Unknown Boris Moiseev: what path did the artist go through

Born in prison

Boris Moiseev is a bright and controversial figure in the domestic show business. He was a landmark Russian pop artist in the dashing 90s, his song “Blue Moon” was a real hit, and he himself was one of the first to organize professional shows on stage in Russia.

Boris Mikhailovich Moiseev was born on March 4, 1954 in the city of Mogilev, Byelorussian SSR, on the territory of a prison with a political prisoner. The boy spent his childhood and youth among his Lithuanian and Jewish aunts in Mogilev. To improve the boy’s health, they sent him to a dance school. Since then, dancing has become a passion throughout his life. Young Borya left school, packed his bags and left for Minsk, where he entered the Belarusian State Choreographic School and trained as a professional classical dancer.

He had all the data to succeed in classical dance, but Boris preferred modern dance. The matter ended with the fact that Moiseev was expelled from Minsk for “ways of self-expression not very encouraged in the USSR.” He moved to Kharkov and became an artist and then a choreographer at the Kharkov Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. But in 1975 he was expelled from the Komsomol and left Kharkov for Kaunas. There Moiseev became the head of the Lithuanian dance group Trimitas.

In 1978, he created the Expression dance trio, which became very popular and became part of Alla Pugacheva’s studio. In 1987, the trio stopped working with Pugacheva and went on tour to the USA, Italy and France. Moiseev staged some American performances as a choreographer.

In 1992, Boris Moiseev returned to Russia and created the Boris Moiseev and His Lady group, and then staged a performance of the same name. Then he created a lot of bright show performances. These are “Borya M. + Boney M” with the participation of the Boney M group, “The show continues – in memory of Freddie Mercury”, “Boris Moiseev’s Caprice”, “Child of Vice”, “Fallen Angel”, “Kingdom of Love”, “I Do Not Renounce”, “Empire of feelings”, “No one is to blame for this autumn”, “Ladies and gentlemen”, “Dessert” and others.

Real fame came to Boris Moiseev in the 1990s, when, on the wave of freedom and democracy, he showed on stage a shocking image that was completely impossible in Soviet times and became a performer of very unusual songs. However, as an artist, he won the favor of the public not only with stunning outfits and strange images, but also with a special sincere manner of performance, an unusual timbre of voice and a rather unexpected theme. There are many different opinions about whether his orientation was unconventional or it was just a competent PR move, as they would say now. But in fact it doesn’t really matter. Songs such as “Blue Moon”, “When You Forget Me”, “Petersburg – Leningrad”, “Asterisk”, “Deaf-Mute Love”, as well as the album “Child of Vice” became bright milestones in the development of domestic show business – it was Moiseev began to be the first in Russia to demonstrate shows in the full sense of the word at his performances, in the image and likeness of Western stars.

He became famous not only as a singer, choreographer, dancer, but also a writer and actor. Moiseev starred in the films “Crazy Day, Or the Marriage of Figaro”, “Day Watch”, “The Best Film”, hosted the “Glove Box” program on Muz-TV and wrote his autobiography “Bird. Live sound”.

Unfortunately, after suffering strokes, the first of which overtook him in 2010, Boris Moiseev left the stage because he did not want to be seen weakened and almost helpless, always bright, cheerful and brilliant. According to rumors, due to illness, he was left practically without a livelihood and without friends. Nevertheless, he did not give up, but continued to create – in 2012 his last album “Pastor. The best of men.” Then there were two more strokes and almost nothing more was heard about the artist. They say he lived all alone in his Moscow apartment. Last year, however, “baby Borya”, as his colleagues called him, appeared at the anniversary of Christina Orbakaite.

On September 27, 2022, Boris Moiseev, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation and multiple winner of the Golden Gramophone Award, died.