Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, a popular singer, composer, performer and producer Grigory Leps is one of the most outstanding personalities in the Russian show business. Therefore, very often people are interested in the question, who is Grigory Leps?
His nationality also raises many questions. It is worth noting that Leps is a deeply religious person, according to rumors, there are up to 150 Orthodox icons in his house. He can be called lucky, and now we will understand why.
Grigory Leps: nationality, biography
Lepsveridze Grigory Viktorovich was born July 16, 1962 in the resort city of Sochi. Father - Viktor Antonovich worked at a meat processing plant, mother - Natella Semenevna - as a nurse. The singer’s sister was Eteri Alavidze.
What was Grigory Leps in childhood ? His nationality, as clarified, is Georgian. As a child, he was distinguished by a restless and stormy character, as, indeed, many of his peers. True, at school he was a d-league, but very passionately loved football and music. At the age of 14, he went to study at a music school for a percussion class.
Then there were the army years in Khabarovsk. Upon returning to Sochi, Leps begins to work as a musician either on the dance floors of the city, then in the Riviera park, or in restaurants.
In the late 80s, he became the lead singer of the Index-398 group. And in the early 90s, he began to sing in one of the restaurants of the Pearl Hotel. The audience began to gather at Leps. Among the vacationers there were often such celebrities as Gazmanov, Rozembaum, Shufutinsky, Kalyanov, who advised him to go to Moscow. Leps never had a passion for wealth, and even at that time he earned a lot of money every day, so he easily spent it.
Moscow, the beginning ... 1992
But then he decided not to waste his talent and went to conquer Moscow. At that time he was 30 years old. The capital does not like visitors much, and Leps immediately felt this. Here he turned out to be useless to anyone, began to drink, gained weight up to 100 kg, in general, looked, to put it mildly, very bad, and the people who promised to help him immediately disappeared. However, the singer was not in poverty, he continued to earn money in restaurants.
After many failures, he, in collaboration with Manshin, Kobylyansky and Dolzhenkov, recorded his first debut album, God bless you. Then a song and a clip for Natalie appeared. From this began the stellar journey of the great maestro.
And here, in the midst of work, due to a busy schedule and excessive alcohol consumption, the musician became very ill and was taken to the hospital with a diagnosis of pancreatic necrosis and already thought that he would never see the white light. But God turned out to be merciful; an operation was performed on him. Doctors strictly forbade him to drink. From that day on, he really stopped drinking alcohol. The fear of dying young overcame, he lost 35 kg. But Leps was waiting for another blow to his health in 2008, when he had a bleeding ulcer, but Leps also coped with this disease.
In 1997, his new album, A Whole Life, was released, and Leps first participated in the music television festival Song of the Year 97. In 1998, Pugacheva herself invited him to Christmas meetings.
A little later, the audience will admire his talent at a concert dedicated to Vysotsky, where he will sing the song “Sail” in a very original way. After his collaboration with Alexander Solokha begins.
The big scene since 2000
And then it started, went: solo concerts, recording albums and videos. In 2000, he again undergoes surgery, only on the vocal cords. But everything worked out, and again he acts and in 2001 receives the Chanson of the Year award.
Grigory Leps, whose songs can no longer be counted, can rightfully be called the king of the smash hit. What are his duets with Alegrova - “I Do Not Believe You” (2007), with Stas Piekha - “She Is Not Yours” (2007), Rosembaum - “Gop-Stop” (2008), Meladze - “Turn Back” (2010) Timati - “London” (2012), etc., not to mention his many solo albums and concerts.
He is the owner of many prestigious prizes and awards, as well as honorary titles. In 2011, President D. Medvedev awarded him the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation.
Grigory Leps: family
If we talk about the family life of the artist, his first wife was Svetlana Dubinskaya, with whom they studied at a music school. In this daughter Inga was born (1984), now she lives in the UK. But after a while they divorced. The second time, Leps married in 2000 with Anna Shaplykova, a dancer from Laima Vaikule’s ballet. Now they are raising three children: Eve (2002), Nicole (2007) and son Vano (2010).
Millionaire
Interestingly, according to Forbes magazine, only by 2011, its income amounted to 15 million US dollars. However, not only did Grigory Leps make music, whose songs were played on all radio stations and television, he also turned out to be a good businessman, as he became the owner of restaurants in Moscow and Kiev, began to manufacture glasses under his own brand.
The USA, of course, couldn’t forgive the singer for this, so he was accused of mafia connections and blacklisted as banned. Leps in America has neither accounts nor property, so he took these accusations as an irony of fate.
The singer has an extraordinary timbre of voice, so to speak, growling. "Pop song with elements of rock," as Grigory Leps himself said about his style. Nationality played a big role in the life of Gregory. It should be noted that the most musical and delicate music performers on our stage are Georgians. The brothers Valery and Konstantin Meladze, Soso Pavliashvili, Tamara Gvartsiteli and, of course, Leps Grigory Viktorovich can serve as an example.