1. Vitas is known for his falsetto and his eclectic musical style, which incorporates elements of operatic pop, techno, dance, classical, jazz, and folk.
38 Facts About Vitas
1. 2.
Vitas became popular in Russia and other Eastern European countries in the early 2000s and achieved success in Asia, including China, in 2005.
3.
Vitas performed in a duet with Demis Roussos and Lucio Dalla.
4.
Vitas has performed with entertainment labels such as Universal Music Group, and has toured extensively in several countries.
5.
Vitas soon moved with his parents to Ukraine, where he was raised in Odesa.
6.
Vitas is the son of costume designer Lilia Mihailovna Gracheva who was Russian and musician Vladas Arkadevich Grachev-Marantzman who was of Lithuanian and Jewish origin.
7.
Vitas showed an interest in music from an early age; his grandfather taught him to play the accordion at the age of 5.
8.
Vitas later said that he had composed at least 1,000 songs by the age of 12.
9.
Vitas attended an art school in Odesa from the age of seven, and appeared in various theatrical productions as a teenager.
10.
Vitas took the name Vitas in his teen years as he found "Vitaliy Grachev" sounded too long.
11.
Vitas regularly clashed with his father about his late night rehearsing habits.
12.
Vitas's father threatened to report him to the police as he was "behaving not quite adequately".
13.
Vitas initially started his career as a Michael Jackson tribute act, but performed parodies and his own songs.
14.
Vitas made money, amongst others, by selling leftover bread from stores on the street as well as offering services as a photographer.
15.
Vitas applied to perform with his own songs at the 1997 edition of Chervona ruta festival, but was rejected as his repertoire lacked songs in Ukrainian.
16.
Vitas started performing the song with artificial gills, which let the Russian media compare him to Ichthyander, a character in the novel Amphibian Man.
17.
In March 2002, Vitas made his first tour in the United States of America.
18.
On March 29,2002, Vitas premiered the second leg of his "Philosophy of Miracle" concert tour with a concert at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow.
19.
In late 2002, Vitas received an invitation from Lucio Dalla, the composer of "Caruso", to perform this song together with him at the "Sanremo in Moscow" concert in the State Kremlin Palace on November 23,2002.
20.
Mr Dalla then invited Vitas to come to Rome to take part in the rehearsals of Toska, a modern version of Puccini's opera.
21.
In dedication to his mother who died in 2001, Vitas released two albums: "Mama" and "The Songs of My Mother".
22.
On October 21,2003, Vitas ended his first concert tour "Philosophy of Miracle" with its last gig in Kaliningrad.
23.
On November 1,2003, Vitas presented his second concert tour with the show "The Songs of My Mother" in the "Russia" Concert Hall in Moscow.
24.
In June 2006, Vitas was invited by China Central Television to take part in a grand event entitled The Year of Russia in China in Beijing.
25.
In October 2007, Vitas was signed with now-defunct American label Gemini Sun Records.
26.
In 2008, Vitas released "Light of A New Day", a 40-minute track of non-lyrical vocalization and instrumentation.
27.
Vitas performed his Return Home concert in Bucharest, Romania on 25 February 2009.
28.
Vitas played the role of Gude in the Chinese film Mulan, which premiered in Beijing on 16 November 2009.
29.
In early 2011, Vitas performed a series of seven Sleepless Night concerts in New York City, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
30.
Vitas starred with Huang Shengyi in the musical A Night to Be a Star.
31.
In 2012, Vitas was a guest star on several Russian talk shows, including Let Them Talk, where he was interviewed for the first time on Russian television after hiding himself from the press for about a decade.
32.
Vitas celebrated his 20th anniversary as an artist starting with a new concert tour in April 2019 in Moscow, while appearing at Evening Urgant on the day of his 40th birthday.
33.
Vitas collaborated with Australian musician and DJ Timmy Trumpet on the song "The King" and performed with him at the Belgian rave festival Tomorrowland.
34.
Vitas married his longterm girlfriend Svetlana Grankovska in 2006 in Odesa in a private ceremony solely attended by family members.
35.
Vitas became more open towards the press in the early 2010s, holding his first in-depth interview in January 2012 on the Russian talk show Let Them Talk while showing his wife and daughter publicly for the first time.
36.
Vitas is known in Russia for several high-profile incidents, following the investigations of which he had to face criminal and administrative liability.
37.
When police officers arrived, Vitas refused to open the door and continued shooting.
38.
Vitas quickly left, while the official went to a trauma center where he was diagnosed with chemical eye burns.