Vitas

Hidup awal

Born Vitaliy Vladasovich Grachyov on 19 February 1981^[13][14] , Vitas was raised in Odessa, Ukraine. He showed an interest in music from an early age. The young Vitaliy's grandfather taught him to play accordion,^[12] and he began writing songs as a child. He later studied music more formally. He attended an art school in Odessa and as a teenager appeared in various theatrical productions. He was "discovered" by visiting producer/manager Sergey Pudovkin, who asked Vitas if he would come to Moscow. This invitation was extended on the basis of Vitas' acting skills: Pudovkin had not yet heard him sing. Vitas travelled to Moscow with demos of his music and began working with Pudovkin.^[15]

Notability and early career

Vitas became notable in Russia in December 2000 with hit Opera No. 2, which was notable for use of Vitas' surprisingly high-pitched and energetic use of falsetto.

His concert program Philosophy of Miracle premiered at the State Kremlin Palace on 29 March 2002, establishing a record for Vitas as the youngest artist ever to perform a solo concert at this prestigious venue. A DVD of this concert was released. He also presented his fashion collection "Autumn Dreams" on the stage of the State Kremlin Palace in 29 September 2002.

Vitas received an invitation from Lucio Dalla, the composer, who created "Caruso", to perform this song together with the author at the concert "San Remo in Moscow" held in the State Kremlin Palace in 2003. Vitas' voice enchanted not only the audience but Mr. Dalla himself, so the composer invited Vitas to come to Rome to take part in the rehearsals of "Toska", the modern version of the legendary opera.

Vitas presented his second solo program "The Songs of My Mother" in the Rossia Concert Hall, Moscow in November 2003. Two albums: "The Songs of My Mother" and "Mama" of the artist were released for the premiere. The album "The Songs of My Mother" included the songs which are considered to be the gold reserves of Russian pop-music. Another album "Mama" included several new songs composed by Vitas. The two albums were a dedication to his mother who died in 2001. In 2003, he gave 264 solo concerts in places including Russia, Australia, Canada, Israel, Germany, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Belarus.^{[perlu rujukan]}

Vitas starred in a murder mystery television series called "Beloved Scoundrel" in English^[7], and "Сволочь ненаглядная" in Russian in which he played (appropriately) a pop singer with an unusually high voice. He also starred in a comedy called Crazy Day.^[7]

Development of music and image

The album A Kiss As Long As Eternity was released on 8 October 2004.

Around 2004 to 2005, Vitas became the most popular touring artist in Russia. His premiere "The Songs of My Mother" was acknowledged "the best musical event of the year."^{[perlu rujukan]}

The Production Center "Pudovkin" organized a major world tour with the program "The Songs of My Mother" in Russia and the USA, Germany, Kazakhstan, Israel and the Baltic States in 2004–2006.^[16]

In June 2006, Vitas was invited by CCTV to take part in the grand event "The Year of Russia in China" in Beijing. Vitas performed two songs, "Star" and "Opera No. 2," in that program.

Vitas' premiere "Return Home" took place in March 2007 on the stage of Kosmos. More than twenty new Vitas' compositions were included in the premiere. Many new songs have become favorites for fans via the Internet such as "Crane's Crying", "Shores of Russia", "I Ask All Saints", "The Little Prince", "I Repeat Your Name" and others.^[11]

In October 2007, Vitas was signed with American company Gemini Sun Records. Gemini Sun has released the Audio Visual Connect Series Vitas compilation CD + DVD set featuring 8 music videos with the corresponding songs also on audio CD, plus a bonus audio track.^[17][18]

In 2008, Vitas was the only foreign artist to sing at the Beijing Olympics kickoff concert in July. He also released his single Light of A New Day, a 40-minute track of vocalization and instrumentation with no lyrics. The song is available as a free download on his website.

"Sleepless Night" tour includes concerts in China; Vitas wears more elaborate costumes in this concert than his "Return Home" programme. Vitas performed his "Return Home" concert in Bucharest, Romania on 25 February 2009. This concert was broadcast on Romanian television networks TVR2 and TVRi, achieving their highest ratings in twelve months ^[19] Also, a benefit concert, with Vitas performing "The Star" was held on 12 May 2009 in Sichuan province in memory of the victims of the earthquake that occurred the previous year; a song known as "Mommy and Son" was released in late October 2009 in remembrance of earthquake victims.

Vitas is one of the stars in the Chinese film Mulan about the life of legendary and mythical heroine Hua Mulan, which premiered in Beijing on November 16, 2009.^[20] He has recorded music for the film's soundtrack.^[11][21]

Album

DVDs

1. Listed on official site as The Song Of My Mother: same tracklisting as The Songs of My Mother DVD, repackaged for the Chinese market ^[24][25]

Singles/EPs

Video

¹ Sung in Chinese; fanmade music video including Chinese movies and scenes from Crane's Crying music video.
² Sung in Italian.

• List of honorific titles in popular music

• Official Site (In English/Russian)
• Official Site in China
• Official Site in Japan
• Official Site in Mexico
• Official American Fan Site Lots of lyrics (English, Russian, Spanish)
• Official Site in Romania
• Site in Romania
• Press Release
• Wikimusic site
• Vitas Lyrics (multilingual)
• Russian Music on the Net: Info on Vitas and English song translations
• Vitas' music, photos, videos
• Russian Fansite Vitas' fans allover the world. Creativity of Vitas'fans
• Vitas Korea – Official Korean Fan Site
• Korean Fan's Blog – Soulful Voice Korean lyrics and subtitled videos
• Vitas Argentina Forum
• Colombia Fan's Blog – Vitas Colombia music – videos – lyrics and more