Move over, Shaman

Russia’s latest breakout singer is a TikToker who makes listeners feel like the 2010s never ended — and the full-scale war never began

Russia’s biggest musical success of 2025 wasn’t Shaman, the hawkish Kremlin-backed pop singer, or Instasamka, the blogger-turned-rapper who built hits around conspicuous consumption and controversy before turning pro-war herself. Instead, the artist listeners embraced most was quieter and almost a throwback: Vanya Dmitrienko, a 20-year-old singer-songwriter who doesn’t just ignore the full-scale war in Ukraine, but seems to channel the immediate pre-war era. Meduza traces Dmitrienko’s rise, his retreat from the spotlight amid Moscow’s TikTok restrictions, and his return last year with a new, more mature image and sound.

The turning point in Vanya Dmitrienko’s career came in 2020. As COVID-19 kept Russians indoors that year, TikTok surged in popularity, transforming from a social network into a self-contained content industry. Young influencers moved into so-called TikTok houses, where they didn’t just lip-sync to existing hits but also wrote and recorded their own songs. Confined at home, users spent hours scrolling through vertical videos, discovering new idols. One of the era’s defining songs captured the moment perfectly: “I’m at Home,” by Daniil Milokhin, then one of Russian TikTok’s most recognizable faces.

Dmitrienko entered this ecosystem by posting covers of popular songs before eventually sharing a fragment of an original track built around a catchy hook: “You’re Venus, I’m Jupiter; you’re Moscow, I’m St. Petersburg.” Visually, he fit the TikTok mold of the time, with bleached hair and bright clothes, but there was one key difference. While Milokhin and other Russian TikTok stars came to music from blogging, using songs to monetize an existing audience, Dmitrienko was a musician first, using TikTok primarily as a platform for his music.

You’re currently reading Meduza, the world’s largest independent Russian news outlet. Every day, we bring you essential coverage from Russia and beyond. Explore our reporting here and follow us wherever you get your news.

The son of a musician, Dmitrienko showed creative talent early. At six, he enrolled in theater classes to study acting and vocal performance. Neighbors recalled him singing constantly in the elevator, and by fourth grade, his teacher said he was dreaming of becoming an artist. After winning a music competition at 12, Dmitrienko caught the attention of producer Yevgeny Orlov, who convinced his family to move to Moscow. After ninth grade, he enrolled at the Gnessin Music College but soon left, later studying economics at Moscow University of Finance and Law. Eventually, however, he came back to music.

His song “Venus–Jupiter” became a hit even before its official release, propelled by TikTok’s algorithms. Its formula was simple: a sticky hook, a basic guitar strum, and a straightforward electronic beat. The crucial element, though, was Dmitrienko’s voice, which is high-pitched, slightly raspy, and instantly recognizable.

Once the track was formally released, Dmitrienko began to break through beyond TikTok. At 15, he became the youngest recipient of the Golden Gramophone award and appeared on the talk show Evening Urgant. He performed on TV, was featured in gossip columns, maintained an active TikTok presence, and continued releasing new music. Still, the risk of becoming a one-hit wonder lingered; “Venus–Jupiter” set a high bar, and his subsequent releases failed to match its numbers.

Between 2021 and 2024, Dmitrienko largely faded from view, partly because the cultural landscape had changed. From March 2022, TikTok in Russia was effectively frozen: without a VPN, users could only access older content. Music critics also noted that TikTok stars increasingly felt out of place in a harsher, more radicalized wartime society.

Then there was Dmitrienko’s small act of anti-war protest. As Verstka Media recently recounted, four days after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the singer was scheduled to host a media awards show, but refused to go onstage. “In the current situation, my moral compass does not allow me to go onstage and pretend nothing is happening,” he wrote on Instagram at the time.

But in late 2024, Dmitrienko returned with a striking image and sound overhaul. He ditched the blond for his hair’s natural color and replaced his flashy outfits with blazers and tailored pants. His music shifted as well: teenage TikTok pop and electronic beats gave way to guitar-driven arrangements reminiscent of bands like Måneskin. The first notable track in this new style, “Tsvetaeva,” appeared in early 2025. However, his real breakthrough came later with “The Real One,” “Silk,” and “Silhouette,” a duet with actress Anna Peresild.

Music journalist and blogger Nikolai Redkin described Dmitrienko’s new formula like this: “A quiet guitar buildup, then a second of silence — and suddenly a shouty guitar riff kicks in. It turns into a rock disco.” With his new songs, Dmitrienko accomplished what pro-war, Kremlin-sponsored artists like Shaman hadn’t: he managed to become a truly mass artist rather than a niche figure.

Last year, Dmitrienko turned 20 and finally moved from the no-man’s-land between TikTok and television to the world of “adult” pop music. Yandex Music named him Artist of the Year, and tickets for his upcoming Moscow concert start at 15,000 rubles ($190). Media outlets and Telegram channels dissect his every move — a level of attention few Russian artists have attracted in recent years.

Dmitrienko feels like a pop star from an earlier era. In a musical landscape shaped by social media, politics, and wartime realities, he offers a form of escapism that unites rather than divides. That said, he has not fully escaped Russia’s political reality. In 2025, he returned to the awards show circuit and has headlined at least one pro-war event. He has not publicly commented on Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine since his Instagram post in 2022.