MAX BARSKIH

Mykola Mykolaiovych Bortnyk (born March 8th, 1990), better known by his stage name Max Barskih is a Ukrainian singer-songwriter. He was raised in the town of Kherson, Ukraine, and moved to Kyiv after his graduation. He rose to fame in Ukraine and other post soviet countries in 2008 as a participant of the Ukrainian talent show “Fabric Zirok 2” (Star Factory 2). In 2010, Max Barskih won his first big prize with being awarded "Best Ukrainian Act" at the MTV Europe Music Awards. He has won numerous awards, including "Singer of the Year" Awards at the Baltic Music Awards 2011, the "Crystal Microphone" Awards 2011, the M1 Music Awards 2017, the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2018, the New Radio Awards 2019, the Love Radio Awards 2019^, and at the Top Hit Music Awards 2020. Throughout his career, Barskih has worked closely with Alan Badoey, who is his producer and has also directed most of his music videos. Barskih composes the music and writes the lyrics of his songs himself (and was e.g. nominated at the 2019 Russian National Music Awards for "Lyricist of the Year"), and partly also does the producing. He has released six studio albums, one compilation album and one extended-play. In 2021, his single "Bestseller" reached number 3 in Russia’s top hits.