Катя Лель (Katya Lel)

Katya Lel, born Ekaterina Nikolayevna Chuprinina on September 20, 1974, is a Russian pop singer who launched her solo career in the late 1990s. She built her early reputation with a successful tour and the album Champs Elysee, establishing herself within the Russian pop scene of that era.

Her breakthrough came through a pivotal collaboration with producer Maxim Fadeev starting in 2003, which reshaped her sound and led to her signature hit «Мой мармеладный» (My Marmalade). The song, with its catchy, bubblegum-pop melody and playful vocal hook, topped charts across several countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and became one of the defining Russian pop hits of the 2000s.

Beyond her biggest hit, Lel built a catalog of upbeat, melodic Russian pop songs such as «Муси-Пуси» and «Тобой живу», sustaining a long career in the genre. «Мой мармеладный» has continued to resonate with new audiences well beyond its original release, resurfacing on platforms like TikTok in the 2020s and introducing her signature sound to a younger generation, a resurgence she has publicly embraced alongside her longtime collaboration with Fadeev.