Avraam Russo

The Heavens awarded Avraam an extraordinary and vivid fate. Avraam Russo was born in Syria in a family of Armenians. His father Jean Ipjian was a French legionnaire and a veteran of World War II. Avraam’s mother Maria was a nurse. The father died when the singer was just 7 years old. Jean survived the genocide of Armenians in Turkey in 1915. The life of Russo’s father was full of tragedy. During a forced flight from his hometown Jean and his sisters split up and ended up in different parts of Syria.

Avraam's father received refugee status in Aleppo. To become a French legionnaire Jean has changed his date of birth in the documents by adding two years. Jean was able to find and meet with his sisters only in adulthood. Avraam’s mother Maria worked as a nurse. Being a little girl she experienced the genocide of the Armenian people in 1915. Hiding from suppression Maria's family stayed at their friends in Turkey. In the 1930s her father Artino was miraculously able to arrange his family's removal to Syria (the city of Jarablus), that saved them from certain death during the time of the Great Atrocity.

Mother Maria was the one who played a significant role in becoming of Avraam as a popular singer and a highly spiritual person. In his interviews, Russo is not tired of admiring his mother, who provided for the family, worked hard, but never forget her maternal duty and generously endowed Avraam with wise guidance and unconditional love.

After her husband’s death, Maria had to move to Paris and then to Lebanon. Avraam 's mother is a highly religious person and she always dreamt of dedicating one of her children to God. This is how Avraam got to a monastery in Lebanon. Russo recalls that period of study at the monastery with warmth in his soul. The singer learned the important life lessons there and realized that he wants to go through his life with God in his heart.

Avraam’s mother dreamt of her son was ordained as a priest, but everything turned out differently. After graduating he decided to devote himself to his favorite thing and plunged into the world of professional music. At the age of 16 Avraam began performing in restaurants to help his mother provide for their family. As the singer says: “My childhood was inverted: while my peers were dressing in shorts and ran to play football, I was putting on a tie, a jacket and went to a restaurant to sing.” Oriental roots, bright charisma, excellent vocal abilities and extraordinary sincerity allowed Avraam to gain popularity and win the hearts of listeners quickly. Early in his career the singer was a part of a young band “Tiki-Boys”, which performed in small restaurants and clubs. The popularity of their band grew day after day.

Some time later he received an invitation from another famous band, and since that moment Avraam Russo's touring career began. It was a new period of his life. It opened up new horizons. Avraam studied new countries, their history and people with great interest. This life experience helped him to learn foreign languages. It's not a secret that the singer speaks 7 languages and sings in 14! In his interviews Russo admits that he needs six months to master a new dialect, but emphasizes the fact that without studying the culture and history of this language, nothing will work. Being a part of this band, the singer had the opportunity to fully provide for his family and take care of his mother, which finally allowed her to get away from hard work.

The singer felt the taste of true popularity in Russia. At one of his performances in Cyprus the future artist met a Moscow businessman, who suggested Russo to move to live and work in Moscow. Avraam did not speak Russian at all and did not plan to move. However, the love of creativity prevailed again and the singer came to Russia. The first solo concert took place in a sport center "Olympic" in autumn 2002. The show was called “100 and one night”. Russo's debut single "Amor" was released in 2001. In 2002 the first album "Tonight" blew up the space of the former Soviet Union and Avraam became popular at once.

Then a series of hits followed, which made the singer well-known not only in Russia, but also abroad. The hit "Amor" was at the top of the European channel "VIVA" chart for 11 weeks and the hit "I know" ("Znayu") was record 50 weeks in the TOP Russian music charts. Phenomenal popularity, love of millions of fans and marriage to beauty Morela Ferdman. No one could think at that moment, that soon in the life of the most touring artist of Russia dark times will begin and only Faith in God and Avraam’s inner strength will help him in overcoming all those difficulties. In 2004 Moscow was shaken by the news of the first assassination attempt on Russo. In 2006 Avraam was on the verge of death.

August 19, 2006 is the second Russo’s birthday. 20 meters from the singer 's house, unknown men shot his car with a Kalashnikov rifle. Avraam was miraculously able to leave the scene of the attack. He says that in attempts to avoid shots he lay on the right side. “At this moment as if some unknown force had lifted me up and brought me back to the driver 's seat.” Then I heard the frightened voice of my guard, who shouted: “On the gas! On the gas! "With all my strength, I pressed the gas pedal and, hitting a car parked nearby, flew out towards the Garden Ring road, in a minute, losing consciousness from blood loss, fell on the steering wheel." The singer suffered dangerous injuries and lost 3.5 liters of blood. Doctors had disappointing predictions and few believed Avraam would survive and get back on his feet. The wound was so serious, that on the surgery there was a question of amputation of a leg to save his life. It was just a miracle that the surgeons could block a vein and save the leg. The attempt on Russo was widely covered in the press, his name did not leave the first columns of popular publications. Thousands of fans empathized, waited by the walls of the hospital and prayed for Avraam. It was the moment when the singer realized that even in the most difficult circumstances, the fast and gracious help of God saves our life, faith, hope and love.

Usually people who have lost the presence of the spirit, in other words, a connection with God, break down in everyday adversities. As the singer says: "Most of all in these difficult circumstances, the presence of the spirit inherent in believers helped me." The people who committed the assassination attempt remained unknown. Russo had to make a difficult decision to leave everything to the Court of God, to take care of himself, his family affairs and to move to the United States. There his wife Morela gave birth to their first child. The girl was named Emanuella, which means "God is with us." After the second assassination attempt Avraam began to think often about his mission on Earth, and why The Heavens gave him a second chance. The singer began to understand that his art was not in the name of God, so Russo made a conscious decision to start his new path as a Ghospel Music performer (Inspiring music, Christian chants in different styles - from rock to pop music). In 2009 Avraam released the album "Return" (“Vozvrashcheniye”) immediately followed by the album "Resurrection." This was an absolutely new level in Russo's creative career. Creativity in the name of God, gratitude for the experience and the second chance, for joys and sorrows, for the granted power to survive all the difficulties on the path of life.

In 2010 Avraam returned to Russia - a country that gave him the most important ups and downs. Russo doubted for a long time whether he should return to where the perpetrators of the attempted assassination are still at large. After all, on February 14, the artist announced the beginning of his concert tour - “Return” (“Vozvrashcheniye”). The date was not chosen by chance, on this day - Saint Valentine's Day – Avraam said that he returned with love to millions of his fans, to the country which he continues to love despite everything. During 4 years the singer had a lot of concerts, traveled and studied a new style of music for himself. In 2014 Avraam had a second daughter - Ave Maria. At that moment Russo realized that The Heavens had purified his soul from grief and re-granted the joy of life.

In gratitude, the singer decided to build an Orthodox church near his home (New Jersey). It is full of shrines, relics and ancient icons. On the day of the great consecration of the church, the youngest daughter Ave Maria was baptized. The bishop, in whose jurisdiction the church in New Jersey was transferred, blessed Russo to become a reader in it. The singer has an active social life in the capital. He performs, communicates with stars, gets to know interesting people. In 2016 Avraam Russo recorded a song with singer Sogdiana. In the same year the artist recorded new hits: “The Night Cried” (“Plakala noch'”), “I Will Find You” (“ Ya tebya naydu”) and “My feelings are lace” (“Moi chuvstva – kruzheva”). Today Avraam continues to delight his fans with new singles. At the moment Russo performs concerts, leads a spiritual life and is happy to protect his mother, wife and two beautiful daughters.