Andrey Kovalev (millionaire) - biography, family, business

Childhood and youth

The diversified development and range of interests of Andrei Kovalev become clear after getting acquainted with his biography. The Muscovite, who was born in the summer of 1957, has musical talents from his mother, an opera singer who performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. And he inherited his tenacious and practical mind from his father, a military man who retired with the rank of colonel.

Businessman and musician Andrey Kovalev

The boy’s hearing was discovered at the age of 4, which his mother immediately noted. The woman did not hesitate - soon her son was performing simple works on the piano. To develop his talent, Andrei was taken to a music school, where he studied 4 hours a day. Soon the son pleased his parents by playing the violin, cello and double bass.

After graduating from music school, the teenager set his sights on entering the school at the capital's conservatory. But to the military dad, such passions seemed “unmanly”, and he made his “mite” - he bought his son a motorcycle. The calculation turned out to be correct: having received a school certificate, the guy entered a road transport university.

Andrey Kovalev

However, the creative streak reminded itself again: Kovalev became interested in sculpture. So much so that he dropped out of college and became a student at the Stroganov Art School.

During his studies, Andrei Kovalev switched to music again. Having previously mastered the bass guitar, he gathered like-minded peers and created a musical group. Soon it received the name "Pilgrim".

Education

Andrey was born in Moscow. His father devoted his life to serving the Motherland, becoming a colonel in the Soviet Army. My mother, an opera singer, performed arias at the Bolshoi Theater for three and a half decades. The influence of his mother in creative terms affected his son early. From an early age, Andrei mastered the double bass, violin, and cello for four hours every day. The father in his own way influenced the development of his son as a real man. He gave Andrey a motorcycle, which the young man was very happy about and even wanted to connect his life with technology. In 1979, he became a graduate of the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute. His first job took place at an enterprise that had a secrecy regime. But Andrey never parted with his motorcycle and was even a regular participant in motocross competitions. But his creative beginning was not ruined either: he became interested in sculpture and from the first try became a student at the famous Stroganov School.

Business

Difficult times - the 1980s - distracted Andrei Kovalev from creativity. I had to look for something that would generate income and get on my feet. The young man plunged into the world of business. Towards the end of the 1980s he founded a furniture manufacturing company. Soon Kovalev became deputy head of the Forestry Department, then a place was found for him in the Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy.

The turbulent 1990s became a severe test for state-owned enterprises, which closed in the hundreds in the capital. Andrei Kovalev did not drown in the murky waves of economic chaos and found a use for the closing factories. He reconstructed enterprises and created business centers on their basis.

Entrepreneur Andrey Kovalev

In the summer of 2007, a successful businessman acquired the First Pasta Company, which was going through hard times. It included 3 unprofitable factories - in the capital, St. Petersburg and Smolensk. The purchase cost Andrey Kovalev $55 million.

Having made the factories profitable, the entrepreneur sold them to Italian businessmen, turning his attention to other industries. In 2008, with the light hand of Kovalev, who never forgot about his main love - music, the 1Rock media holding appeared. It consisted of a satellite television channel, a radio station whose main focus was rock, a magazine and a rock club, which received the name of the holding. The small “rock empire” existed until 2010.

Andrey Kovalev on the Forbes list

In 2011, Forbes magazine compiled a list of the largest rentiers in Russia, in which it ranked the Moscow businessman’s company in 23rd place. Andrey Kovalev managed to earn a fortune of $55 million by renting out real estate.

2 years later, Kovalev shared in an interview that he went into “pure creativity”: he composes poems for which songs appear. His ex-wife took over business affairs.

