Maksim Leonidov

Maxim Leonidovich Leonidov (Russian: Максим Леонидович Леонидов; born February 13, 1962) is a Soviet and Russian musician, singer, actor, songwriter and TV presenter. He is known as one of the founders and members of the beat-quartet Sekret, and subsequently as a solo artist. In 1997, he won the Golden Gramophone Award. Maxim Leonidovich Leonidov was born into a family of actors of the Leningrad Academic Comedy Theater. He was the son of Lyudmila Lyulko (July 10, 1923 - October 25, 1967) and one of the pioneers in theater Leonid Yefimovich Leonidov, whose real name was Shapiro (March 27, 1927 - April 30, 1996).

In 1979, Leonidov finished the Glinka Choral School attached to the Leningrad State Academic Chapel. In 1983, he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, under the tutelage of Arkady Katsman and Lev Dodin. He served in the army, being a member of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Leningrad Military District, along with Nikolai Fomenko and Yevgeny Oleshev. Later that year, he became one of the founders of the popular Sekret beat-quartet (Maxim Leonidov, Nikolai Fomenko, Andrei Zabludovsky, Alexei Murashov). After six successful years, he left the group in 1989 and began a solo career.

In late 1990, along with his first wife, Irina Selezneva, he immigrated to Israel. Until 1996 he lived and worked in Tel Aviv, after which he returned to St. Petersburg. Periodically Leonidov collaborated with Sekret (mainly during the group's jubilees). In 2012, the musicians began to record new songs, and in 2013, they released their first album,16 years after Sekret 30.

On February 13, 2015, at the Mongolian embassy in Russia, Leonidov received the "For the Motherland" award of the First Degree on his birthday. It was bestowed after a May 2014 tour in Mongolia to celebrating the 75th anniversary of the victory at Khalkhin-Gol against the Japanese. On the same day, he received the Chart Dozen prize as part of the Sekret beat-quartet.In March 2022, after the Russian attack on Ukraine, he moved to Israel again.