The Richest Singer from Daugavpils: 47-Year-Old Vitas Faces Challenges in China 0 14

The times when "Opera No. 2" played from every radio and three generations of people debated whether the singer had gills are long gone. Vitas continues to perform, so why do many believe he has disappeared from the radar?

Vitaly Grachev was born on February 19, 1979, in Daugavpils, destined to become a phenomenon in the show business at the dawn of the 2000s. Engaged in theater, plastic arts, and vocal parody, the young man discovered his main talent—his ability to sing in falsetto—while producer Sergey Pudovkin helped the raw talent create an image and an appealing legend for the audience.

After a striking music video featuring gills, the "amphibian man" began to appear in public wearing neck-covering suits, giving rise to rumors about a special throat structure. The myth was quickly debunked by vocal teachers who noted that the artist mastered the upper register but tended to deliver recitative on mid and low notes—characteristic of non-professional singers. But no matter what skeptics said, Vitas had already managed to win the hearts of millions of fans.

Why, then, have music lovers "lost" this unusual artist lately, and why have no new releases come from him since 2019? On Vitas's 47th birthday, we explore how his career and personal life have changed.

Vitas quickly gained fame, and information about him spread across the Internet. In 2004, when the first wave of popularity in Russia began to wane, Sergey Pudovkin received a letter from Taiwan: they wanted to release an album by Vitaly in Taipei.

At his own expense, the producer flew to the island and was surprised to learn that a 25-year-old businessman was planning to release the disc. "In six months, he will become a millionaire," Pudovkin later noted. "Over 10 million sales in three months. He practically printed these records at home, released them on the market, and a boom occurred."

The young entrepreneur invested nothing in promoting Vitas: the style and image of the singer magically affected young Chinese women. As Sergey recalled, the girls literally cried while listening to the artist and dreamed of being with him. "I understood what worked. At that point, I activated all my professional resources, set goals, and we began to storm television. I had to get permission from the Communist Party, a license for public performance. I spent almost a year on this—but I succeeded," the producer emphasized.

Tours

Just three months after the album's release, on a flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou, Pudovkin saw passengers with newspapers featuring Vitas on the front pages.

"Vitas opened the Olympic Games in Beijing, and they are erecting monuments to him in the country with the largest economy. There are over two hundred wax figures of him in China—in every museum, in every province. And wax museums—it's important to note—are immensely popular there. This underscores that Vitas's recognition in China is mass and national in character," the star's producer explained.

Pudovkin lamented that such excitement around Vitaly never occurred in Russia, even though he started his career there. At home, the artist was met with skepticism: some believed that everything was done by a computer, while others accused him of performing to a backing track, even though Grachev sang a cappella on tours. "For example, he participated in 'Toch-v-Toch.' There, you have to sing in different voices live on air. The guy went out and sang. Everyone in Russia (and we traveled around the country several times) knows that Vitas sings himself," Sergey emphasized.

At the same time, in Chongqing, after a concert for 15,000 spectators, Vitas could not exit the hall peacefully: the stadium was surrounded by 20,000 people who could not get into the performance. Organizers were seriously afraid that the star would be torn apart, so he had to escape through technical rooms.

Vitas's work in China continued with a break for the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, in 2018, the artist shared that he had relaunched his career and started to conquer audiences in America, Mexico, and Brazil. However, nowhere did the singer achieve such large-scale success as in Asia: Vitaly appeared in local films, children were named after him, and his pseudonym adorned toys and clothing. It is no surprise that the artist and his family settled in an eco-friendly area of Shanghai with hot springs, alternating life there with stays in a house in Rublevka.

Rumors circulated that for Vitas's New Year performances in China, a fee of eight million was ready to be paid, while at home, only 3.5 million was offered. Despite the fact that the last new release from the singer came out in 2019, he did not stop delighting Russian listeners: at least in April 2026, the performer will hold concerts in the South.

Scandals and Rumors

The entire image of the artist is built on scandal, so it would be strange if this aura completely dissolved in the past. In the 2000s, the singer lost his driving license for drunk driving, in 2013 he hit a cyclist, and in 2018 he caused a shooting in the courtyard of his house in Rublevka, for which he received seven days of arrest and a fine.

Creating a family for Vitas was also, in essence, associated with scandal, as the singer literally ran away with his young beloved to another city. Fortunately for the desperate suitor, the girl's parents approved of the union. The young couple married, and in 2008 they had a daughter, Alla, followed by a son, Maxim, seven years later, and in 2021, Alice. The couple's eldest daughter is also conquering China, as she sings and participates in talent shows.

In 2022, Vitas had a quarrel in karaoke with an official and used a pepper spray for self-defense, for which a criminal case was opened against him under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for "Intentional Infliction of Minor Harm to Health." The sensational news did not end there—in 2023, Anna Sedokova cast a shadow on colleagues, claiming that in the 2000s she saw naked Vitas and Tatyana Naynik on tour. The latter denied the rumors, while Grachev countered with a rumor about Anna.

In October 2024, information spread about Vitas's severe illness: it was said that doctors barely saved him from blindness due to retinal detachment. "Who told you that? Nonsense <…>. There was a brow incision during sparring in Muay Thai. I also injured my eye, and surgery was performed. That's how it really was," the singer explained.

By early February 2026, Sergey Pudovkin stated that the artist did have vision problems, but now he is completely healthy. "25 years on stage had an impact. Light cannons, strobe lights, large-scale laser shows that we often use in China have their significance. But overall, everything is under control; there are no problems now. Indeed, especially in China, when there are active light shows, Vitas uses special glasses," the star's producer explained.