Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov (Russian: Борис Борисович Гребенщиков; born (1953-11-27)27 November 1953) is a prominent member of the generation which is widely considered to be the "founding fathers" of Russian rock music. He is the founder and lead singer of the band Aquarium which has been active from 1972 until today. Grebenshchikov is frequently referred to as BG (Russian: БГ; pronounced "Beh-Geh"), after his initials.[citation needed] On 5 October 2022, he appeared on BBC Hardtalk talking about his opposition to the Russian intervention in Ukraine, his self-imposed exile to London, and his involvement with Dave Stewart to produce an antiwar record to support the people of Ukraine.
Grebenshchikov was born on 27 November 1953, in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. In 1972, he founded the band Aquarium with his childhood friend Anatoly "George" Gonitsky as a postmodern theatrical endeavor that included poetry and music.
Grebenshchikov was accepted into Leningrad State University. Due to his musical activities, he started missing exams and failing classes. Grebenshchikov eventually received a graduate degree in applied mathematics. Inspiration from The Beatles and Bob Dylan transformed Aquarium into a low-fi electric blues band that moonlighted in acoustic reggae.

Return to Boris Grebenshchikov Autograph Profile