Afanasieff was born in São Paulo, Brazil.[2] His father was Russian,[1] while his mother, who was from Harbin, China,[1] was of Russian-Chinese descent.[4] When Afanasieff was four or five, his family moved to the United States.[5]
Career
Starting out as a working jazz musician in 1980, Afanasieff initially played keyboards with the jazz/fusion violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. Later, he formed The Warriors[6] with another former Ponty sideman, guitarist Joaquin Lievano, and with 1980s music producer/songwriter and drummer Narada Michael Walden,[5] and these experiences gave him the background and confidence to take an active role as a producer.[7]
Walden hired Afanasieff as a staff producer/arranger and began using him as a keyboardist on Whitney Houston's self-titled debut album released in 1985, which went on to become the artist's best-selling studio album to date. It was also during this time that Afanasieff and Walden began writing pop songs together. Together with his mentor Narada, Afanasieff's first major production was the title track of the James Bond movie Licence to Kill,[5] sung by Gladys Knight and co-written by Afanasieff and Walden.[8]
Afanasieff performs on most of his recordings (mainly keyboards, synthesizers and drum programming).
Afanasieff created music with Mariah Carey from 1990 to 2001. He had a role in some of Carey's most successful songs, including "Hero", which he co-produced, co-wrote, and on which he played all of the music tracks. "Hero" was released as the second single from Carey's album Music Box,[5] and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on December 25, 1993. It remained at the top of the chart for four weeks. "Hero" has become one of Carey's signature songs, and Carey closes many of her concerts with it.[10] Carey and Afanasieff also wrote "One Sweet Day", a duet between Carey and Boyz II Men, which held the record for the longest run at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (16 weeks) for 23 years; the record was matched in 2017 by "Despacito", and broken by "Old Town Road" in 2019. The song was nominated for the 1996 Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and received the ASCAP Song of the Year Award for 1996. In 1994, Carey released the Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", composed by Afanasieff and herself. As of December 2018, the song has earned cumulative worldwide sales of over 14 million copies.
In 2009, Afanasieff started working with Russian singer Yulia Nachalova. Their album Wild Butterfly was released in 2012 on iTunes. They later produced a video "Zhdi menya" ("Wait for Me") in Russian, released on iTunes in 2015.
In 2014, Afanasieff became head of the composers/producers department at Isina, a worldwide talent search and development mentorship for those seeking to pursue a career in music.[11][12][13]
In 2015, he became one of the mentors of the Russian TV project Glavnaya Stsena ("Main Stage"), the Russian version of The X Factor.[14]
^ abcdeMassey, Howard (2000). Behind the Glass: Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft The Hits. San Francisco, California, US: Backbeat Books. pp. 266–276. ISBN0879306149.
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