Leonid & Friends: Paladin Artists’ Gil Jacobs on the Moscow-based Band's U.S. Sell-Out Success

Leonid & Friends is about to return to the U.S. for a fall headline tour following a successful spring trek that saw the 11-piece, Moscow-based group selling out theatres across the U.S., landing on Pollstar’s LIVE75 chart alongside major national acts, and opening for Jerry Seinfeld at the Greek Theatre as part of Netflix Is A Joke comedy festival.

Pollstar caught up with Leonid & Friends’ longtime agent to learn more ahead of the tour’s Sept. 13 launch at Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, New York.

Thanks to the power of a great cover song, Paladin Artists music agent Gil Jacobs was introduced to Leonid & Friends like most fans of the group that got its start as a Chicago tribute band.

“I saw one of their viral videos,” