Ruslan Fyodorovich Alekhno (russian: italic=yes, Руслан Фёдорович Алехно, Ruslan Feodorovich Alekhno, be, italic=yes, Руслан Фёдаравіч Аляхно, Ruslan Feodaravich Alyakhno) (born October 14, 1981) is a Belarusian-Russian singer who rose to popularity after winning ''

Narodniy Artist ''People's Artist'' (russian: Народный Артист, Narodny Artist) was a Russian music competition television series, based on the popular British reality television series ''Pop Idol''. It was produced by RTR in association with FBI M ...

– 2'', the Russian version of '' Pop Idol''. Alekhno received the

Medal of Francysk Skaryna Awards and decorations of Belarus are governed by the Law of the Republic of Belarus on State Awards of 18 May 2004. The highest award is the title of the Hero of Belarus. The law also specifies orders, medals and honorary titles of Belarus. Her ...

in 2019.

Early life

Ruslan Alekhno was born in October 14, 1981, in Babruysk,

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

now

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. Alekhno grew up in a

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

family, his father was a military officer. Although Alekhno only has one younger brother, he grew up alongside a total of 23 cousins. As a child, Alekhno was interested in music and took classes to play bayan and trumpet. When he was 16, Alekhno wrote his first musical composition. The role of the only spectator and critic as well was given to his mother.Ruslan Alekhno official biography on Eurovision Song Contest site
Retrieved January 25, 2010. Alekhno graduated the Babruysk State Auto-Transport College with a degree in transport planning. Subsequently, he was drafted into the Belarusian army. During his service, he was invited to become part of the Belarusian Armed Forces Academic Song and Dance Ensemble after one of the solists had heard his singing voice at an evening activity. Alekhno stayed into the Ensemble for four years, before decided to leave the army to pursue a solo career in music.

Career

Early career

In 2001, Ruslan Alekhno was the winner of the Belarusian TV project ''Hit-Moment'', and in 2003 he was the winner in "Clear Voice" nomination at the "Crossroads of Europe Festival" in Belarus and was also the laureate of "Molodechno-2003" vocal contest in Belarus. In 2004, he also won the second prize in the International Malvy Festival in Poland. In 2005, together with

Aleksey Goman Aleksey Vladimirovich Goman (russian: link=no, Алексей Владимирович Гоман) (born 12 September 1983, in Murmansk) is a Russian pop singer, composer and television presenter, who rose to popularity after winning the first se ...

, winner of ''

– 1'', he was the prize winner of Festival of Patriotic songs with "This is my Homeland", devoted to Victory anniversary. Ruslan Alekhno won the Russian TV project ''

– 2'' (in Russian ''Народный артист – 2'', translated as ''People's Artist – 2'', the Russian version of Pop Idol). Upon his victory, he released his first studio album ''Rano ili pozdno'' (Sooner or later) in 2005.

Eurovision 2008

In 2008, Ruslan Alekhno became the winner of National Television Musical project ''EuroFest'', the Belarusian annual competition to decide who would sing for the Republic of Belarus at the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

. Emerging as the victor, he went on to represent Belarus in the

2008 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Belgrade, Serbia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. Organised by the European Broadcastin ...

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, Serbia. Alekhno sang in the second semi-final elimination round on May 22, 2008, singing " Hasta la Vista", but failed to qualify to the final.

2008-present

In 2012, Alekhno began a new creative phase, recording new songs and working on a new show. His new song "Ne zabyt'" was in rotation on radio stations, and a new video was released, as well as his next single "My ostanemsya". In May 2013, he released album of war songs ''Nasledie'', which included the famous Russian songs of the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

. According to Ruslan, his new album is a tribute to all veterans of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Ruslan dedicates it to all grandparents, who fought against fascism. On May 26, 2013, International Academy of Public Recognition presented Ruslan Alekhno with the Award "For contribution to the development of Russian culture." In 2014, Alekhno released the single "Serdtse iz stekla" featuring Russian singer Valeriya. Its music video was released in Spring 2014. In 2015, Alekhno won the TV show " Odin v odin!", the Russian version of " Your Face Sounds Familiar". In 2019, he participated in '' The Voice of Russia''. During the Blind Auditions, he sang

Jaak Joala Jaak Joala (26 June 1950 – 25 September 2014) was an Estonian singer, musician and a member of two bands: Kristallid and Virmalised. He began as a flautist, later adding singing and bass guitar. Biography Early life Jaak Joala was born i ...

's "Podberu muzyku" and did not manage to let any of the coaches turn. One of the coaches,

Konstantin Meladze Konstantin Shotayevich Meladze (russian: Константин Шотаевич Меладзе, ka, კონსტანტინე მელაძე) (born 11 May 1963 in Batumi) is a Ukrainian-Russian composer and producer. He is the older b ...