Notes[ | ]

1. Andrey Kovalev and the Pilgrim group • History of the Pilgrim group
2. The court recovered 9.5 million rubles from O2TV in favor of singer-businessman Kovalev
3. ↑ 12
   Kommersant-Secret of the Company - Fatal Attraction
4. Pasta may rise in price by one and a half times due to the rise in grain prices (unspecified)
   .
   Society
   . Argumenty.ru (October 19, 2010). Retrieved June 13, 2013. Archived June 13, 2013.
5. Lena Konchalovskaya.
   Food court "Sunflowers": Eat and drink with irony.
   United Russia Kovalev opens a cult place on Rokossovsky Boulevard (unspecified)
   .
   The Village
   (07/26/2018). Retrieved August 15, 2020.
6. Dmitry Yuzupchuk.
   Musician Andrei Kovalev bought the Grebnevo estate for 80 million rubles
   (unspecified)
   .
   Moscow region today
   (05/17/2018). Retrieved August 15, 2020.
7. The Grebnevo estate has found an owner 2 (unspecified)
   .
   New News
   (05/21/2018). Retrieved August 15, 2020.
8. Andrey Kovalev and the group Pilgrim • Andrey Kovalev - vocals (unspecified)
   . www.piligrim-rock.ru. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
9. ↑ 1 2 3
   Andrey Kovalev: “I adhere to the principle: if you want to do something well, do it yourself”
   (undefined)
   .
   Finversia
   (15.09.2016). Retrieved November 11, 2020.
10. ↑ 1 2
    A. Ubozhenko.
    “Pasta Diet”, 04/17/2008 [ unauthorized source?
    ]
11. ↑ 123
    Elena Zubova: “Initiator of the Rosbank case.” Forbes.ru, 05/17/2013
12. M. Dranishnikova, A. Kreknina.
    The sale of the First Pasta Company has been completed
    (unspecified)
    .
    Vedomosti, No. 2962
    (October 18, 2011). Retrieved July 5, 2020.
13. Biography of Andrey Kovalev (unspecified)
    .
    Official website of Andrey Kovalev
    .
14. Andrey "Arkadich" Kovalev
15. ↑ 1 2 M. Dranishnikova, A. Zubar.
    Andrey Kovalev: “The crisis hit, there was no time to expand the pasta business”
    (unspecified)
    .
    Vedomosti
    (October 17, 2011). Retrieved December 25, 2020.
16. NTV program “To the Barrier!” about the phonogram
17. YouTube: “Program “To the Barrier!” about “plywood””
18. Fighters with plywood are confident in the support of Alla Pugacheva Eurovision 2011 TV radio outside the pros NEWSmusic.ru (unspecified)
    (inaccessible link). Retrieved October 25, 2010. Archived December 14, 2008.
19. “Pop music without soundtrack”
20. The Business Protection Headquarters and partners discussed the tasks for 2020 (unspecified)
    .
    Rambler
    (12/9/2019). Retrieved February 21, 2020.
21. “Entrepreneur Hour” was held in the North-East of Moscow (unspecified)
    (10/09/2019).
22. ↑ 1 2
    I hate, *****, infogypsy!
    How they work with reputation in the scandalous information business market (unspecified)
    .
    Inc.
    (15-07-2019). Retrieved August 23, 2020.
23. Exposing Art infocygan (undefined)
    .
    Radio Mediametrics
    (02/14/2020).
24. Bloggers versus businessmen. Andrey Kovalev exposes “info-gypsies” and their trainings (unspecified)
    (07/20/2019).
25. Who are infogypsies and how not to go bankrupt when meeting them (undefined)
    .
    Evening Moscow
    (17-12-2019).
26. Katya Lel, Danko and the Tutsi group performed at a charity concert by Andrei Kovalev (unspecified)
    .
    InterMedia
    (01/11/07). Retrieved November 11, 2020.
27. The “Andrei Kovalev Charitable Foundation” provided financial assistance to Marina Fedorovna Raevskaya (unspecified)
    . Retrieved November 11, 2020.
28. The Andrey Kovalev Charitable Foundation provided financial assistance to boarding school No. 9 in Yaroslavl (unspecified)
    . Retrieved November 11, 2020.
29. The Andrei Kovalev Charitable Foundation provided financial assistance to secondary school No. 1969 in Moscow (unspecified)
    . Retrieved November 11, 2020.
30. Andrey Kovalev opened free rehearsal facilities (unspecified)
    .
    InterMedia
    (06.06.08). Retrieved November 11, 2020.
31. Moskvichka (inaccessible link)
32. Andrey Kovalev
33. Radio presenters. Andrey Kovalev. (undefined)
    .
    TVNZ
    .
34. Vinnie Jones worked as a security guard for an oligarch from Russia (unspecified)
    .
    Life
    (September 28, 2012). Retrieved October 1, 2020.
35. The ex-Moscow City Duma deputy donated two apartments to those in need in Kostroma (unspecified)
    .
    Kostroma.Today
    (21 OCT 2019). Retrieved February 5, 2020.
36. Andrey Kovalev declassified his secret family
37. Persons. Andrey Kovalev. (undefined)
    .
    Around TV
    . Retrieved October 1, 2020.
38. Daily Log: Farting Steam
39. Viktor Shenderovich: “Choi with them”
40. The owner of InterMedia bought pasta
41. Maria Dranishnikova.
    “I remember with pleasure the times of Gorbachev,” - Andrey Kovalev, owner.
    (undefined)
    (10/18/2011, 196 (2962)).
42. “Concert-goers should be aware of the use of soundtracks.” 01/22/2007
43. Andrey Kovalev on the website “Information portal of the Russian chanson genre” (unspecified)
    . Retrieved November 25, 2020.
44. Andrey Kovalev (unspecified)
    .
    Discogs
    . Retrieved November 25, 2020.

