Leva Bi-2 - singer, musician, member of the Bi-2 band. Having started his creative path back in the mid-80s of the last century, he went through the "circles of hell" before finding his "place under the sun."
Today Yegor Bortnik (real name of the rocker) is the idol of millions. Despite the enormous support of the fans, the musician admits that every appearance on the stage is an unreal excitement and adrenaline rush.
Childhood and youth years of Lyova Bi-2
The artist's date of birth is September 2, 1972. He was born in Minsk, his parents named their son Yegor Bortnik. The artist's mother realized herself as a promising philologist, and the profession of the head of the family helped to find Yegor, his middle name.
In one of the interviews, he told how he turned into Leva. It was in Africa. The head of the family, a radiophysicist by education, received an offer to work in the Congo. The wife and little son, who did not want to part with a dear person, were forced to move to Africa.
One day, the father brought home a large lion's tusk, which the boy did not want to part with. Actually, for this he received the nickname "Leva". In the future, Yegor's nickname grew into a creative pseudonym.
Some publications present Lyova Bi-2 as Igor Bortnik. It's not a mistake. The fact is that in the early 90s, during the presentation of a passport, a young man was indeed given this name. It happened in Israel. The local administration was unable to correctly write the name assigned to Yegor at birth. Thus, in the Russian passport, the artist is Yegor, and in the Israeli one, Igor.
Children's hobbies of Lyova Bi-2
The main hobby of his childhood was music and collecting cars. He listened to the performance of songs by Soviet artists, and secretly dreamed that he would definitely conquer the stage. As a teenager, he composed a composition that was saturated with folk art, but then the young man's musical taste changed so much that he began to be interested in psychedelic compositions.
Then he took up writing poetry. Basically, the aspiring poet developed themes around life stories. When he decided to share his work with the world, he read one of his works to his uncle. He said that the young man has a great future. Praise motivated Yegor to create further.
He did pretty well in school. Then he joined the theater studio of the city of Minsk, and from that time on, deuces began to appear in his diary more and more often. The guy simply "scored" to study.
In high school, he completely became a rebel. He tried his best to show that he was different from his peers. Egor grew long hair and even tried to "mow" under the rocker.
By the way, within the walls of the theater studio, he was lucky to meet Shura Bi-2, who also thought about creating his own musical project. Alexander - supported Yegor. He advised him on thematic literature and filled in his gaps in music.
Foundation of the Bi-2 team
Friendship and common musical tastes resulted in the formation of a common project. The brainchild of the musicians was called "Brothers in Arms". The guys constantly rehearsed, improved their knowledge and strived to win. This resulted in the fact that the group took first place at the Minsk fest. Then the artists renamed the team to "Coast of Truth", and at the end of the 80s they began to perform under the sign "Bi-2».
In the early 90s, Leva Bi-2 actively toured the territory of his native country. At the same time, the musicians worked on the album "Traitors to the Motherland", which in the end was never released.
After the collapse of the USSR, a crisis came. The musicians could not support not only the collective, but also themselves. Alexander moved to Israel, and Egor followed him. The foreign country accepted the guys not so coldly, but the musical career "froze" and did not develop.
Alexander a few years later moved to Australia. At this point, the activities of the group are terminated. Lyova Bi-2 also stepped back from the promotion of a common brainchild. During this period of time, he practically does not perform, and only close friends enjoy the artist's singing.
In 1998, Yegor also moved to Australia. Leva and Shura Bi-2 they record the joint track “Heart”, and then the long play “Sexless and Sad Love”.
In the daytime, Yegor worked a lot, and at night he devoted himself to work at Bi-2. The duo did not plan to return to their homeland. If it weren’t for acquaintances who didn’t take a few tracks of the guys to the radio, the fans might not have known about the existence of the band. The tracks of the rockers blew up the air, and the guys themselves received the long-awaited popularity.
The growing popularity of the Bi-2 team
They returned to Moscow, but default struck. Every day they rushed to the producers, but they shrugged. Soon luck smiled at them. At this time, Sergei Bodrov was just choosing a track for the film "Brother 2" and settled on the composition "No one writes to the Colonel." After the release of the film - "Bi-2" woke up mega popular.
Throughout their creative journey, the musicians regularly released long-plays, singles and clips. So, in 2017, the discography of the team was replenished with the album "Event Horizon". Recall that this is the 10th studio album of the guys. The record was incredibly warmly received not only by fans, but also by authoritative music critics.
In one of the interviews, Lyova said that he was very lucky with his "partner" in the group - Shura Bi-2. Yegor noted that they rarely argue and always compromise.
