Igor Yakovlevich Krutoy was born on July 29, 1954 in Haivoron, Kirovograd Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union, and is a Soviet and Russian composer, producer, pianist, and singer. He learned to play the button accordion in childhood before studying music theory at the Kirovograd Music College, where he graduated with honors in 1974. After studying choral conducting at the Nikolaev State Pedagogical Institute, from which he graduated in 1979, he studied composition at the Saratov Conservatory while working as an accompanist and performer. His early composing breakthroughs included writing songs for Aleksander Serov, culminating in Serov's 1987 album Madonna, which sold 2.5 million copies, and earning Krutoy the Lenin Komsomol Prize in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Krutoy composed and produced albums for leading artists, including Irina Allegrova's Ya Tuchi Razvedu Rukami (1996) and Nezakonchenniy Roman (1998), Mikhail Shufutinsky's Odnazhdy v Amerike (1998), and Valery Leontiev's Kanatny Plyasun (1998). He also scored films such as Hostages of The Devil (1993) and The Snow Queen (2003), produced the television project Star Factory 4 in 2004, and co-founded the New Wave competition in 2002. His solo instrumental recordings included the Without Words album series, while his classical crossover collaborations produced albums such as Sumi Jo's La Luce (2012) and Anna Netrebko and Yusif Eyvazov's Romanza (2017). In business, Krutoy founded the ARS production company and ARS Records in 1997, held ownership in the radio holding Krutoy Media, and co-founded Russian Musical Television in 2003. His honors included being named Honoured Art Worker of the RSFSR in 1991, People's Artist of Russia in 1996, and People's Artist of Ukraine in 2011, alongside receiving the Order of Friendship in 2004 and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV class in 2009, III class in 2014, and II class in 2024.
