The singer's fees start at 33 thousand euros.
According to folk singer Nadezhda Babkina, folk songs are currently in trend. She is striking while the iron is hot and is not worried about rumors regarding young men around her. How does the People's Artist live and how much does she earn?
— The surge of interest in the folk genre is a demand from society. Everyone is fed up with Europeanization and Americanization. We need to take advantage of this and establish ourselves, — Nadezhda Babkina recently stated.
Judging by the state contract database, the singer's words are consistent with reality. Last year, she and her ensemble gave a couple of concerts in Sakhalin: for this, she was paid 16 million rubles excluding rider requirements. The year before, she toured with the play "Poverty is Not a Vice": there were a total of nine performances, each bringing her 5.5 million rubles. Naturally, part of the money went to the actors and technical staff, but the amounts are still impressive. The year 2026 promises to be even more profitable. Thus, she and the singer SHAMAN (Yaroslav Dronov) announced joint performances across the country.
As the general director and artistic director, Nadezhda Babkina manages the academic theater "Russian Song" in Moscow, which she owns. From 2022 to 2026, this organization has managed to secure almost a billion rubles in budget funds through government procurement. If leaks are to be believed, in 2021 this theater could have brought Babkina nearly 13 million rubles in net income. She also allegedly received over 10 million rubles from television producers. Thus, her personal earnings at that time amounted to about 23 million rubles.
Earlier, producer Sergey Dvortsov admitted that Babkina's fees for a concert or private performance start at 3 million rubles (33,234 euros). The singer also receives a pension, which, with all supplements, amounts to about 70–80 thousand rubles.
Now, when the folk genre is back in trend, Nadezhda Babkina intersects with her colleague Nadezhda Kadysheva. The singers share the same audience and are direct competitors. Society chroniclers even claim that there is almost a feud between them.
Babkina was the first to make sharp remarks about Kadysheva. Back in 2011, she stated that she considers herself the only performer of folk songs in Russia, and Kadysheva's work is simply "pop music".
Later, Babkina refused to perform at the Yalta festival in Crimea if Kadysheva was also performing there.
Rumors say that Babkina is allegedly very envious of Kadysheva because the latter is more popular among the youth.
75-year-old Nadezhda Babkina is a People's Artist of the RSFSR, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, a laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize, and a full cavalier of the Order for Services to the Fatherland.
She hails from a village in Astrakhan. Her father is a hereditary Cossack, and her mother is a teacher. Babkina loved singing from childhood. She studied at the Astrakhan Music College, then at the Gnessin Academy in Moscow, and later at GITIS. In 1974, Babkina founded the ensemble "Russian Song", which focused on processing Russian folk songs and quickly gained popularity. During perestroika, the singer organized a folklore center of the same name. Subsequently, this center turned into a theater subordinate to the city administration. Despite the reorganization, Nadezhda Babkina remained the head.
The People's Artist has a reputation as a state supporter and patriot, a friend of the late mayor Yuri Luzhkov. She is not afraid or ashamed to express support for the authorities. Once, she was even a deputy of the Moscow City Duma. However, at one time, Babkina approved the actions of the Estonian government regarding the relocation of the monument to Soviet soldiers from the center of Tallinn to the outskirts at the Military Cemetery.
Who She Fears and Who She Loves
Nadezhda Babkina divorced her first and only official husband, the late Vladimir Zasedatelev, back in the early nineties. He was a drummer in the VIA "Samotsvety" and with Lev Leshchenko.
The next man in Nadezhda Babkina's life was Yevgeny Gor from Izhevsk, who is thirty years younger than her. The couple met in 2003 at the First All-Russian Young Performers' Competition in Saratov: she was the chair of the jury, and he was an ordinary participant. Media rumors circulated that Gor was with Babkina only for the money. The singer herself defended her fiancé.
— I often hear that Yevgeny is a gigolo. At the same time, no one mentions that he has a strong education and earns decently, — Babkina claimed.
According to data from the SPARK database, Yevgeny Gor is indeed a successful businessman. He is the beneficiary of "Yukendlz Company", which sells aromatic candles. In 2024, revenues there reached 163 million rubles, and net profit exceeded 5 million rubles. However, this company appeared for Gor only during his relationship with Babkina.
The current status of the couple is unclear. According to fashion historian Alexander Vasilyev, they have long since parted ways. However, just recently, Babkina and Gor publicly confessed their love for each other and hinted at a "reunion".
Last year, Nadezhda Babkina was rumored to be having a romance with the even younger Sergey Ryabov from Volgograd. He is forty years her junior. Ryabov holds the position of the permanent PR director and personal assistant to the artist. There were rumors that she allocated him a huge office in her theater and gifted him a three-room apartment in a Stalin-era building on Mira Avenue near the Riga railway station. Such housing costs up to 40 million rubles on the secondary market. Life.ru checked the database of the Unified State Register of Real Estate. According to it, Ryabov registered this apartment in his name in 2021. Perhaps this is nothing more than gossip. Six months ago, Ryabov married a peer.
Babkina's only son is 51-year-old Danila Babkin. He currently heads the closed joint-stock company "Regi-Sant", which owns a 150-square-meter space worth up to 150 million rubles in a historic building near Arbatskaya. Such a space can be rented out for 4–5 million rubles a year.
Bulgaria, Arbat, and the Kremlin: All the Star's Real Estate
Babkina's main residence is a 125-square-meter apartment with a view of the Kremlin just steps away from GUM and TSUM on Bryusov Lane. It is about a restored mansion from the early 20th century. The facade features a luxurious entrance group. The common hall resembles that of a five-star hotel. The courtyard is fenced and guarded, surrounded by surveillance cameras.
In the same building, but on another floor, live her son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter: they occupy a 164-square-meter apartment. Babkina also owns comparable apartments in another section of the building, which are likely rented out. In total, the listed properties are worth about 400 million rubles.
Nadezhda Babkina also has a relatively "modest" 115-square-meter apartment in a Stalin-era building on Leningradsky Prospekt opposite Chapaevsky Park near the famous Artists' Village. Currently, such housing is valued at 50 million rubles.
It is unknown what has happened to the 212-square-meter space in the basement of the princely mansion Gorchakov on Strastnoy Boulevard. Babkina purchased it in 2006 for rental to a business. Such an asset is worth about 250 million rubles.
It is also worth mentioning the three-room apartment in the mansion of her civil partner Yevgeny Gor. This property appeared during his relationship with Babkina. Its value is around 60 million rubles. Nadezhda Babkina also has good real estate in the Moscow region. She owned estates in Dubtsy near Zvenigorod and in the eco-village Rodiontsevo near Istra. The total price is in the hundreds of millions. Babkina also has two apartments in the Bulgarian resort town of Ravda. The total value is about 10 million rubles.
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