Morgenshtern Israeli Rapper and Singer Born 1998 in Ufa

Early life

Morgenshtern was born Alisher Valeyev on 17 February 1998 in Ufa, Russia. As a teenager he legally took his mother's surname, Morgenshtern. His mother has Russian-Jewish roots and ran a flower shop in Ufa, and his father was a businessman of Bashkir descent. He became interested in music in childhood, filmed skateboarding videos with friends under the name Others Crew, and released a first music video in 2010 under the early pseudonym DeeneS MC.

He studied at Bashkir State Pedagogical University and later enrolled at Ufa State Aviation Technical University to study computer science, but did not complete either course. He also worked as a street musician and fronted a rock band called MMD Crew.

Career

Morgenshtern first became known in 2017 through YouTube parodies of popular artists. In 2018 he dropped that format and began releasing his own music, starting with the album Do togo kak stal izvesten that year. His catalogue includes the EP Hate Me, the albums Ulybnis, durak! (2019) and Last One (2022), and the two 2021 albums Million Dollar: Happiness and Million Dollar: Business. He is also known for the YouTube show #EasyRap.

The album Legendarnaja pyl', recorded in about a week during live streams and released on 17 January 2020, was the biggest success of his early career. It collected one million streams on the Russian platform VK within half an hour and more than 21 million in its first two days, a record for the service. Singles from 2020 included "Malyshka", "Pososi", "Cadillac" and "Ice", the last of which spread widely on TikTok. The video for "Pososi" became the most disliked video on YouTube in Russia. In November 2020 he was interviewed by Yury Dud in an episode lasting close to three hours, and in July 2021 Spotify named him the most-streamed artist from Russia.

Later releases include the 2022 singles "Selyavi", "12" and "Nomer", the 2024 single "Poslednyaya lyubov", the 2025 release Alisher, described as a shift toward a rawer, rock-influenced sound, and the acoustic live album Dead Sea Live, recorded on a salt island in the Dead Sea and released on 13 February 2026. His screen credits include the film Posledniy trek (2021) and Ufaboyz (2025).

Beyond music, he opened the Moscow restaurants Kaif Provenance in 2020 and Kaif Burger in 2021, both of which closed in 2022. In 2021 he was named "youth director" of Alfa-Bank, a role the bank later described as a marketing campaign.

Recognition

Morgenshtern has been nominated four times. He was a nominee for the MTV Europe Music Award for Best MTV Russia Act in 2020. At the Russian National Music Award he was nominated for Hip Hop Artist of the Year in 2020, for the track "El Problema", and again in 2021, as well as for Dance Hit of the Year in 2021 for "Novaya volna". He has not won any of these awards.

Public roles

In April 2021 he donated 666,666 rubles to a children's support fund in Bashkortostan, then the largest private gift the organization had received. After he publicly opposed the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including in his single "12", the Russian Ministry of Justice added him to its register of foreign agents on 6 May 2022, citing funding from Yoola Labs and remarks about Victory Day celebrations. He challenged the designation in court without success. He has lived outside Russia since leaving in late 2021, first in Dubai and later with Israel as his main place of residence. A Moscow court convicted him in absentia on 20 April 2026 of evading obligations under the foreign agent legislation and fined him 7 million rubles; his lawyers appealed. In June 2026 he completed conversion to Judaism before a rabbinical court in Israel and took the name Israel Yehuda Morgenshtern.

Personal life

Morgenshtern married Dilara Zinatullina in Moscow in 2021. The marriage later ended.