Philipp Bedrosovich Kirkorov is a Russian singer, songwriter, actor and TV presenter of Bulgarian and Armenian descent. A graduate with honors from the Gnesin Music School, his popularity began to take off after winning the grand prize in the Shlyager-90 competition and in 1993 won the Ovation Award for best singer of the year. Kirkorov also composed entries for many other Eurovision artists, including Dmitry Koldun (Belarus 2007), Ani Lorak (Ukraine 2008), the Tolmachevy Twins (Russia 2014) and Sergey Lazarev (Russia 2016).