EMIN

Gifted with worldly instincts, a sensitive ear and an expressive voice that’s equally compelling in Russian and English, EMIN is a paragon of pop music’s borderlessness in the 21st century. Born Emin Agalarov in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1979, he grew up in Moscow, then soaked up American culture as a high school student in New Jersey in the ‘90s. He returned to Russia to make his way as a businessman—his company Crocus Group is a powerhouse in entertainment, retail and fine dining—and simultaneously began studying with the Azerbaijani singer Muslim Magomayev. In 2006, he began his recording career with his debut studio album, Still. In 2010, he followed his early string of Russian-language albums with Wonder, his UK debut, which showcased his purring baritone in tasteful adult-contemporary arrangements infused with just the right amount of grit. Since then, switching effortlessly between languages, he has shown himself to be equally versatile stylistically, flirting with such diverse genres as flamenco and soundtrack-ready trip-hop. The through line of his discography is the balance he strikes between classic songwriting (his early album Obsession gathered Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra covers) and crisp, contemporary production. Whether dallying with Latin-fueled supper-club numbers like “Creative,” soaring dance pop (“Let Me Go”, complete with a Robin Schulz remix), or trap hi-hats (“100 лет”), he never ceases to sound like himself. The other constant, of course, is EMIN’s effortless panache, which makes everything he touches sound like the most romantic music in the world.