Music

Andrei Kovalev really did not forget about music. At the beginning of 2005, remembering his student years, he founded a rock band, to which he gave the same name - “Pilgrim”. The musicians included songs in the heavy metal genre into their repertoire; the theme of the compositions was patriotic motifs and lyrical ballads.

Andrey Kovalev and the group "Pilgrim" - "Pilgrim"

The frontman and musician of the group, Kovalev, attracts show business stars, and not only domestic ones, to collaborate. Pamela Anderson came to Moscow to film a video clip for the rock ballad “Roar of Engines.” The star played the bride of an oligarch, who was stolen from under the aisle by a biker. Andrey Kovalev assigned this role to himself.

The Pilgrim team starred in the action-packed film by Hollywood star Dolph Lundgren, which was released under the title “Dangerous Tour,” and recorded the soundtrack for it.

Andrey Kovalev, Pamela Anderson and the group "Pilgrim"

The rock band collaborates with fellow foreign rockers. In the second album of “Pilgrim”, called “No Choice”, there was a place for a joint composition recorded by a Russian group and a quartet of cellists from Finland “Apocalyptic”. A spectacular video appeared for the song.

In the spring of 2010, the frontman presented fans with the album “7.62”, “encoding” the caliber of small arms in the title. After 6 months, music lovers, loyal fans of “Pilgrim”, received a new gift - the double album “Martha”.

Andrey Kovalev, Pamela Anderson and the group “Pilgrim” - “Roar of Motors”

In 2011, Andrei Kovalev recorded a lyrical solo album, calling it “My Woman.” The presentation of the album took place in April 2012 on the stage of the capital's Variety Theater, and in October of the same year, the singer and composer celebrated his anniversary on this stage - 10 years of creative activity. The show featured Katya Lel, Diana Gurtskaya, the Reflex group, Irakli, Alena Sviridova.

Andrey Kovalev and Anastasia Panina - “Airports”

Today, the musician remains faithful to his creativity and gives fans 3-5 new compositions every year. From 2011 to 2015, viewers saw on Russian music TV channels videos for Andrei Kovalev’s songs, in which show business stars shone.

Alexey Panin and Vladimir Gostyukhin starred in the video for the song “Road”, and Anastasia Panina appeared in the video for the song “Airports”. Later, videos appeared for Kovalev’s hits, in which Agata Mutsenietse, Elena Korikova, Olesya Sudzilovskaya and Nastasya Samburskaya participated.

