Valery Meladze

Was born on 23 June 1965 in Batumi in the family of Shota and Nelly Meladze, who were engineers. Has a brother, Konstantin (1963), and a sister, Liana (1968). He was an impatient and disobedient child, while his brother was very quiet. He went to music school and learned to play the piano. In school he did not study well. Since his parents, his grandmother and his grandfather were engineers, he decided to enter the Engineering Institute. entered the Nikolayev Shipbuilding Institute in Ukraine to study mechanical engineering of ship power plants.^[2] In 1985, Valeriy's brother started playing keyboard in the group "April". After some time, Valeriy started to sing in this group as a back-up vocalist, but this group broke up.^[3]

In 1989, Homemade album "April" reached the producer of the successful Soviet Union group Dialog. The producer liked voice, and joined Dialog as the lead singer, with Konstantin starting to write songs for the group. This culminated in the band's 1991 album, "Poseredine Mira" (Посерeдине Мира; Middle of the World).^[4][5]

Dialog's popularity had declined, however, and the group disbanded in 1991.^[6] In 1992, Valeriy joined Dialog's founder Kim Breitburg and guitarist Viktor Litvinenko to form Gruppa Dialog and, later, Mistiquana,^[4] but in 1993 he also launched his solo career. During The Moscow Tour, Valeriy and Konstantin met their future producer Evgeniy Friedland [ru].^[7] Evgeniy helped to record the first of Valeriy's songs – "Ne Trevoz Mne Dushu Skripka" (Не тревожь мне душу, скрипка; Don't Disturb my soul, violin). As Meladze later stated in interviews, after the success of the song, Evgeniy asked Valeriy to change his last name (surname) from "Meladze" to "Lisov" or "Lisovskiy," in effect translating it from Georgian to Russian ("mela" and "lisa" both meaning "fox" in their respective languages). However, he refused to change his name.^[8]

Many labels didn't want to work with Meladze, "because this music was not modern...long and not happy." But in 1993 Alla Pugacheva heard their demo record, and she invited Valeriy to sing their song at "The Christmas Meeting" in Moscow.^[9] After his success there, Valeriy released his debut solo album "Sera" (Сера) on the music label "Souz." The eponymous "Sera" became relatively popular, with "Poserеdine Leta" (Посередине Лета; The Middle Of Summer) and "Noch' Pered Rozdestvom" (Ночь Перед Рождеством; Christmas Eve) also seeing significant success.^[10]

In end of 1995 Valeriy won two awards, Ovatsii and Zvezdy in nomination "Debut Of Year" and "The Best Singer of Year". In October 1996 his second studio album Posledniy romantik (The Last Romanticist) was released.

In early of 1997 was Valeriy gave 19 concerts in the biggest Russian cities. 7 and 8 March Valeriy sang in Olympiskiy, Moscow. In end of year was released first concert and video record album "Live Olympik Moscow".

In 1998, the brothers broke off their relationship with the producer Evgeniy Friendland and with label "Souz". But in January of that year, the third studio album Samba Belogo Motylka (Samba of the White Moth) was released. After a dispute with a producer, Valeriy changed his public image, he start to wear only formal clothes and the songs became more cruel and aggressive.

In 1999 Konstantin moved to Kyiv to work on the Ukrainian telechannel "Inter" and wrote fewer songs for his brother. Therefore, Valeriy released a greatest hits album "The Best". Many fans thought that Valery left show business. However, at the end of 1999 the fourth studio album was released – "Vsyo Tak I Bylo" (Russian: Всё так и было, All was this way) on a new label "Iseburg Mesic". Songs "Mechta" (Russian: Мечта, Dream), "Rossvetnaya" (Russian: Рассветная, Daybreakly) and "Krasivo" (Beautiful;Красиво) have topped the Russian charts. In the same year Meladze voiced cartoon "Neznajka Na Lune" and wrote a song with the same name.

In 2000 the Meladze brothers founded the Russian-Ukrainian pop group "VIA Gra (ВИА Гра). At this time Valeriy took a pause in his career. But in 2004 he released songs in collaboration with "Via Gra" "Prityazeniya Bolshe Net" (Притяжения Больше Нет; which can be translated both as 'No More Attraction' or 'No More Gravity') and "Okean I Tri Reki" (Ocean and Three rivers; Океан и Три Реки) (in 2003). In the same year a greatest hits album Nastojashee (Really, The real Ones; Настоящее) was released. Fedor Bondarchuk filmed a video "Komediant", which was banned in Russia. On March 1, 2002 Valeriy acted in the Kremlin and later that year performed 11 concerts on a US tour. The same year Meladze took part in a First Channel project "10 songs of Moscow" and sung the song "Podmoskovnie Vechera" (Russian: "Подмосковные вечера", "Moscow Nights").

In 2003 he released his fifth album Nega (Нега), including the songs "C'est la vie", "Ya NE Mogu Bez Tebya" and "Oskolki Leta", which was a hit in the CIS. In early 2003 the album Sera was re-released, "Poslednij Romantik", "Samba Belogo Motilka" and "Vse tak i bilo". Also the album "Nega" (Russian: Нега) was released. In 2004 Meladze won two awards "MUZ-TV" and "Russian Music Awards" as "The Best Vocalist", "The Best Song" (Pritashenya Bolishe Net) and "The Best Duet". In 2005 Valery was "The Best Singer" again and also won an award as "The Best Duet" with "Okean I Tri Reki". He has released a compilation "Okean" for the tenth career. In 2006 Valery won award as "Singer Of Year" and became a meritorius artist of Russia. The Meladze brothers were the producers of "Fabrika Zvezd-7" in 2007. In end of 2008 Valery became People's artist of Chechnya and released a sixth studio album "Vopreki"

Meladze and Nu Virgos girl group were bestowed the title of the Best Duo of the Year at 2004 Russian Music Awards.^[11] On 2 June 2006 Meladze won the 4th Muz-TV Music Award as the Best Artist of the Year.^[12] On 24 August of the same year he was categorized as the Best Performer and the Best Artist at the MTV Russian Music Awards nominations. Valeriy is a Meritorious Artist of Russia^[11] and People's Artist of Chechnya.^[13]

In the summer of 1989, he married an engineer, Irina, in Batumi. They have three daughters together, Inga (7 February 1991) who graduated from the University of Oxford, Sofia (19 May 1999) who attended MGIMO, and Arina (7 December 2002). The couple divorced in 2014. In the of 2014, he married an Albina, in Moscow. They have two sons and one daughter together, Konstantin (26 February 2004), Luka (2 Jule 2014) and Agate (12 April 2021).

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valery Meladze.

• Official website
• Valery Meladze at IMDb
• Valery Meladze discography at Discogs
• (in Russian) Biography at MTV.ru
• (in Russian) Profile at Muz-TV.ru Archived 15 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine