Biografia
Leonid Agutin is a Russian pop and jazz musician and songwriter with a 27-year career and 13 albums that have sold over 10 million copies across Russia, Eastern Europe, and the US. He has earned 10 Golden Gramophone awards, Russia's equivalent of the Grammy, along with 27 other international honors.
Alongside his regular schooling, Agutin studied piano at the Moscow Jazz school "Moskvorechie" and later served in the army on the Russia-Finland border.
In 1991, Agutin began touring the Soviet Union with a musical act. He graduated from the Moscow State Institute of Culture in 1993.
He won the 1992 Yalta international pop music contest and another contest in Jurmala in 1993. His debut solo album, Bosonogiy Malchik ("Barefoot Boy"), was released in 1994, achieving success and launching his career. It topped the charts and earned him Golden Gramophone awards for "Singer of the Year," "Song of the Year," and "Album of the Year." The album featured hits like "Hop hey, la la ley" and "Golos visokiy travy" (Sound of the Tall Grass).
Agutin's second album, Dekameron, came out in 1995 and was also commercially successful. Alongside artists like Philipp Kirkorov, Valeriy Meladze, and Lyube, he became one of the top recording artists in the Golden Gramophone awards.
In 2005, he recorded Cosmopolitan Life in Miami, aiming to enter international markets. The album was very successful in Germany, though efforts to break into Italy, Eastern Europe, and the US were less successful. The 2008 documentary Cosmopolitan Live, featuring Agutin and Di Meola’s performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, further boosted his popularity in Germany.
After taking a break to raise his daughter, Agutin returned in 2012 with the album Time of the Last Romantics and began regularly serving as a judge on the Russian TV show Golos.
In 2020, he celebrated the 15th anniversary of Cosmopolitan Life by releasing La Vida Cosmopolita, a Spanish-language album featuring musicians from eight countries. This album was created specifically for the Latin American market.
