Iosif Igorevich Prigozhin was born on 2 April 1969 in
Makhachkala to Igor Matveevich Prigozhin (1938–1990) and Dinara Yakubovna Prigozhina (born 1940). He is of half
Ashkenazi and half
Mountain Jewish ethnic origin. He began working as a hairdresser at the age of 12. In the same year, he produced the musical show dedicated to the European Motoball Championship in the town of
Vidnoye. In 1993, he founded the "Father's Home" Foundation, which he headed until 1995. The members of the Board of Trustees included Archbishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, Grand Mufti of Russia
Ravil Gainutdin, Chief Rabbi of Russia
Adolf Shayevich, the artists
Tikhon Khrennikov,
Alexandra Pakhmutova,
Iosif Kobzon,
Lyudmila Zykina,
Makhmud Esambayev, and others. The charitable foundation helped socially unprotected groups of the Russian population, attracted public attention to the situation of refugees from neighboring countries and internally displaced persons. In 1996, Prigozhin was the producer of the concert dedicated to the
Independence Day of Georgia, as well as the anniversary concerts dedicated to the 50th anniversary of creative endeavors of
Lyudmila Zykina and the 10th anniversary of the group
A-Studio, the first solo concerts of
Tatiana Bulanova in the Variety Theatre, and the
Golden Gramophone Awards (1996–1998). He was the executive producer of the gala concert dedicated to the third anniversary of the ORT Channel (1998) and the gala concert in honor of the celebration of
International Women's Day (1999). In May 1999, he was the producer of the groundbreaking ceremony of the star of the people's artist Georgy Kikabidze on Stars Square in honor of the artist's 60th birthday. He created one of the largest Russian audio companies, ORT-Records. From June 1997 to July 1999, Iosif Prigozhin was the general producer of the company, and from March 1998 to June 1999, he was its director general. At the end of 1998, ORT-Records was awarded the
Ovation National Musical Award for the category "Best Record Company". Within a few months of work, ORT-Records released albums by Iosif Kobzon,
Lev Leshchenko,
Vakhtang Kikabidze,
Alexander Marshal,
Nikolai Noskov,
Kris Kelmi, the bands ''
A'Studio, Na-Na, Splin, Bozhya Korovka
, Otpetiye Moshenniki
, Shao-Bao!
, 2x2, Masha Rasputina, Alexey Glyzin, Yevgeny Osin, Valery Didula, Valery Syutkin, Alexander Serov, and Alena Sviridova. In 1998, it was awarded the Ovation Award as the best producer of the year. The same year, the magazine Company'' recognized Prigozhin as the best businessman of the year in the field of show business. On 1 June 2000, Iosif Prigozhin created the record label NOX Music (National United Cultural Community). As the head of the NOX Music, he was responsible for the production and release of albums of Russian artists, presentations of albums, and organizing concerts in large concert venues. Artists such as Alyona Sviridova, Natalia Vlasova, the guitarist DiDulya, Alexander Marshal, Vakhtang Kikabidze, Nikolai Noskov,
Kristina Orbakaite,
Phillip Kirkorov, the bands
Gorky Park,
Korol i Shut,
Vosmoye Marta,
Dyuna,
A-Studio,
Kvartal, Masha Rasputina,
Pascal,
Lika Star, Yevgeny Osin,
Avraam Russo,
Andrei Makarevich, Victoria Morozova, Alexander Serov, Alexey Glyzin, Valery Syutkin have collaborated with Iosif Prigozhin. The main artist representing NOX Music became the singer Valeria, who signed a contract with Prigozhin on 7 April 2003. On the night of 24 November 2002, Prigozhin Mercedes 220 automobile was blown up on Tverskaya Street in Moscow. No one was injured in the explosion. In 2004, he became General Director of the Russian record label
REAL Records. In 2007 he became the producer and mastermind of the program "You are a Superstar!" on the channel "
NTV". On 23 March 2011, the couple visited Ksenia Kiselyova who's seriously ill with two types of blood cancer in the city of
Perm, and on the same day
Valery gave a concert in honor of the girl. After that, the citizens of Perm as part of a charity venture "Let's Santa!" raised around 12 million rubles for the treatment of the girl. On 11 March 2014, Iosif Prigozhin signed the appeal of cultural figures of the
Russian Federation in support of the policies of the Russian President
Vladimir Putin for the annexation of Crimea and war in
Ukraine.
2023 scandal On March 25, 2023, a 35-minute audio recording of a conversation between, presumably, Prigozhin and
Farkhad Akhmedov, was widely circulated in the media and caused a public outcry. In the recording, both interlocutors criticize the leadership of Russia in obscene form. On March 26, Prigozhin made a statement that the recording was a “fake” using neural networks, but later said that “some moments” in the conversation were real. == Awards ==