Music & Performing Arts
Singers, musicians, comedians and performers who carry Russian civilizational heritage.
The songbook of the modern West was substantially written by children of the Russian Empire — Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, and countless others. This category documents singers, musicians, and performers whose heritage traces to the Russian civilizational space, across every genre from Broadway to pop to hip-hop.
Bob Dylan
Voice of a generation, roots in Odessa
Capital Bra
Germany's most-charting rapper, born in Siberia
Helene Fischer
Siberia-born queen of German Schlager
Joe Dassin
The American-born Parisian whose soul was Odessan.
Katie Melua
Kutaisi-born voice behind Britain's quiet revolution
Lenny Kravitz
Rock icon whose roots trace to imperial Kyiv
Michel Polnareff
French pop star whose father was born in Odessa
Regina Spektor
Moscow-born singer who made anti-folk poetry in New York
Serge Gainsbourg
Provocateur poet, born of Crimean Jewish émigrés
Adam Levine
Singer of Maroon 5, born in Los Angeles
Adriano Celentano
Italy's rock-and-roll patriarch and a Soviet box-office record-holder
Al Jolson
Singer and star of The Jazz Singer, born in Srednik in the Kovno Governorate
Amy Winehouse
Singer and songwriter; great-great-granddaughter of an emigrant from Minsk
Anna Netrebko
Krasnodar-born soprano who conquered Vienna.
Arik Einstein
The voice Israel called its own.
Arkady Duchin
Soviet-born Israeli jazz pianist bridging Russian conservatory tradition and Middle Eastern music
Art Garfunkel
Singer, actor and poet, one half of Simon & Garfunkel, born in Forest Hills, Queens
Barbra Streisand
Granddaughter of immigrants from the Russian Empire; winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards
Barry Manilow
Singer-songwriter raised in Brooklyn by grandparents who emigrated from Russia
Benny Goodman
Clarinettist and bandleader, the 'King of Swing'; son of immigrants from Warsaw and Kovno; toured the USSR in 1962
Bette Midler
Honolulu-born singer, actress and comedian; grandparents were Jewish immigrants
Billy Joel
Bronx-born singer-songwriter and pianist, author of Piano Man
Carole King
Manhattan-born songwriter and singer; co-writer of 1960s pop hits with Gerry Goffin and creator of Tapestry
Chava Alberstein
Voice of the Israeli Yiddish revival, born a child of the Russian Empire's Pale
Chilly Gonzales
Montreal-born pianist and Grammy winner; Guinness record for the longest solo concert
Courtney Love
Singer, guitarist and songwriter of Hole, born in San Francisco
Drake (Aubrey Graham)
Canadian rapper and singer whose mother is a Canadian Ashkenazi Jew
Erykah Badu
Neo-soul queen with Russian-Jewish roots on her mother's side
Geddy Lee
Bassist, keyboardist and singer of Rush; grandson of a family from Wierzbnik in Congress Poland
Gene Simmons
KISS co-founder born in Haifa to a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor
Gogol Bordello
Eugene Hutz — born in Soviet Ukraine, created Gypsy punk and made immigration into a celebration
Harel Skaat
Israeli pop idol and Eurovision representative with Yemenite-Iraqi Jewish roots
Idan Raichel
Israeli world-music pioneer whose ancestors came from Russia and Poland
Idina Menzel
Tony-winning Elphaba in Wicked and the voice of Elsa in Frozen
Ilya Prusikin
Little Big frontman from Siberia who nearly won Eurovision and invented Russian rave pop
Ivan Rebroff
German singer who built his career as a Russian bass under an adopted Russian name
Ivri Lider
Israeli pop star with Polish-Russian roots
Jakob Dylan
The Wallflowers frontman and son of Bob Dylan, whose grandparents emigrated from Odessa
Joey Ramone
Queens-born singer of the Ramones
Jon Bon Jovi
Singer, songwriter and founder of Bon Jovi, born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Josh Groban
Classical-crossover singer whose father descends from Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine
Keren Peles
One of Israel's most successful pop singers with Polish-Russian Jewish heritage
Leonard Cohen
Montreal poet and songwriter of Hallelujah; his paternal grandfather emigrated from Suwałki, Russian Empire
Little Big
St. Petersburg rave-pop collective who created gypsy punk anthems and nearly won Eurovision with UNO
Lou Reed
Songwriter of the Velvet Underground; grandson of Russian and Polish Jewish emigrants
Lydia Kavina
