Vitas

Early life

Vitas was born in Daugavpils, a city in southern Latvia. He showed an interest in music from an early age. He attended an art school in Odessa, and appeared in various theatrical productions as a teenager.

Rise to fame and early career

Vitas came to public attention in Russia in December 2000 with the song "Opera #2", which was notable for his surprisingly high-pitched and energetic vocals. In the music video, Vitas portrays an eccentric lonely man with fish gills who lives in a bathtub with jars of fish and plays the accordion naked.

In February 2001, Vitas held his first concert "Opera #..." at the Concert Hall "Russia" in Moscow, and presented his first concert tour, Philosophy of Miracle, which ended in early 2003.^[7]

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. Mr. Dalla then invited Vitas to come to Rome to take part in the rehearsals of "Toska", the modern version of Puccini's opera.

In dedication to his mother who died in 2001, Vitas released two albums, The Songs of My Mother and Mama. The Songs of My Mother included classic Russian songs which are sometimes considered to be the "gold reserves" of Russian pop-music. In November 2003, Vitas presented his second tour program, The Songs of My Mother in the Russia Concert Hall, Moscow. Compared to the flamboyant nature of his previous Philosophy of Miracle tour, The Songs of My Mother was more conservative, drawing on classic Russian songs. From 2004 to 2006, Vitas' management, the Production Center "Pudovkin" continued "The Songs of My Mother" tour in Russia and the US, Germany, Kazakhstan, Israel and the Baltic States.^[5]

In addition to his singing career, Vitas also starred in a murder mystery television series called "Сволочь ненаглядная" ("Beloved Scoundrel") in which he played a pop singer with an unusually high voice.^[8] He also starred in a comedy called Crazy Day.^[9]

Development of music and image

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, "The Star" and "Opera #2", in that program. This marked the start of Vitas' popularity in China.

Vitas' "Return Home" tour started in 2006, which was similar to Songs of My Mother in its conservative atmosphere. The concert performed in Saint Petersburg on 4 March 2007 was later released on DVD on his website as well as officially in some countries, though many songs have been removed. The full concert in Moscow was later released on DVD.

In October 2007, Vitas was signed with now-defunct American label 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.^[10] In 2008, he also released Light of A New Day, a 40-minute track of non-lyrical vocalization and instrumentation. The song is available as a free download on his website.

The "Sleepless Night" tour includes concerts in China and has a more elaborate presentation than the more conservative "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.^[11] 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. This is the very first title track of the new album "Mommy and Son" (released on 1 September 2011), which includes new songs, such as "C'est La Vie" (French for "Such is life"), "Once More", "Let the Father Teach!", "Young Rook" and others.^[2]

Vitas played the role of Gude in the Chinese film Mulan, which premiered in Beijing on 16 November 2009.^[12] He has recorded music for the film's soundtrack.^[5][13]

In early 2011, Vitas performed a series of seven Sleepless Night concerts in North America. Concerts were held in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Vancouver, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Vitas also appeared in the 2011 Chinese film The Founding of a Party, playing the role of Grigori Voitinsky. He also starred with Huang Shengyi in the musical One Night To Be Star.

In June 2015, Vitas' 2001 music video "The 7th Element" went viral after it was posted on Reddit.^[14]

In 2017, Vitas became viral again with the song "Smile", especially in Brazil, where Facebook pages such as "South America Memes" were responsible for memes using footages from his performance of the song at the Songs of My Mother tour. In October 5, he thanked the pages for his popularity.^[15]

Studio albums

DVDs

Singles/EPs

Videos