He represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, and finished in third place, coming first in the televote.

[3] “All my childhood is connected with the stage, with the viewer, with the joy of victories and achieving goals, with the desire for self-improvement when I had to experience failures and defeats.

[11] After this divorce, her mother Valentina started a bed sheet sewing business in a cooperative in order to take care of her two sons.

[12] Along with their mom; their stepfather, Mikhail, and grandmother, Zhanna Petrovna also played an active role in raising Sergey and his brother.

[14] However, he had to quit gymnastics due to an injury, about which he later said: "There were two things I liked most: standing on my head and singing songs.

"[15] His transition from sports to music began with his participation in the children's song contest Utrennyaya zvezda.

[20] In 2000, Lazarev entered Moscow's MKhAT Theatre School and graduated in 2004 as a professional actor.

As a student, Lazarev played the main parts in Pushkinski Theatre's productions of Romeo and Juliet, and Karamazov.

The following year Freeway was released in East Asian countries including; Korea, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines.

The release of the album was followed by the promotional tour in the South-Eastern Asia, during which the band shot a video clip for the cover-version of George Michael's song "Faith" in Shanghai.

The band split up only one week after the release, with both Lazarev and Topalov deciding to pursue solo careers.

[4]Together with British producer Brian Rawling, Lazarev recorded most of the songs for his solo debut Don't Be Fake that was released in November 2005 and sold more than 300,000 copies in Russia alone.

Consequently, releasing the video of the Russian version of the song "Almost Sorry", ("Зачем придумали любовь") this one being the fifth and last single of the album.

In 2007, he placed first in the reality show Circus of the Stars,[27][28][29] finished second in the Russian version of Dancing on Ice[30] and performed Earth Song by Michael Jackson at the New Wave festival.

[32] Furthermore, he was nominated in the category of Best Russian Act at the 2007 MTV Europe Music Awards, which again was won by Dima Bilan.

[33][34][35] As his international fame rose, he performed to full-capacity crowds at The Opera House in Bournemouth, England on 23 March 2008[36] as a supporting act to British dance group Booty Luv.

In April 2009 Lazarev promoted "Stereo", the lead single for his third solo album and sang "Already Know" and "Out of Control".

The video for "Alarm" was released on 10 May and on 26 June it was confirmed the song "Feeling High" was the new single from Electric Touch.

[37] Two months after the release, the album became the sales leader in Russia and certified gold by Sony Music.

[40] A few days later, Lyudmila Lisitsina, head of the cultural department of the Rostov city administration, stated that Lazarev and those who worked with him had been previously informed about the duration of the stage use and that his later request was rejected because of the possible danger of the stampede.

Moscow to California was premiered 6 February 2012 via the web site of the Russian Billboard magazine.

Lazarev threatened to sue the social networking service VKontakte for its illegal placement of pirated copies of his songs even before their official release.

Lazarev added that the recording of his speech was shortened and edited by the Ukrainian TV crew so as to create "an anti-Russian interview" and regretted for being involved in an information war.

His older brother, Pavel Lazarev, died in hospital on March 25, 4 days after the car accident.

[55][56][57] The Best (Russian Edition), Lazarev's greatest-hits compilation album, was released on April 1, 2015 to mark the tenth anniversary of his solo career,[58] when he also premiered music video for the song "Lucky Stranger".

The video starred Maria Kravchenko from Comedy Woman and Alexander Gudkov from Evening Urgant.

[61][62] The song produced by Philipp Kirkorov was later released along with its music video which features Miss Universe Russia 2015 Vladislava Evtushenko on 5 March 2016.

[67][68] Lazarev revealed that he fell from the high platform during the rehearsals on May 2, 2016, and overcame the accident with bruises on his right leg without any injury afterward.

[69][70] In December 2016, he announced that he has a two-year-old son, Nikita, after pictures of both attending church were captured by paparazzi.