Dima Bilan (real name - Viktor Belan,) is a Russian pop singer of Karachay descent. He was born on  December 24, 1981 in Karachay-Cherkessia.

He graduated from Gnesins Musical College as a classical vocal performer. Dima made his debut when he reached fourth place at the Russian/Latvian festival "New Wave" in 2002. In 2003, Dima Bilan released his debut album titled “Nochnoy Huligan” (Night Hooligan), which included covers of "Caruso" by Lucio Dalla and "Fever" by Elvis. In 2004, he released his successful single "Na beregu neba," which was also the title of his second album.

Produced by the late Yury Aizenshpis, a Russian music mogul famous for his work with Viktor Tsoi in the Soviet Union, Dima Bilan attempted to reach Eurovision previously with the song "Not That Simple" in 2005, finishing in second place at the Russian national selection. The video for the Russian version of the song was reputably the most expensive in the history of Russia's music industry. In December 2005, Dima received two golden gramophones for the song "Ty dolzjna ryadom byt'" (this is a Russian version of "Not That Simple") in Saint Petersburg and Almaty.

At the end of a 2005, he accepted an invitation from an American agency to record tracks for the musical Peter Pan. On 14 March 2006, Dima Bilan took part in "Zolotaya sharmanka" (Golden street organ) of "International Music Awards" in Kiev where he was honored as "Singer of the Year".

At the Eurovision Song Contest, in Athens, Greece out of 37 participating countries, Dima took second place with the dark pop song "Never Let You Go. He has several Russian no 1 hits and now is interested in making an international career for himself.

www.bilandima.ru