Andrey Kovalev and Agata Muceniece - “And I keep dreaming about your eyes”

Andrey Kovalev proved himself as a radio and television presenter. He is also the author of 4 collections of poetry. The last one, entitled “Only Love Can Save,” was released in the spring of 2020. The poet and musician is working on his 5th book.

Andrei Kovalev also has critics. Viktor Shenderovich came out with devastating articles on his work and the Pilgrim group, reproaching the musician and his team for vulgarity and pandering to the tastes of the “stupid public.” Shenderovich was especially furious at Kovalev’s remake of Viktor Tsoi’s revolutionary hit “Change.”

Music career

Andrey did not plan to study music seriously. But fatal love happened in his life and his feelings demanded embodiment in the real world. Kovalev expressed them in music, and the first compositions were immediately positively assessed by professional musicians. His first success inspired him to think about a musical career. In 2006, Andrei Kovalev headed the creative team of the Pilgrim group. Five years later, he gave preference to a solo career. Today his performances take place in the capital’s Variety Theater and the Alma Mater club. Their halls are never empty during these performances.

Personal life

A wealthy and talented artist does not experience a shortage of female attention. In his first marriage to a girl named Tatyana, a daughter, Julia, was born in 1990. And although Andrei Kovalev got married when he was far from a young man - at the age of 30, the marriage broke up for unknown reasons.

Andrey Kovalev with his wife

The man did not remain single for long and soon met love - the Odessa beauty Maria Bulgakova, who is much younger than him. In 2014, Masha gave her husband a son, Nikita, but the couple is in no hurry to register the marriage.

Andrei Kovalev's desire to become the official guardian of Anna Kalashnikova's son has caused rumors and speculation. There were those who explained this desire by the musician’s paternity.

Andrey Kovalev and Anna Kalashnikova

But friends of Kovalev and Kalashnikova claim that Andrei is the boy’s godfather, so he does not want his godson to grow up without a parent.

Interesting Facts:

• Andrey Kovalev is the godfather of Katya Lel’s daughter, Emilia, Arthur Berkut’s son, Mark, and Anna Kalashnikova’s son, Daniil.
• On June 30, 2010, criminals stole the musician’s exclusive motorcycle, which was assembled to special order at the Fred Kodlin tuning studio. The motorcycle was soon found.
• In 2011, A. Kovalev took part in a series of National Geographic programs “Vinnie Jones: Real about Russia.” The famous actor himself, star of the action movie “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” Vinnie Jones starred in the role of a businessman’s security guard.

Andrey Kovalev now

In the spring of 2020, it became known that the composer and singer acquired the Grebnevo estate in the Moscow region. The complex, founded in the 16th century and completed in the 18th-19th centuries, has historical and architectural value. It was once the residence of the princes Trubetskoy, Bibikov and Golitsyn

Andrey Kovalev and the Grebnevo estate

A private investor and the authorities of the Moscow region announced their intention to restore the estate, organize a private museum here, and hold festivals on its basis.

The singer is a frequent guest on talk shows and television projects. In March 2018, he became a guest of the “Word for Word” show on the “Mir” TV channel, where psychic Fatima Khadueva, actor Vitaly Abdulov, singer and composer Django, and model Emilia Vishnevskaya visited with him.

Andrey Kovalev - “Sunflowers Art & Food”

Kovalev is active on social networks. He has a personal website and pages on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Rock band "Pilgrim"

The rock group “Pilgrim” was born at a time when Andrei Kovalev was still studying at MADI. Together with like-minded people at the institute, he organizes a vocal and instrumental ensemble. Our hero started playing the bass guitar. According to the recollections of the musician himself, the group changed its names almost every festival in which it took part. There were “Wings of Wrath” and “Rus”. But one day he met a guitarist who came up with an idea that became brilliant: “Bring back the old name of the group - “Pilgrim.” That's what the musicians did. And Kovalev himself, on the same day, under the influence of this idea, created the composition “Pilgrim”.

The presentation of the video for this song took place in October 2006. The composition became the debut single for the new album. Director Alexander Solokha was hired as the music video director. The video accompanying the song turned gloomy everyday life into an unreal world of the future.

The very next year, Kovalev and the group “Pilgrim” performed from Russia at the international rock festival BASINFIREFEST in the Czech Republic.

Links

Discography

Solo

• Salt, tequila... (2004)
• The sky is blue (2005)
• Nine Months (2007)
• Author's song (2008)
• Romances (2008)
• The best songs of Andrey Kovalev (2008)
• My woman (2012).

Pilgrim

• Glory to Russia (2007)
• No Choice (2008)
• Concert in the Rain (DVD, 2008)
• Treezy$ (single, 2009)
• 7,62 (2010)
• Martha (2010)

A. Kovalev’s discography includes solo albums, compositions recorded in collaboration with other artists, singles and video clips. [44][45]

Solo

• 2004 - “Salt, tequila...”
• 2005 — “The sky is blue”
• 2007 — “Nine Months”
• 2007 — “Ice and Fire”
• 2007 — “Man and Woman”
• 2008 — “Author’s song”
• 2008 — “The best songs of Andrei Kovalev”
• 2008 — “Romances”
• 2012 — “My Woman”
• 2013 — “The Ocean of Your Eyes”
• 2013 — “Revolvers and Dolls”
• 2014 — “Songs of Love”
• 2014 — “Martha”
• 2014 — “Revolvers and Dolls”
• 2014 — “Only love can save”
• 2017 — “New”

• 2007 — “Glory to Russia”
• 2008 — “No Choice”
• 2008 — “Concert in the Rain” (DVD)
• 2009 — “Treezy$” (single)
• 2010 — «7,62»
• 2010 — “Martha”
• 2015 — “Kill the Dragon”

Singles

• 2007 - “Forgot”
• 2007 — “Nine Months”
• 2007 — “Bonfire of Love”
• 2007 — “City of Angels”
• 2012 — “And I keep dreaming about your eyes”
• 2012 — “You are my tenderness”
• 2012 — “Road”
• 2012 — “My Woman”
• 2012 - “I will wait for you all my life”
• 2014 — “Man and Woman”
• 2014 — “Train of Love”
• 2014 — “Sirotinushka”
• 2014 — “Salt, tequila”
• 2014 — “March Cat”
• 2014 — “Give me, Lord, this woman”
• 2016 — “This will not be erased from memory”
• 2016 — “I’ve been waiting for so much”
• 2016 — “Such a Woman”
• 2016 — “I don’t want to be with you”
• 2016 - “Work, brothers” (in memory of Hero of Russia Magomed Nurbagandov)
• 2016 — “Vladimir Putin”
• 2016 — “Angelina Jolie”
• 2018 — “Our Cinema”
• 2018 — “There is a knife in the heart”
• 2018 - “Song about Kolyan - pizza delivery man and Instagram star Olga Buzova”