2020 has changed Lyova's plans a little. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, a number of planned concerts had to be cancelled. Then they got into the so-called "black list". The fault is participation in a rally against the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko.
Leva Bi-2: details of the artist's personal life
With Ira Makeeva (first wife), the artist met in his youth, in the House of Culture. Gorbunova at the Aquarium concert. The couple had an incredibly complicated relationship. Irina quickly gave birth to a child from Lyova, and a year later they signed. The birth of a baby and a stamp in the passport did not save the family from constant scandals.
A couple of years later, he met a girl named Asya Streicher. The young people crossed paths on the train. Asya worked as a tour manager for the Mumiy Troll band. Leva confessed to the girl that he fell in love with her at first sight. Despite their mutual sympathy, their paths diverged this time.
Leva was in no hurry to file for divorce. He continued to live with Ira and raised his son. But soon he met Asya again. This time, sympathy knew no bounds - Leva began to cheat on his legal wife. They secretly met, and they were quite satisfied with the status of lovers. This lasted until Ira found out about the existence of Asya. Lyova Bi-2 decided to leave the family. The new lover gave birth to a son and a daughter from the artist.
Asya has repeatedly admitted that Leva is a complex person. At the beginning of their relationship, they parted several times. The woman turned on wisdom, so today their relationship can be called ideal. Family photos regularly appear on the social networks of the Bi-2 frontman.
Scandals involving Lyova Bi-2
From time to time, scandalous headlines appear in publications in which the name of Lyova Bi-2 appears. The musician was repeatedly accused of alcoholism and drug addiction.
In 2017, he ended up in the hands of the police. They found half a gram of a light drug - marijuana. It is also interesting that Yegor was not searched. At that time, he was attending a football match and a bag of “weed” fell out of his pocket right in front of law enforcement officials. He was fined several thousand rubles.
A couple of years later, he again fell into a web of scandals. This time, the ex-wife, who turned out to be very talkative, told that the artist was extremely cruel in marriage. He psychologically mocked the woman and even beat her. She also said that Yegor sometimes behaved extremely inappropriately. For example, once he scattered things around the hotel room, then undressed and went for a walk naked around the hotel.
He does not hide that he loves quality alcohol. Because of his habit, Egor sometimes gets into awkward situations that cost him his reputation. Once he even apologized to those who fell victim to his inappropriate behavior.
Lyova Bi-2: interesting facts
- He collects collectible cars. This is a hobby that comes from childhood. Today, he has a little less than 1000 cars in his collection.
- Leva dreamed of becoming a car designer, and also drew drawings of the car of the future.
- His middle son's name is Aviv, which means "spring" in Hebrew.
- The most successful work in the group, the musician considers the debut longplay - "Traitors to the Motherland".
- Favorite rest is fishing, nature, silence, solitude with family.
Lyova Bi-2: our days
In 2020, the Bi-2 team, led by Lyova, presented several new tracks. We are talking about the songs "Inferno" and "Depression". In addition, the composition of the team "Togo that is not" became the main soundtrack for the series "Passengers".
A big tour of the Russian Federation is scheduled for 2021. Then it turned out that the guys refused to participate in the "Invasion" festival. The musicians promised to rectify the situation in 2022.
In 2021, the premiere of the video clip "Closing Your Eyes" for one of the tracks of their project "Odd Warrior" took place. The musical work “Closing your eyes” from the LP “Odd Warrior-4. Part 1" was filmed in the spirit of "lyric video". The singers of the so-called "golden composition" of "Pesnyarov" took part in the recording of the song.
The novelties from the artists did not end there. Soon the premiere of the composition "We do not need a hero" took place. Lyova Bi-2 delighted fans with the news that this track will be included in the band's new album. Most likely, the guys will release a LP in 2022.
At the end of the first summer month of 2021, Bi-2 played an online concert Let's Verify Hearts on the Okko multimedia service. This is a forced measure. The musicians had to abandon classical concerts due to the situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“In situations where artists are forced to reschedule concerts, the fans are the first to suffer. We don't want to reschedule shows, but we just don't have a choice. But, one way or another, we do not want to lose our audience. It is important for us to please music lovers with performances, so the concert will take place online,” says Leva Bi-2.
At this concert, the musicians pleased the fans with the performance of the new track "We Don't Need a Hero". Recall that in just a couple of weeks the video scored over two million views on YouTube video hosting. Also, the musicians decided to keep in touch with the audience, talking about the nuances of filming the video.
