Artem Evseenko said that Russians who went abroad felt nostalgic three times and are now busy surviving. Leonid Burlakov explains why migrants turned to Western stars, and Georgia announced a new festival. Georgia can replace Kazakhstan, which in recent years has organized the largest festival with the participation of Russian bands that do not perform in their country. The Lions of Rock Festival, scheduled to be held in Poti in August, announced the first headliners, while the Kazakhstan Family Festival refocused on “authorized” Russian bands in 2025. The head of the concert company Nebo Records Artem Evseenko and the former producer of the groups Mumiy Troll and Zemfira (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) Leonid Burlakov explained to NSN the variables What does this change involve, in which countries it is more profitable for Russian groups to perform and what awaits them in 2026. GEORGIA REPLACES KAZAKHSTAN: “ORDERED” There is no official ban on performances by rock bands and musicians in Russia. Various “blacklists” have been circulated on the Internet but their authenticity has not yet been confirmed by authorities. At the same time, a number of rock stars left Russia after the SVO began, but not all of them were recognized as foreign agents. There are also groups that stay in the country but do not hold concerts in their hometown. Today, the number of foreign musicians-agents according to the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation includes Zemfira, Andrei Makarevich (“Time Machine”), Boris Grebenshchikov (“Aquarium”), Maxim Pokrovsky (“My Leg Cramped”), Egor Bortnik (“Bi-2”), Morgenstern, Oksimiron, Monetochka, Noize MC, Vladislav Leshkevich (“Casta”), Ilya Prusikin (Little Big), Dmitry Spirin (“Cockroaches!”) and several other performers. In 2023 and 2024, the main rock festival with the participation of groups that refused to perform in the Russian Federation was the Family Festival in Kazakhstan, at which Splin, Mumiy Troll, DDT, Louna, NAIV, Animal Jazz and Anacondaz performed, and the host was Ivan Urgant. However, in 2025, this festival significantly changed its concept, inviting groups to perform there in Russia. Especially among them were Diana Arbenina, “KnyaZz”, “Chizh&Co”, “Kino”, “Uma2rman” and “Neuromonk Feofan”, and Alexander Pushnoy became the host instead of Urgant. The frontrunners for 2026 have not yet been announced. Against this background, at the beginning of January, the first participants were announced by the Lions of Rock festival, which will be held in August in the Georgian city of Poti. The four leading stars include “Casta”, “Nuki”, “Animal Jazz” and “Elysium”. The organizers promise other names. Artem Evseenko, whose agency organizes concerts by Basta, “Zveri”, “Bi-2” and other famous groups, believes that the problem here is about politics, and not about the loss of interest in the Russians among the Kazakh public. “I think this was a political decision. This was a huge obstacle for our government, so the Kazakhs took “appropriate measures”. Somehow, belatedly, some modifications were made to the recommendations to the organizing committee on who should be invited and who should not be invited. The same thing will happen in Georgia, it will just take more time to achieve it. Russia's position on the international stage is strengthening every day. At one point, everyone feels like the center of power of the Russian Federation. The more countries realize this, the more their tilt will shift in one direction or another. This will determine who to invite and who not to invite among the artists. Evseenko said: Artists who leave their country in 2022 will fail. “This is not related to demand, there are other reasons. The same “Uma2rman” does not stand next to “Spleen” in terms of public popularity. In Georgia, we have not yet completely “restored order,” so to speak. At the same time, logistically, Georgia is very easy to reach from Russia; you can come by car, “notes the producer. At the same time, Kazakhstan is not completely closed to artists who do not perform in Russia. So, in 2026, concerts of the groups DDT, Anacondaz and Louna were planned in the country. But Zemfira's concert in Almaty in the summer of 2025 was canceled. “Everything went wrong from the beginning. Four months of approvals, relocations and finally the official refusal to hold the concert from the principal in charge of the Khan Tengri stadium, of course for a far-fetched reason”, the singer wrote later, noting that she tried to “soften the awkwardness of the last meeting and say goodbye beautifully”, but this did not work. That same summer, she performed at the Hrazdan stadium in Yerevan and at a tennis club in Georgian Batumi. FROM MIAMI TO LONDON: “Once every five years” Some musicians who have left the country are trying to tour abroad. Thus, the DDT group has held 16 concerts in 10 countries in 2025, including the US, and at the end of January they will perform on December 31 in Miami, then give several more concerts in American cities out, many bands are already planning to perform in Western Europe in 2026: Germany, Austria, Spain, England and others. Among them are “DDT”, “Spleen”, “Time Machine”, “Aquarium” and Morgenstern, which