Nikolay Baskov

Nikolay Baskov

Nikolay Victorovich Baskov PAR (Russian: Николай Викторович Басков, 15 October 1976, in Balashikha Moscow, Russian SFSR) is a popular Russian tenor singer. He's famous for performing both classical operatic arias and pop music songs.

He is Meritorious (2001) and People's (2009) Artist of the Russian Federation. He is people's artist of Ukraine. He is also known for participating on the Russian television intellectual game show What? Where? When? as a member of Mikhail Barshchevsky's team.

Nikolay Baskov studied at Gnessin music academy in Moscow, and became an aspirant of Moscow State Petr Chaykovsky Conservatory. In 1998 Baskov won the first prize in the All-Russian Young Singers Competition and second prize in the Grande Voce competition 1999 in Spain.

The same year Nikolay Baskov was invited to the Bolshoi theatre troupe. He performed the major arias in such operas as Yevgeni Onegin, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Traviata and others.

In 2000 he recorded his debut solo album «Posveshenie» (Dedication). The video filmed for «In Memory of Caruso» (based on Adagio in G minor) was aired on Russian TV and increased his popularity. Since 2001, Baskov abandoned the Bolshoi to run his commercially successful solo career. Though Baskov's repertoire consists mostly of modern arrangements of arias and romances, he performs pop music as well. Nikolay has often performed with pop artists, as well as with classical singers such as Montserrat Caballé. From July 2009 to March 2011, he dated Oksana Fedorova, the former Miss Universe.

Released in 2011 the "Nikolai Baskov: Romantic Journey" concert performance CD/DVD takes place at Moscow’s Hall of the Luzhniki Stadium. Baskov is accompanied by a full orchestra and plays to an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 10,000 people. Taped with 24 HD cameras, this is Russia’s most elaborate and expensive performance ever recorded for international television. He performs classic pieces from “Tosca”, “La Boheme”, “Werther”, “Turandot” and other popular songs from his catalogue such as “Be My Love”, “Granada” and “Back to Sorrento”. Baskov is joined by world-renowned soprano, Montserrat Caballé, and her daughter Marti, for several duets.

Baskov had his first American tour in early 2012. In December 2012, he signed an open letter against a St. Petersburg bill banning "homosexual propaganda", along with pop stars like Philipp Kirkorov and Dima Bilan.