, called Alekhno a "restaurant singer, who you listen to when you are drunk", causing a stir in the Belarusian media. Alekhno later said that he was happy that he did not pass the audition phase and he had little interest in the show. He admitted getting onto the show purely for the fee that Channel One had offered for his participation and said that the producers of the show had been trying to get him to participate for multiple seasons straight.

Awards

*2000 Winner of contest "Viva Victory" *2001 First Prize at the International Competition in Poland *2001 Grand Prix of the International Contest of patriotic songs Russia *2002 Laureate of the Belarusian Song and poetry *2003 Second Prize at the "Golden Hit" *2003 "Clear Voice" reward at festival "Crossroads of Europe" *2004 Second Prize of the International Festival of "Mallow" (Poland) *2004 Winner of the TV channel Russia contest "People's Artist – 2" *2005 First Prize of the All-Russian competition of patriotic songs *2013 The Award "For contribution to the development of Russian culture" *2015 Winner of the TV show "Odin v Odin!" *2019 Award of Francysk Skaryna *2021 Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus *2022 "Chanson of the Year" Award *2022 "Song of the Year" Award

Personal life

Ruslan Alekhno was in a relationship with actress

Irina Medvedeva Irina Medvedeva may refer to: *Irina Medvedeva (scientist) (1958-2021), Soviet Russian medical scientist and professor *Irina Medvedeva (actress) (born 1982), Belarusian actress {{hndis, Medvedeva, Irina ...

between 2004 and 2011, being married 2009–2011. In 2016, Ruslan married again. His second wife is Yulia Alekhno. In 2017-03-31 a daughter Varvara was born from this marriage. Alekhno is an Eastern Orthodox believer. He prays every day and vows to go to mass every single Sunday. Although he was initially reluctant to speak about the

2020-2021 Belarusian protests The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such. ...

, Alekhno later took part in the anti-protest song "Lyubimuyu ne otdayut". He however refused to reveal on whom he had voted during the

2020 Belarusian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Belarus on Sunday, 9 August 2020. Early voting began on 4 August and ran until 8 August. Incumbent Alexander Lukashenko was announced by the Central Election Commission (CEC) to have won a sixth term in offi ...

. Alekhno is considered to be part of the inner circle of Alexander Lukashenko and was seen celebrating New Year's Eve with him in 2020. Alekhno criticised artists withdrawing from and boycotting the 2021

Slavianski Bazaar The International Festival of Arts “Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk” ( be, Міжнародны фестываль мастацтваў «Славянскі базар у Віцебску», uk, Міжнародний фестиваль мист ...

Discography

Albums

*''Rano ili Pozdno'' (Sooner Or Later) (2005) *''Hasta La Vista'' (2008) *''Nasledie'' (Heritage) (2013) *''Ruslan Alehno'' (2015) *''Ya Podaryu Tebe Lyubov'' (I'll Give You My Love) (2017) *''Moya Dusha'' (My Soul) (2019)

Music Videos

*2005: "Neobyknovennaya" – Trio with Alexey Chumakov and

Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandr Sergeyevich Panayotov (russian: Александр Серге́евич Панайотов; born 1 July 1984) is a Russian-Ukrainian singer and songwriter. He has recorded two albums so far. Eurovision Song Contest Aleksandr had made ...

*2007: "Serdtse Zemli Moyei" – Duet with Irina Dorofeeva *2008: "Hasta La Vista" *2012: "Ne Zabyt" *2013: "Lyubimaya" *2014: "Heart of Glass" – Duet with Valeriya *2017: "Spasibo" (Thanks) — OST of movie Red Dog *2017: "Samaya Milaya" — Duet with Yaroslav Sumishevsky *2018: "Samaya-Samaya" (You're the most) *2019: "My Zhivyom" (We're living)

Singles

*2005: "Neobiknovennaya" (Необыкновенная, Unusual Girl) – Trio with

Alexey Chumakov Alexey, Alexei, Alexie, Aleksei, or Aleksey (russian: Алексе́й ; bg, Алексей ) is a Russian and Bulgarian male first name deriving from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Al ...

and

*2007: "Serdtse Zemli Moyei" (Сердце Земли Моей, Heart of my Land) (duet with Irina Dorofeeva) *2008: " Hasta la Vista" *2009: "Mroja" (Dream) *2012: "Ne Zabyt'" (Не Забыть, Can't Be Forgotten) *2012: "My Ostanemsya" (Мы Останемся, We'll stay) *2013: "Lyubimaya" (Любимая, Beloved) *2014: "Serdtse Iz Stekla" (Сердце Из Стекла, Heart Of Glass") (feat Valeriya)

References

External links

* *
Ruslan Alekhno Eurovision 2008 page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alekhno, Ruslan 1981 births Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Belarus 21st-century Belarusian male singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2008 Idols (TV series) winners Living people People from Babruysk