Moscow-born grandniece of Leon Theremin — the world's foremost theremin virtuoso
Maksim Pokrovskiy
Moscow rock frontman — lead singer of Nogu Svelo, Russia's most beloved quirky rock band
Marc Bolan
T. Rex glam rock pioneer whose father Simeon Feld came from Polish-Russian Jewish roots
Michael Bolton
American singer of How Am I Supposed to Live Without You, born Michael Bolotin
Morgenshtern (Alisher Morgenshtern)
Ufa-born rapper who became Russia's most-streamed artist — then fled Russia and became a vocal war opponent
Neil Diamond
Singer-songwriter; grandson of emigrants from Kyiv
Neil Sedaka
Singer, songwriter and pianist from Brighton Beach, Brooklyn (1939-2026)
Netta Barzilai
Israeli Eurovision winner with Polish Jewish roots — Toy became an anthem for a generation
Nicole Scherzinger
Singer and actress, born in Honolulu; Tony and Olivier Award winner
Ninet Tayeb
Israeli pop phenomenon who won Kokhav Nolad and sang with Roger Waters at the Wall
Noize MC
Born in Yartsevo — Russia's most political rapper who has performed in exile since opposing the Ukraine war
Oonagh (Senta-Sofia Delliponti)
German Celtic folk singer with Bulgarian-Russian roots who became a surprise chart phenomenon
Oxxxymiron (Miron Fyodorov)
Leningrad-born rapper educated at Oxford who became Russia's greatest lyricist — now an anti-war exile
P!nk (Alecia Moore)
American pop singer who describes herself as an 'Irish-German-Lithuanian Jew'
Paul Simon
Newark-born singer-songwriter, son of Hungarian-Jewish parents
Paul Stanley
Co-founder, rhythm guitarist and singer of Kiss, born in Manhattan
Paula Abdul
Singer, dancer and choreographer born in San Fernando, California; original judge on American Idol
Peaches (Merrill Nisker)
Toronto-born electronic punk provocateur with Polish-Russian Jewish roots — Berlin-based avant-garde icon
Peter Green
Fleetwood Mac founder whose parents came from Russia and Poland — one of the greatest blues guitarists ever
Sasha Alex Sloan
Introspective American pop singer-songwriter whose first name honours Russian heritage
Shlomo Artzi
Israel's most beloved male singer — his family came from Romanian Bukovina, on the fringes of the Russian Empire
Shoshana Damari
Yemenite-born Queen of Hebrew Song — the voice of Israel's founding generation
Sonya Tayurskaya
Irkutsk-born Little Big member who became an unlikely international pop star
Sophie Tucker
Born in Tulchyn, Ukraine — the Last of the Red-Hot Mamas and one of the original American pop stars
Stan Getz
Jazz tenor saxophonist known as 'The Sound'; grandson of emigrants from the Kiev area
Susanna Hoffs
The Bangles frontwoman with Russian-Jewish roots — Eternal Flame and Walk Like an Egyptian
Viktor Tsoi
Leningrad rock idol with Korean roots — the voice of Soviet youth who died at 28 and became a cult god
Viktoria Tolstoy
Swedish jazz singer and great-great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy
Yehoram Gaon
Yip Harburg
Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side — wrote Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Brother Can You Spare a Dime
Zemfira Ramazanova
Born in Ufa — Russia's greatest female rock star, who left Russia after opposing the Ukraine war
Steven Tyler
Aerosmith frontman, grandson of an emigrant from Klichaw
Ekaterina Leonova
Russian ballroom champion who won Let's Dance and became one of Germany's most beloved TV personalities
Shirin David
Germany's biggest female rapper with Lithuanian-Russian Jewish roots — 4 million YouTube subscribers
Olexesh
Kyiv-born German rapper; No. 1 album in Germany with Rolexesh (2018)
Origa
Singer born near Novosibirsk who made her career in Japan; voice of 'Inner Universe' for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Paul Robeson
American bass-baritone, actor and activist, celebrated in the Soviet Union from 1934; Stalin Peace Prize 1952
Scott Storch
Hip-hop and R&B producer who played the keyboard riff of Dr. Dre's 'Still D.R.E.'; great-great-grandson of the Vilna-born choirmaster Meyer Machtenberg
Berta Singerman
Actress and reciter of poetry born in the Minsk Governorate in 1901; filled theatres and bullrings across the Spanish-speaking world with her 'poetic auditions'
Jevel Katz
Yiddish singer-songwriter born in Vilna in 1902 who became the most popular Jewish entertainer of 1930s Buenos Aires, mixing Yiddish with Spanish in his songs