From 1967 to 1970, he was in the Soviet army and was one of the head musicians in the Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR and Moldova based in Kiev.

He is the author of such songs as Armenia (with Tata Simonyan), Helpline, The Jewish Boy, Russia, A Glass of Nostalgia, Ah, How Pity and many others.

The lyrics to most of his songs were written by his wife Olga Pavlova, a famous Russian poet and radio host who has written lyrics for a lot of famous Russian artists, she is also the daughter of the famous Russian impresario, concert administrator and director Pavel Leonidovich Leonidov]] (director to such artists as Joseph Kobzon, Vadim Mulerman, the pop group Samotsvety and others), who died in 1984 in New York City.

[4] Leonidov was also a very famous Russian poet who wrote such songs as Zvezdi Na Lugu, A More Spit, Tselyi Mir, Oka, Vetochka Ryabiny and many others.

He is survived by his wife Olga Pavlova (born 1952), his sons Filip and Pavel, his daughter Elena, granddaughter Anastasia and grandson Christian.