Morgenshtern

Alisher Tagirovich Valeyev was born on 17 February 1998, in Ufa; he legally took his mother's surname, Morgenshtern, as a teenager. His mother, Marina Morgenshtern, is of Russian-Jewish descent and ran a flower shop business in Ufa, while his father, Tagir Valeyev, was a businessman of Bashkir descent.^[3] His parents divorced when he was young, and when Alisher turned 11, his father died of liver cirrhosis following a severe struggle with depression and alcoholism.^[4]

He developed an interest in music during childhood.^[5] As a teenager, he filmed skateboarding videos with his friends under the name "Others Crew" and, under the early pseudonym DeeneS MC, released his first music video, "My vyshe oblakov" (We Are Above the Clouds), in 2010 featuring Bely Ap.^[6]

He attended the Bashkir State Pedagogical University but was expelled due to his controversial YouTube activities. He later enrolled in the Ufa State Aviation Technical University to study computer science, but was also expelled shortly after starting.^[7]

Morgenshtern also worked as a street musician,^[8] and was the frontman of the rock band MMD Crew (short for "My Mother the Virgin Crew"), with whom he collaborated on a track with the Russian rapper Face and recorded under the aliases MamaVirgin and 1st July. He also provided post-production for Face's early music videos.^[9]

He is best known for his YouTube show "#EasyRap".^[1]

In April 2021, Morgenshtern donated ₽666,666 to the "Our Children" orphan support fund in Bashkortostan, representing the largest private donation to the non-governmental organization at the time.^[10]

In May 2022, the Russian Ministry of Justice designated Morgenshtern a foreign agent, citing funding from the Israeli multi-channel network Yoola Labs and his public remarks questioning the celebrations of Victory Day. Morgenshtern later apologized for his comments on his Telegram channel but unsuccessfully appealed the designation in court.^[11][12]

On 17 January 2020, he released the album Legendarnaja pyl', which was recorded in one week during a series of live streams. The album became the most successful of his career up to that point, gaining one million streams on VK within the first half-hour of its release and five million streams in eleven hours.^[24] Within the first two days, the album accumulated over 21 million streams on VK, setting a record for the platform.^[25] On 30 January 2020, he appeared as a guest on the Evening Urgant show.^[26]

On 5 March 2020, he released the track "Malyshka", a collaboration with Sharlot.^[27] On 5 June 2020, he released the single "Pososi".^[28] The official music video for "Pososi" became the most disliked YouTube video in Russia.^[29] On 9 June 2020, he released the single "Cadillac", in collaboration with Eldzhey.^[30] On 31 July 2020, he released "Ice",^[31] which went viral on TikTok.^[32]

On 3 November 2020, Morgenshtern was interviewed by Yury Dud in an episode that lasted nearly three hours.^[33]

In July 2021, Spotify named Morgenshtern the most-streamed artist from Russia.^[34]

In November 2021, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, publicly accused Morgenshtern of "effectively selling drugs on social media." Consequently, the artist left Russia and settled in Dubai, UAE, resulting in the cancellation of his remaining Russian concerts.^[35] On 10 December, he released the single "Domoy", addressing his forced emigration.^[36]

On 14 February 2025, Morgenshtern released his seventh EP, Alisher, which marked a transition to a raw, Russian-rock-influenced style. Recorded prior to his rehabilitation, the five-track EP details his struggles with mental illness, loneliness, and substance abuse.

On 13 February 2026, to mark his first year of sobriety, he released the acoustic live album Dead Sea Live, recorded on a salt island in the Dead Sea.

In June 2020, Alisher Morgenshtern and Eduard Popov (better known as the autoblogger Yanis Grek and a member of the YouTube channel "Team A") registered the private limited company "KAIF".^[2] In October 2020, Morgenshtern opened the restaurant "Kaif Provenance" in an office building on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street in Moscow.^[37] In September 2021, he opened a second establishment, the "Kaif Burger" restaurant, on Nikolskaya Street.

In June 2022, Morgenshtern announced the closure of "Kaif Provenance" due to constant legal pressure, inspections, and fines;^[38] the "Kaif Burger" restaurant on Nikolskaya Street was also subsequently closed in October 2022.^[39]

In March 2021, Morgenshtern was appointed "youth director" of Alfa-Bank. While promoted as formal employment, the bank later clarified that it was a marketing campaign targeting younger audiences.^[40]

Morgenshtern opposed the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[41] His 2022 single 12 was dedicated to this stance, with lyrics condemning political and military leaders who send young soldiers to the front lines.^[42] Following his anti-war stances, he was officially designated a foreign agent in Russia in May 2022.

In June 2023, the government of Kyrgyzstan canceled his scheduled performance at the Alga Fest music festival in Bishkek, citing his "bad influence" on youth, which media observers attributed to the Kyrgyz government's alignment with Russian political pressure.^[43]

He supported the 2024 Bashkortostan protests, publishing images of the Bashkir national hero Salawat Yulayev on social media in solidarity with the protesters.^[44]

In 2024, his concerts in the United Arab Emirates were canceled, and he was subsequently denied re-entry to Dubai after Russian authorities pressured UAE officials to enforce restrictions against him as a "foreign agent." Following his exclusion from the UAE, he made Israel his primary place of residence.^[45]

In April 2026, he successfully challenged a 10-year ban on entering Lithuania. The Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania ruled that the Lithuanian migration authorities' ban, originally imposed in November 2025 on national security grounds, was based on subjective opinions and lacked objective evidence.^[46][47]

• Posledniy trek (2021)
• Ufaboyz (2025)