Video clips

• 2004 - Salt, tequila and a slice of lime
• 2004 - New Year's fairy tale
• 2005 - Spring of '45
• 2005 - The sky is blue
• 2005 - Song of Santa Claus (together with Sasha Project)
• 2005 - Broken love
• 2005 - Orphan (Pilgrim group)
• 2006 - Nine months (together with Diana Gurtskaya)
• 2006 - Pilgrim (Pilgrim group)
• 2006 - New Year's story (together with Katya Lel)
• 2007 - In the line of fire (Pilgrim group with the participation of the Master group)
• 2007 - Man and woman
• 2007 - Glory to Russia (Pilgrim group)
• 2008 - Not a demon, not an angel (Pilgrim group)
• 2008 - Predators (Pilgrim group)
• 2008 - Little Angel
• 2008 - My unborn son (Pilgrim group)
• 2008 - Battle (Pilgrim group)
• 2008 - Judas (Pilgrim group together with Apocalyptica)
• 2008 - Roar of Engines (Pilgrim group featuring Pamela Anderson)
• 2009 - Don’t extinguish the candle (Pilgrim group with Dolph Lundgren)
• 2010 - In memory of Egor Letov (Pilgrim group)
• 2010 - Clyde and Bonnie (Pilgrim group)
• 2011 - If only you could
• 2011 - Forgot
• 2011 - Martha
• 2011 - My woman
• 2011 - I'm not a hero
• 2012 - Given to me by God (together with Olesya Sudzilovskaya)
• 2012 - Give me back that fire
• 2012 - My woman
• 2012 — Maple Leaf
• 2012 - Fly (together with the group Pilgrim)
• 2012 - Pamela
• 2012 — It’s snowing
• 2012 - Only love can save
• 2012 - I will wait for you all my life
• 2013 - And I still dream about your eyes (with Agata Muciniece)
• 2013 — Takeoff, landing
• 2013 - Road (In Memory of Vlad Galkin)
• 2013 - Lord give me this woman
• 2014 — Airports
• 2014 - The snow was falling slowly (feat. Loc Dog)
• 2014 — Revolvers and dolls
• 2015 — This will not be erased from memory
• 2015 — New Year's cities

Criticism

Kovalev’s personality and work are actively covered in the media, receiving conflicting reviews from journalists and critics.

Viktor Shenderovich released several devastating articles about the Pilgrim group, where he wrote that Kovalev’s songs and performance lack soul, and “instead of meaningful action, there is a vulgar show designed for a foolish audience. And excesses of temperament come out of the wrong places.”[36] The journalist was also extremely dissatisfied with the remake of Viktor Tsoi’s song “Change”[37].

Nikolai Fandeev had the same opinion about Kovalev. Reviewing the album “Sky Blue,” he wrote that it was “a futile attempt by a hapless singer to perform a mixture of restaurant music and tasteless Soviet pop music from the 1970s.”[38]

Sonya Sokolova evaluates Andrei Kovalev and the results of his creative work more positively: “Andrei Kovalev is doing very, very well: some of the best arrangers and musicians work with him, he organizes Festivals and actively helps young groups, and at the same time he became a co-owner of a large news agency ", "if you look at Kovalev more closely, you understand: in front of you is a man who has very skillfully and humorously constructed a public image for himself and is painstakingly working for it"[39]

There are references in the media that in the 1990s Kovalev was associated with criminal disputes[40].

Many neutral and positive publications are devoted to the fight against lip-syncing[41].

The personality and work of Andrei Kovalev is actively covered in the media, receiving conflicting reviews from journalists and critics.

Viktor Shenderovich released several devastating articles about the Pilgrim group, where he wrote that Kovalev’s songs and performance lack soul, and “instead of meaningful action, there is a vulgar show designed for a foolish audience. And excesses of temperament come out of the wrong places”[15]. The journalist was also extremely dissatisfied with the remake of Viktor Tsoi’s song “Change”[16].

Nikolai Fandeev has the same opinion about Kovalev. Reviewing the album “Sky Blue,” he wrote that this is “a futile attempt by an unlucky singer to perform a mixture of restaurant music and tasteless Soviet pop music of the 70s of the last century.”[17]

Sonya Sokolova evaluates Andrei Kovalev and the results of his creative work more positively: “Andrei Kovalev is doing very, very well: some of the best arrangers and musicians work with him, he organizes festivals and actively helps young bands, and at the same time he became a co-owner of a large news agency “,” “if you look at Kovalev more carefully, you understand: in front of you is a man who has very skillfully and humorously constructed a public image for himself and is painstakingly working for it”[18]

Many neutral and positive publications are devoted to the fight against lip-syncing[19].