers, without a drop of talent, get on stage and in rotation, although in fact the answer is simple: they have a good producer who can even make a real “candy” from a project that is dubious at first glance, the songs of which will sound from every iron.
Today we’ll talk about the ten most successful Russian music producers.
10. Bari Alibasov
Bari Karimovich gathered his first group in 1966, calling it “Integral”. For the collective, he wrote songs and music (in styles from jazz to the psychedelic underground), and also studied promotion, which was very useful to him in the future.
“Integral” Alibasov dismissed in the late 80s, deciding to launch a new project, which became his cult team “Na-Na”. The group performed a lot in the USA and was an honored guest at the American Music Awards, but in general, things have been getting worse and worse since the beginning of zero.
9. Igor Krutoy
The national artist of Ukraine and Russia was born in the most ordinary Soviet working-class family: his father worked in a factory, his mother in a laboratory. Since childhood, Igor’s soul lay in music, so no one was particularly surprised that the boy independently mastered playing the button accordion to perform in the school ensemble.
Later, while studying at the Belinsky Institute, he met with Alexander Serov, who quickly recognized the talent of the poet and composer in him. Serov is one of the first to whom Krutoy began to write songs, and it was he who glorified him, wonderful performing the song "Madonna" (to the poems of Rimma Kazakova) in 1987. In the same year, the first album - “Recognition” was released, which included 4 tracks by Igor.
8. Victor Drobysh
All-Russian popularity was brought to Drobysh by collaboration with such domestic pop stars as singer Valeria, Grigory Leps, Stas Piekha, and in particular Kristina Orbakaite, who performed his song All My Love at the Monte Carlo World Music Awards in 2002. Victor is appreciated not only as a producer, but also as an author, and not everyone succeeds in achieving this.
7. Yana Rudkovskaya
The only woman in our selection who, in terms of success, can give odds to many men. Engaged in business, namely, beauty salons, Yana began immediately after graduation, gradually achieving good results. This made her look around and choose other niches that can still be conquered, and the choice fell on show business.
Having become the producer of Dima Bilan, she achieved everything that is possible on this field: her artist took first place at Eurovision, and everyone knows his name and songs.
6. Igor Matvienko
Igor Matvienko is one of the most “prolific” Russian producers: unlike Rudkovskaya, who, in addition to Bilan, worked with just a couple of artists, Matvienko had a hand in popularizing a whole scattering of stars of different sizes.
His most long-playing project is the Lube group, which he has been working with since 1989. Other names and the name of his wards are also familiar to you: “Roots”, “Ivanushki International”, “City 312”, Victoria Daineko, “Factory” and others.
5. Joseph Prigogine
Joseph was born in an ordinary working-class family, and therefore, from an early age, he did not shy away from physical labor: at the age of 12 he began to work part-time at a hairdresser. When he turned 16, he went to Moscow and, notably, did not join the Komsomol, although he was in the yard in 1985.
He began producing activities after graduating from GITIS, starting with the organization of concerts. Then there was cooperation with Tatyana Bulanova, Vakhtang Kikabidze, Abraham Russo, Valeria, who became his wife, and many others.
4. Konstantin Meladze
The elder brother of the famous singer Valery Meladze became famous not because of the promotion of his brother’s talent, as one might think, but because of his hard work and innate ability to feel the mood of people.
In 2000, he subtly felt that people were tired of chastity and restraint, so he decided to present to the public “VIA Gru”, the effect of which was similar to a nuclear explosion.
In addition to the sexual team, he also worked with Vera Brezhneva, Ani Lorak, Alla Pugacheva, Polina Gagarina, Verka Serduchka and many other performers. For some, he wrote songs, and someone fully produced.
3. Vasily Vakulenko
Now the rapper Basta is known by name and surname (someone even knows his middle name), and you would ask anyone about 5-10 years ago who Vakulenko is, and no one would answer you.
A brutal musician, not shy of a strong word and forbidden topics in his texts, he was a simple guy from the streets who led his game. Nobody would believe then that this gouging in wide pants, reading under the strange pseudonyms Noggano and N1NT3ND0, will become the 2018 World Cup ambassador for football from Rostov-on-Don.
2. Timati
A graduate of the fourth season of the acclaimed “Star Factory”, Timati (Timur Ildarovich Yunusov in the world) came to the world of music long before participating in the show. The first team he assembled in 1998, giving him the sonorous name of VIP77. Given that he was 15 years old at that time, this is excusable. The group’s career didn’t go, but everything was adjusted personally by Timati: in 2000, he was back-MS at Decl, and after another 4 years - the fateful “Factory” and the birth of “Blackstar”.
Now he is a recognized (albeit controversial) figure of Russian hip-hop, which is engaged in producing such guys as L’One, Scrooge, Yegor Creed and others.
1. Maxim Fadeev
In his youth, Fadeev tried to start a solo career as a singer, but all his attempts to break into radio or television ended in failure. This did not happen at all because of a lack of talent, but simply because it was "not a format." Because of this, he decided to drop everything and temporarily went to live in Germany, honing his producer skills there.
When he returned, he became one of the producers of the second season of Star Factory, who gave us such names as Irakli, Polina Gagarina, Elena Temnikova and others. By the way, Fadeev took the last one into his new project - the Serebro group, which took 3rd place at Eurovision in 2007 and became very popular in Russia and even beyond its borders.