Dima Bilan is a Russian pop singer, born in Caucasus. He was runner-up in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, and was the winner of the 2008 contest with the song 'Believe'. Now he enjoys wide success and is due to release his first english album after 3 multiplatinum Russian albums and his great success in Eurovision.

Biography:

Dima Bilan (real name Viktor Belan) was born on 24 December, 1981 in Karachay-Cherkessia. When he was one, his family moved to his grandmother’s place in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan. When he was six years old, his family moved to Kabardino-Balkaria where he went to school with his sister. He took part in morning performances, recited poems and sang songs.

He graduated from Gnesins Musical College as a classical vocal performer. Dima made his debut when he reached 4th place at the Russian/Latvian festival "New Wave" in 2002. In 2003, Dima Bilan released his debut album titled "Nochnoy Huligan," ("Night Hooligan") which included covers of "Caruso" by Lucio Dalla and "Fever" by Elvis. In 2004, he released his successful single "Na beregu neba," which was also the title of his second album.

Produced by the late Yury Aizenshpis, a Russian music mogul famous for his work with Viktor Tsoi in the Soviet Union, Dima Bilan attempted to reach Eurovision previously with the song Not That Simple in 2005, finishing in 2nd place at the Russian national selection. The video for the Russian version of the song was reputably the most expensive in the history of Russia's music industry. In December 2005 Dima received two golden gramophones for the song "Ty dolzjna ryadom byt'" (this is a russian version of "Not That Simple") in Saint Petersburg and Alma Ata. During shootings of "Noviye pyesny o glavnom"(New songs about the main thing) he received a grand prize of the First channel from the professional jury. Dima became a man of a year in the sphere of show- business because the most voters gave their voices for him according to the version of Rambler. At the end of a year he accepted an invitation from an American agency to sound treks for the musicale Peter Pan. In December a clip for the lyric composition "Ya pomnyu tebya" (I remember you) was shot in the Botanic garden. The roller proved to be fantastic and magic which correspond to atmosphere of the New Year Eve. On 14 March 2006 Dima Bilan took part in "Zolotaya sharmanka"(Golden street organ) of "International Music Awards" in Kiev where he got an award as "The singer of a year". Dimas incendiary song "Never let you go" sounded just there.

Representing Russia at Eurovision:

In the middle of March, 2006, Dima Bilan was chosen internally by the Russian broadcaster Channel One to have the honour of representing Russia at the biggest musical contest in the world, the Eurovision Song Contest, that year in Athens, Greece. Out of 37 participating countries, Dima 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 2000.

Dima scored 248 points - 44 behind winning song Hard Rock Hallelujah by Finland's Lordi - and received the maximum 12 points from a total of seven countries: Armenia, Belarus, Finland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The only countries to not award Dima any points were Monaco and Switzerland.

Dima's stage performance included two dancing ballerinas and a white piano covered in red rose petals, from which a ghost-like female figure emerged halfway through the song (much to the audience's delight). Dima wore a white vest with the number representing his place in the contest's running order - 13 and 10 in the semi-final and final respectively. Due to Russia's poor result the previous year, Dima had to qualify for the final at the semi-final on May 18. He qualified in the top ten there (finishing 3rd with 217 points) and moved directly to the final on May 20 as a bookies' favourite, following his strong semi-final performance.

Prior to the contest, Russian website RIN.ru reported that the head of Dima's hometown, Ust Jeguta, had promised to name one of the streets in his honour if he won.

Discography:
Dima Bilan in the music video Kak khotel ya (2005).
Enlarge
Dima Bilan in the music video Kak khotel ya (2005).

[edit] Albums

* 2003 Ya nochnoy khuligan (Я ночной хулиган - I'm a Nighttime Hooligan)
* 2004 Na beregu neba (На берегу неба - At The Heaven's Shore)
* 2006 Vremya-Reka (Время-река - Time is a River)

[edit] Singles

* 2003 Ya tebya pomnyu (Я тебя помню - I Remember You)
* 2003 Eto bуla lyubov' (Это была любовь - It Had Been Love)
* 2004 Not That Simple
* 2004 Ty dolzhna ryadom byt' (Ты должна рядом быть - You Should Be By My Side)
* 2006 Never Let You Go

Official website:

www.bilandima.ru/enghtml

http://www.bilandima.ru

External links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dima_Bilan

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Russian profile is located at
http://www.last.fm/music/Дима+Билан