Stas Mihailov In Concert
With a voice — and audience — as big as all Russia, Stas Mihailov is a crooner of the people. His career has been marked by extremes of hardship and success, from a hard-knock life in the 1990s to becoming Russia's richest singer in 2011.
Stanislav Vladimirovich Mihailov was born in 1969 to a pilot and a nurse in the seaside city of Sochi, on Russia's western edge. He was taught his first guitar chords by his older brother and, when neither music school nor flight school stuck, worked as a baker and played guitar in Sochi restaurants.
In 1992, Mihailov and his family moved to Moscow, where he wrote "Candle," which would later become the title track of his 1997 debut album, completed while he worked in St. Petersburg's theater scene. "In the 1990s, I was in crisis and lived in poverty," Mihailov said in a 2008 interview. "I was drinking and felt sorry for myself. But I was able to overcome it because of heaven."
After returning to Moscow, Mihailov struck gold in 2004 with his first big hit, "Without You." Many other resonant romantic tracks would follow, including "Only You," "Between Heaven and Earth," "I Understand, You're Tired," and "Golden Heart," whose video has been viewed on YouTube more than 31 million times.
Having established himself as the goateed voice of romantic pathos, Mihailov proceeded to accumulate both accolades and happiness. A favorite of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Mihailov performed on the State Kremlin Palace stage in 2008. He was deemed a Merited Artist of the Russian Federation in 2010, and Forbes declared him the country's top show-business earner in both 2011 and 2012.
In 2011, Mihailov married his beloved Inna, the former wife of soccer star Andrei Kanchelskis. The couple later opened Communal, a St. Petersburg restaurant specializing in "Soviet cuisine." It's a fitting business decision for the people-pleasing singer. Mihailov's timeless songs about broken hearts, burning candles, and the pain of infidelity feed the Russian soul.