Valeriy Shotayevich Meladze (Russian: Валерий Шотаевич Меладзе, Georgian: ვალერი შოთას ძე მელაძე; born 23 June 1965 in Batumi) is a Russian singer of Georgian descent. He is the brother of composer and producer Konstantin Meladze, who writes songs for him.
In 1983 he graduated from the Nikolaev shipbuilding institute, today’s Ukraine where his music career started in the ‘Aprel’ (April) band. Valery was soloist and his elder brother Konstantin played on keyboards and arranged music.
In 1989 Kim Breytburg invited Meladze brothers to the famous ‘Dialogue’ rock-band. Konstantin Meladze wrote several songs for the ‘Posredine mira’ (In the middle of the world) and ‘Osenniy krik yastreba’ (Autumn scream of the hawk) albums. Since that moment he is the only author of Valeriy’s songs.
‘Ne trevozh mne doushou, skripka’ (Do not disturb my sole, violin) song became the first hit of Valery Meladze, which also brought him ‘Musical Discovery of 1994’ award. ‘Sera’ song made him really famous; fans still love this song. The ‘Sera’ album appeared in 1995 and immediately became the best-seller.
In 1996 his second album called ‘Posleniy Romantik’ (Last romanticist) was released.
In March 1997 Valery performed two solo concerts at the ‘Olympijskiy’ arena.
In January 1998 the ‘Samba belogo motylka’ (Samba of the white moth) album was released. By the end of 1999 the ‘Vsio tak i bylo’ (All was like that) album appeared.
In March 2002 in support of the new ‘Nastoyascheye’ (The present time) album Valery had grandiose show in Kremlin palace of congresses. The most recent album is ‘Nega’ (Bliss); it was released in December 2003.
An alliance with girl band ‘VIA Gra’ produced by his brother Konstantin has brought incredible success to Valery. ‘Okean i tri reki’ (Ocean and three rivers) and ‘Pritiazhenja bolshe net’ (No More Attraction) songs conquered hearts of millions and colorful video-clips occupied leading musical TV channels and charts for long time.
According to Gallup Media research held for ‘7 days’ magazine Valery Meladze is among today’s top 20 popular Russian performers.
Muz-TV National music award went to Valery Meladze as best performer of the 2004 and 2005. His alliance with ‘VIA Gra’ in 2004 got the Best duo of the year twice: by the versions of the Muz-TV National music award and MTV Russian music award.
