Zivert: voice, aesthetics and why Russian pop crosses borders with performance art and video clips of another level

Zivert —Yulia Dmitrievna Zivert— is one of those rare cases in contemporary pop: a Russian artist whose name is heard on playlists around the world even though the majority of listeners do not understand a syllable of her lyrics. It is not just a viral hit: it is a total proposal - voice, fashion, video clip as a work of art and live shows with stadium staging - that recalls the golden era of the pop video clip (Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince) but with a Slavic accent and retro vinyl aesthetic. This profile, the third of Voices that make magic, reviews what makes your instrument special and why it deserves to be heard even if Russian is not your language.

Voice: luminous tone and pop without barriers

Zivert's voice does not rely on the operatic virtuosity or the extreme melisma of contemporary R&B. Its resource is another: a young, bright and melodic tone that is understood even when you don't follow the lyrics. In Life the hook is almost a phonetic mantra; on Ещё хочу ("I still want") the vocal line floats over vintage synths with the same clarity.

Technically, Zivert works in a mid-high register comfortable for dance-pop: short phrases in the chorus, controlled sustains in the bridge and a clear Russian diction that—curiously—does not alienate the Spanish-speaking listener because the melody does the emotional work. Live he maintains that projection with choreography and costume changes: it is not a static voice behind a microphone, but part of a visual spectacle.

According to Wikipedia, his career took off in 2017 with the singles Chak and Anesthesia; In 2024 she was a coach on The Voice Russia, which confirms that the local industry considers her a vocal reference, not just a fashion phenomenon.

Art in each video clip: cinema, fashion and transformation

What separates Zivert from many regional pop stars is visual ambition. Life is not a lyric video with filters: it is a short film set in Hong Kong with a retro palette and vinyl narrative. Credo (2020), directed by Alan Badoev, explores fantasy film iconography; ЯТЛ ("I love you") brings the aesthetic to Los Angeles with 90s MTV music video level production.

In an interview with One Media Life, the artist acknowledges her admiration for Michael Jackson and builds visual characters inspired by universes like Marvel (she cites Storm's look in Anestesia). It is no coincidence: Zivert understands pop as total spectacle —voice + image + narrative— in the line of the great icons of the music video, although his repertoire is in Cyrillic.

As a model before and during his musical career, Zivert treats each video clip as a fashion editorial: radical look changes (platinum blonde, haircut in Credo, Beverly Hills aesthetic), careful art direction and a brand coherence – the “Vinyl” universe of his albums – that few Russian artists have exported with such success.

Beyond language: an icon that few know in the West

Outside of Russia and countries of the former USSR, Zivert continues to be underrepresented in Western media: language, political geography and the algorithmic bias towards Anglo-Saxon pop mean that an artist with hundreds of millions of streams goes unnoticed in Spain or Latin America. And yet its figures speak for themselves: more than 1.5 billion views on its YouTube channel, charting in Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, and internal candidacy for Eurovision 2020 (second after Little Big, according to Russian media cited in Wikipedia).

That is precisely what is interesting for Voices that make magic: to demonstrate that a voice can cross borders without translation if the melody, the production and the video clip are strong enough. Zivert doesn't sing in English to please the global market; the world found it the same—through Shazam, YouTube and TikTok—because Life and Ещё хочу are universal hooks wrapped in top-notch pop art.

Albums and songs that best show his voice and his visual world

• Life (2019) — international jump; music video in Hong Kong; video clip above (~263M).
• Ещё хочу (2018) — retro melancholy from the EP Siyay; second most viewed video clip (~155M); video clip above.
• Зелёные волны (2018) — oceanic aesthetics and synth-pop; ~54M on YouTube.
• Credo (2020) — video clip by Alan Badoev; #1 on Russian charts.
• ЯТЛ (2020) — power ballad pop; ~77M on YouTube.
• Vinyl #1 / Vinyl #2 — concept albums that unify sound and visual aesthetics.

Why it fits into Voices That Make Magic

Zivert does not compete with Luis Miguel in bolero or with Aitana in Iberian pop. His magic is that of pop-spectacle: a clear and catchy voice at the service of video clips that work without subtitles, with an impeccable fashion image and a declared admiration for the school of the great video clip (Michael Jackson). In a list dominated by Anglo-Saxon and Latin artists, recovering his name is remembering that talent does not have a linguistic passport.

That is why we include it in Voices that make magic: because listening to it—and above all seeing it—forces us to rethink what we understand by “global icon” in 2026.

In summary

Voice? Luminous timbre, mid-high register, melody above virtuosity. Art? Cinematic video clips, fashion and total staging. YouTube? Life (~263 M) and Ещё хочу (~155 M). Why does it matter? Global icon of Russian pop despite language barriers and Western visibility. Influences? Michael Jackson (cited by the artist herself). Next step? More profiles in the Voices that make magic series.