Irakli Pirtskhalava, biography, news, photos

Childhood

Irakli was not a very diligent student, which is why he managed to change five schools.
The future artist gnawed at the granite of science at a sports boarding school, where the focus was on the French language. Irakli himself cherished the dream of being a football player. But he had to give up this desire, his mother asked him about it. Then the young man, at the insistence of his mother, went to a music school, where he learned to play the violin. “As a child, I dreamed of becoming a football player,” says the singer, “I even remember how I proved to my mother that athletes, in fact, are healthy and strong people, plus, they earn good money. Mom listened to me carefully... and took me to a music school. But when I was 13 years old, justice triumphed. I went to classes with the Lokomotiv football club team. But, unfortunately, it became clear even then that I was too old to start a football career. That's why I had to leave professional sports. I wasn’t very upset; I had my first successes in music at that time.”

Passion for music

And already at the age of 16, the young man was able to record his first composition, moreover, in a professional studio. Immediately Irakli became quite seriously interested in the hip-hop direction. The schoolboy was the first to wear wide pants to school. By the way, the young man changed his image so radically just after he passed a serious casting for the dance group of Bogdan Titomir. At that time he was a cult musician.

Irakli Pirtskhalava - popular singer

Out of two thousand girls and boys, Bogdan Titomir personally chose only six. They were entrusted with the honorary right to perform at the artist’s solo concert at the Olimpiysky.

As soon as Irakli began to “get sick” of hip-hop, he began to build his career in this direction. With a friend, the future artist created the group “K&K” or “Fang and Vitriol”. Irakli was Fang here. The team even released cassettes.

“At that time, I, as a producer, released a hip-hop collection. The record appeared with the support of a large metropolitan recording company. Moreover, the music that we offered was different from that performed by most hip-hop groups. We made exclusively positive songs,” says Irakli.

Irakli: “To achieve your goal, you need to go forward, no matter what”

I started making music at the age of 16, in September I will be 42 - it turns out that I have been in music for almost 26 years. I started with rap. At 16 I had several rap groups that were famous at the time.

I became famous from my school days. We played at really underground venues and festivals. Then, due to some circumstances, I left for a new group, and it so happened that an American producer came to Russia and created one of the boy bands here. He came to our concert, was inspired by our energy and invited me to participate in his team.

At first I wanted to combine two groups, but it naturally happened that the team I was a member of broke up. I became interested in studying a more musical style, where there were arrangements of voices, polyphony, the first attempts to make Russian soul and such “firn” music. And that’s how I met Matvey Anichkin and started working in the “Tete-a-Tete” group. This group existed for 5-6 years, filling concert halls, but the name of this group is unlikely to mean anything to today’s youth.

Irakli.
Photo from personal archive Many people recognized me from the music show “Star Factory”. One day my vocal teacher, simply my teacher in life, the brilliant Vladimir Korobka said: “Do you want to go to the Star Factory? To be honest, at first I reacted negatively because I thought this project was “pop” and uninteresting. And later I found out that Max Fadeev would be the producer, and I was very interested in this, because he is an outstanding personality. To be honest, I just went and decided to test myself whether they would take me or not. The casting took place, and then I received a call, on the other end of the line they said that they were waiting for me in the final round. This was a big boost to my solo career.

By the way, I don’t come from a rich family, and I didn’t have money for promotion in show business at that time. Nowadays you can post a track on some social network and accidentally turn out to be the favorite of all young people the next day. At that time this did not exist; there were other schemes. Twice I became the favorite of young people through hip-hop groups, without any videos or promos.

Irakli. Photo from personal archive

Now I’m at a certain point of measurement, I can look back and understand that I didn’t go overboard and didn’t pay money for broadcasts and didn’t trip anyone up, and I created music, and it grew wiser along with me, my development. I have reached such a level that I am working with Father Seraphim on the Metamorfosi project - this is not just a song, but a musical film about God. We were blessed by His Holiness the Patriarch of Georgia. Monk Seraphim sings in Aramaic (the language of Jesus Christ). The “Repentance” video, which will be included in this project, has already been presented.

“Factory” for me is a whole Mexican series: quarrels, scandals, fights, love and warmth and friendship. Together. I remember everything very emotionally. At the same time, I was not overwhelmed by the wave of fame, like some. I think every person has vanity, it’s just that people are divided into two categories: those who admit it and those who deny it.

The hit by which people began to recognize me was, perhaps, “Vova the Plague.” This was 15 or 16 years ago, and then the more lyrical “Take a Step” and “It Doesn’t Happen” were created. Now, I think that people who are watching, they notice changes. Now I’m a different, grown man, and not the cheerful guy from “Factory”.

Irakli. Photo from personal archive

But, looking back, I don’t regret anything, I wouldn’t change anything. There is nothing for which I would be ashamed. I have never hidden anything in my life, I have always been open. But it was difficult to win the hearts of listeners. Difficult and interesting. Now, when young artists say “you have a different status, they treat you differently,” I smile, because I really don’t remember when I was in their place. Back then it was more difficult to get the love of listeners, because the main fame came from TV and radio, now, thanks to the Internet, you can become famous without performing at all.

