His mother encouraged him to learn to play the violin as a child, and her brother, Boris Gradsky, Alexander Gradsky's uncle, was a dancer who toured abroad with the famous Moiseev dance group and brought home records of Western music artists including Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong and Little Richard.

[5] In 1963, at the age of 13, he sang with a Polish student band called Tarakany (Тараканы – The Cockroaches) in a concert at the International Club of Moscow State University.

[5] In 1971, David Tukhmanov invited Gradsky to record some vocal parts for his debut LP Kak prekrasen mir (Как прекрасен мир – How Beautiful is the World).

[6] Gradsky performed two songs, one of which, "Zhil-byl Ya" (Жил-был я – Once upon a time I was), got critical acclaim.

[4][5] Gradsky performed all the male vocal parts in the film soundtrack, which brought him fame as a solo artist.

[4][5] His first rock opera, Stadion (Стадион – Stadium), dedicated to the memory of Víctor Jara, was released as a double LP in 1985.

[9] He performed the demanding role of the Astrologer in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel (Золотой Петушок – Zolotoy Petushok) in Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre in 1988.

[14] He also worked as a host of "Alexander Gradsky's hit-parade" show on radio "Yunost"[15] showing near 107 artists from different genres (artists like Alexander Bashlachev, Yuri Shevchuk, Victor Tsoy, Konstantin Kinchev, Dmitriy Malikov, Vladimir Presnyakov Jr. got their first radio broadcast).

His collaboration with John Denver, with whom he performed the 1986 song Let us Begin..., brought him to wider international attention.

[5] On 16 July 1988 Gradsky performed at the San Francisco, California Golden Gate Park Bandshell as part of the American Soviet Peace Walk Concert.

Later that evening he also played acoustic guitar and sang during the intermission (set break) at the Grateful Dead Rex Foundation Charity concert at U.C.

[2] The opera also stars Nikolai Fomenko as Koroviev, Mikhail Seryshev (formerly of Master) as Ivan, and Elena Minina as Margarita,[2] in addition to many renowned Russian singers and actors in episodic roles, including (but not limited to) Iosif Kobzon, Lyubov Kazarnovskaya, Andrey Makarevich, Alexander Rosenbaum, Arkady Arkanov, and the late Georgi Millyar (voice footage from one of his movies was used).

In the first three seasons, the artists from his team won — Dina Garipova, Sergey Volchkov and Alexandra Vorobyova.