ARTIST OF THE YEAR Sergey Vyacheslavovich Lazarev born 1 April 1983) is a singer, dancer and actor borned in Moscow, Russia. He is most famous for his singing career, when he rose to fame as the dark-haired member of the group Smash!!. The group broke up in 2005. Since then Lazarev has pursued a solo career. Sergey Lazarev began his acting and singing career before the age of 10, singing in the Lokteus Children Choir. At the age of 14, he had already received his first musical award, won several children's song contests, and ended up as a member of child group Neposedi (Непоседы), the same group in which Yulia Volkova and Lena Katina of t.A.T.u met each other. Here he met Vlad Topalov (Влад Топалов) who later would become the other half of the group SMASH!!. In 2000, Sergey entered Moscow's famous Mkhat Theatre School and graduated in 2004 as a professional actor. As a student, Sergey played the main parts in Pushkinski Theatre's productions of Romeo and Juliet, and Karamazov. At the same time, Sergey and Vlad Topalov started the boy band Smash!!. Shortly after they were signed by Universal Music Records in Russia and were one of the biggest Russian pop groups in 2002–2003. The duo went on to have five #1 hits, numerous awards and sell millions of copies in Russia, CIS and South East Asia (including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand) during their brief career as a group. The band split up in 2005 only one week after the release of their second album 2nite. Sergey Lazarev began to record his solo album in 2005 and returned to the theatre scene, which he had left in 2003 to focus on his career in Smash!!. Together with British producer Brian Rawling, Sergey 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. In his theatrical career, his part in the Broadway-style musical comedy Borrow A Tenor brought him five professional theater awards, making the play the biggest success of the 2005 theatre season. In May 2006 Sergey received Russia's national Music TV Channel's MUZ TV award as Best New Act. The fourth single from the album Fake was released to clubs in the UK, debuting on July 30 at #28 on the commercial club chart in Music Week.