He is meritorious (2001) and people's (2009) artist of the Russian Federation. He is people's artist of Ukraine. He also known as the Russian television intellectual game show What? Where? When? gamer (the team of Mikhail Barshchevsky).

Nikolay Baskov studied Gnessin music academy in Moscow, and became an aspirant of Moscow State Petr Chaykovsky Conservatory. In 1998 Baskov won the first prize on All-Russian Young Singers Competition and second prize in Grande Voce competition 1999 in Spain.

The same year Nikolay Baskov was invited to Bolshoi theatre troup. He performed the major arias in such operas as Yevgeni Onegin, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Traviata and others.

In 2000 he recorded his debut solo album «Posveshenie» (Dedication). The video filmed for «In Caruso memory» (based on Adagio in G minor) was aired on Russian TV and increased his popularity. Since 2001, Baskov abandoned Bolshoi to run his commercially successful solo career. Though Baskov's repertoir consists mostly of modernly-arranged arias and romances, he performs pop music as well. Nikolay often performed together with pop artists, as well as with classical singers, such as Montserrat Caballé.

Source: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 4.3.2010