But before, I remember coming home, and my mother, a hospitable Georgian, was chatting with the girls in the kitchen. It turns out that these are my fans who were watching me at the entrance, well, my mother let them in. And this happened more than once.

If we talk about today's creativity, I am currently working on songs, and an album will be released after some time. For example, my new track “LUNA” was recently released together with Lika Star.

If you want to become confident and achieve your goal, the main thing is not to overdo it with self-confidence, but at the same time believe in yourself. Achieving goals is a whole science. Of course, responsibility is important here, first of all, to yourself. Just believe and move forward, no matter what. No matter how slowly you move on your chosen path. Don't waste your time on trifles.

One-on-one

A little later, Irakli received a tempting offer from the famous producer Matvey Anichkin.
He invited Pirtskhalava to become a member of a new team called “Tete-a-tete”. The artist agreed and brought two of his friends to the group. However, the band lived for only four years, released an album and one maxi-single. “Now, probably, the group was more relevant, but at that time the music of the group “Tete-a-tete” turned out to be too incomprehensible for Russia and proprietary, so the group ceased to exist,” says Pirtskhalava, “after the collapse of the group, one of the capital’s clubs invited me to throw an R'n'B party. As I remember now, the party took place on Wednesday, that is, on a non-club day, however, the evening was a great success. There weren’t even enough places in the wardrobe, that’s how full it was.”

Irakli Pirtskhalava with his wife Sofia Grebenshchikova

From this moment we can mark the beginning of the era of cult parties at the Garage club. And it lasted only four years. Gradually, parties began to be organized in several clubs in Moscow, and at the same time Irakli Pirtskhalava began to hold some festivals.

By the way, Pirtskhalava’s organizational skills helped hold the “Moscow Open Street Dance Championship” for four years in a row. It brought together artists who danced in a variety of styles. Moreover, the participants came not only from different parts of Moscow, but also from Russian cities, as well as countries of the former USSR and Europe.

Irakli also organized the Black music festival, where he invited leading DJs and MCs. It is worth noting that the artist did not limit himself to organizing parties in clubs and festivals. At the same time, Pirtskhalava hosted his own program on the Hit-FM radio station “Club Peppers”. In addition, the celebrity was the art director of the Gallery club.

Videography[ | ]

• London-Paris (2004)

1. Vova-plague (2003)
2. Sheik (feat. Alexey Semenov) (2003)
3. London-Paris (2004)
4. Time (2004)

• Take a Step (2006)

1. Drops of Absinthe (2005)
2. I'm with you (2006)
3. Dreams (2007)
4. It doesn't happen that way (2008)
5. You're not with me (feat. DJ Groove & , ) (2008)
6. Take a Step (feat. Dino MC47) (2009)

• Angels and Demons

1. Around the Earth (feat. Lera Kondra) (2010)
2. In half (2011)
3. White Beach (feat. Bianca) (2011)
4. You're Alone (2011)
5. Dislike (feat. Dasha Suvorova) (2012)
6. I love you (2012)
7. Autumn (2012)
8. Everything will be OK! (2013)
9. Dirty Girl (feat. David Vendetta & Demirra) (2013)
10. I Like It (feat. Nel) (2014)
11. I am you (feat. St1m) (2014)
12. Don't Believe Tears (2015)
13. On the Boulevard (2016), dir. Ekaterina Sannikova
14. Online (2017)

• T.B.A.

1. Snow (2017)
2. Don't Cry Like a Girl (2018)
3. Two Oceans (2018)

Irakli Pirtskhalava at the Star Factory

And it was at this time that Irakli Pirtskhalava learned about the casting for the project “Star Factory - 2”.
The artist just heard about him on TV. And when I found out that Maxim Fadeev would be the producer of the project, my doubts about the auditions disappeared by themselves. Irakli Pirtskhalava on video Thanks to the sensational Star Factory project, Russia learned about such an artist as Irakli. And immediately after graduation, the musician began releasing hit after hit. So, he recorded his first song “Vova Plague”, which became mega-popular. Afterwards the compositions “London-Paris”, “A Drop of Absinthe”, “Time”, “I am with you”, and many others were released. So, in 2004 the album “London-Paris” appeared, two years later listeners rejoiced at the release of the album “I am with you”, and in 2009 Irakli presented an album called “Take a Step”. Here the artist performed not only as a performer, but also as the author and sound producer of many compositions.

In the fall of 2010, Irakli Pirtskhalava was a student at the State University of Management. He was a student in the Music Industry Management program. Lectures on the course where the artist studied were given, in particular, by Mikhail Kozyrev, Lina Arifulina, Yuri Aksyuta, Artemy Troitsky and others.

Irakli - “Half and Half” “I produce musical projects, so I am naturally very interested in the experience that my teachers have. Well, besides, in the near future one of my wards will need the practice of promoting artists to the West, whose market is different from the Russian one. I want me to have enough time for both concert activities and training,” says the artist.

In 2012, Irakli tried himself in a completely different role - he became a restaurateur. The artist has his own restaurant called “VinoGrad”.

Discography[ | ]

Albums[ | ]

Irakli Pirtskhalava in 2010

• 2004: London-Paris
• 2009: Take a Step
• 2016: Angels and Demons

Singles[ | ]