are recognized as foreign agents. Artem Evseenko believes that artists in 2026-27 should not especially count on the Russian-speaking audience in these countries flocking to the West to explore new markets is significant, however, according to my observations, by 2026, interest in them as in 2023-2024 by immigrants has diminished. We have repeatedly organized foreign tours for Russian artists. Abroad, it is customary to go see Russian artists once every 4-5 years. This is less a step into the future than an evening of nostalgia. People believe that if you go once this year, you won't go again five years from now. So you can't count on the same audience in a year. Russians who left the mobilization went to such concerts many times and became nostalgic. They had other worries now, the quest for survival had become more important than the interest in artists they had seen in Russia. In America, no one cares about our artists, they are all at the level of “remembering youth or childhood”. this expert explains. For his part, Leonid Burlakov noted that you can make good money at concerts in Europe, but currently only 10-15 Russian artists are doing well there. “The most people come to see Russian artists in Belgrade, Georgia, Almaty, there are more stadiums there. Even Basta and Agutin went to Chisinau and the stadiums were packed. For the United States, I looked at the turnover: a very popular group in Russia barely filled the hall by about 30-40%. Much depends on the individual artist. For example, Zemfira gathered the main concert hall in London, the Royal Albert Hall (in 2022 – NSN), 6-7 thousand people went there, and only 40% of famous promoters, producers of famous English teams, etc. wanted to attend this concert, so it all depends on the level of talent. At the same time, there is no need to attend concerts, a maximum of 30-40, and therefore do not collect releasing new songs, albums, etc., performing there every two years. You can earn more on similar platforms in Russia, because tickets are more expensive, at the same time, among the stars who are not present here, at most 10-15 people have a good concert history,” Burlakov emphasized. RESORT AND TUBE: “CHOOSE TAYLOR SWIFT” Another destination where Russian bands like to perform are the resorts beloved by their compatriots – UAE, Bali, Thailand and Türkiye. In addition, musicians often go to Israel (Tel Aviv) and Cyprus (Limassol and Paphos). However, there they have to compete with Western stars and the range of “left” artists at the resorts is not too large. In 2026, these include Valery Meladze (he performed in Dubai on December 31, in Thailand and Bali in January, and will also give a series of concerts at hotels in Turkey), Anacondaz (he will perform in January in Phuket and Bali) and “Splin” (will perform in February in Dubai). “A lot of Russian tourists come to Türkiye, many events are held there. Russian artists also perform in Thailand and Bali. It's a different story there, these are resorts, the ruble is constantly changing. People with high incomes go there from cities where big artists simply do not go. For example, Salekhard, Magadan, Nadym. They come on vacation and, of course, go to see such an artist. At the same time, if You take Emirates, Dubai, they don't really like foreign agents there,” Artem Evseenko said about this issue. For his part, Leonid Burlakov noted that with concerts in Türkiye, not everything is as rosy as it seems. “The group Bi-2 performed in Antalya when I was on vacation there, not many people gathered. At the same time, if a group has not performed in Russia for a long time, people come to gawk; curiosity always prevails. About 30% of the group's fans came, the rest were people who happened to pass by. It is unlikely that anyone will fly on a Bi-2 to Dubai, but they will go to Almaty and Georgia”, the producer noted. Concerts by Linkin Park, Muse, Scorpions, Ricky Martin, Mariah Carey, Bryan Adams and Christina Aguilera are scheduled in Abu Dhabi (UAE) in January-May. Gorillaz, Offspring, Alice Cooper and Megadeth will perform in Istanbul in 2026. Burlakov points out that Russians who left the country are trying to integrate in other countries and are turning to Western rock stars. “The number of such tours is decreasing and will continue to decrease, because there is no new material and there is less and less information about these artists. Now there is a wave of Russians returning from there, and those who decided to connect their lives with some other country are integrating and starting to go to more concerts of local groups. Everything is learned by comparison. For example, aliens come and we brag: our Rolling Stones rule gathered 80 thousand people and they said: we are renting the planet for our concert.” Globally famous music group. When you're at the origin of all this rock culture, people start going to Oasis reunions, Radiohead, Taylor Swift's billion-dollar concert. And our artists are trying to make money and somehow survive, not perform. At the end of January 2024, the musicians of the group Bi-2 were arrested in Thailand, then deported to Israel. Soon after, their concerts in Dubai and Türkiye were canceled, the Telegram channel “Radiotochka NSN” recalls.
