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Dima Bilan Profile |
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Birth Date: December 24, 1981
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Birth Place: Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia
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Birth Name: Viktor Belan
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Biography |
Dima Bilan (Russian: Дмитрий "Дима" Билан; real name: Viktor
Belan Russian: Виктор Белан) is a Karachay-Russian pop
artist. He was born on 1981 in Karachay-Cherkessia. Dima
represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with
Never Let You Go, finishing 2nd. He is about to release his
third full-length album as a professional artist.
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.
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. |
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