Andrey Kovalev - billionaire, biography

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".

Student years

In 1974, Andrei Kovalev was awarded a “certificate of maturity.” He was going to enter the conservatory to study double bass. But fate decreed differently. The guy changed his decision, choosing the Automobile and Highway Institute. Andrey studied at this university for 5 years and received a red diploma.

After some time, Kovalev became seriously interested in sculpture. He managed to enter the Stroganov Higher Art School. The goal was achieved - he became a professional sculptor.

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.

Businessman

In the late 1980s, Andrei Kovalev created his own company specializing in furniture production. But that is not all. Our hero began to develop a political career. He got a job in the Forestry Department. Soon, a talented and purposeful guy was appointed deputy head of this institution.

In the late 1990s - early 2000s. In the capital, factories began to close one after another. And the financial crisis is to blame. Kovalev, together with his partners, bought up unprofitable enterprises and created large business centers in their place.

In the period from 2007 to 2013, Andrei Arkadyevich tried himself in different types of business. He opened a satellite channel, a radio station for rock fans, rented out commercial real estate and much more. But it was worth it. After all, Kovalev managed to earn a decent fortune. In 2013, he was even written about in the Russian version of Forbes magazine.

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 2021. 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.”

Professional activity

Andrey is called a universal person. His activities have no boundaries or boundaries. In the early 90s, Andrei Kovalev had his own company, which sold furniture. At the same time, he worked in politics at the Antimonopoly Ministry, and later at the Ministry of Natural Resources. In the late 90s and early 2000s, he turned factories into business centers, reconstructing them according to his sketches.

From 2008 to 2010, he owned the 1Rock media holding. It included a TV channel, a magazine, a rock club, an Internet portal, and a radio station. A supporter of the use of phonograms by artists, he fought against audio piracy. Had, which was engaged in the rental of real estate and was very successful.

He has a talent for writing songs and actively composed musical compositions for popular Russian singers (author of more than 700 songs). He was the organizer of major rock festivals.

He writes poems and has published three collections. He was a radio and television presenter on a number of projects. In 2021, he was a guest on the show “Word for Word” (Mir channel). Participated in the following programs: “About Love”, “We Talk and Show” and “Let Them Talk”. In 2021, Andrey Kovalev gives free lectures on entrepreneurship. In the same year, he created the YouTube channel “Assenizator”, in which he raises the topic of creating and running a business.

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.

Discography[edit | edit code]

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

Solo[edit | edit code]

• 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”

With the group "Pilgrim"[edit | edit code]

Singles[edit | edit code]

• 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”

Andrey Kovalev now

In the spring of 2021, 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.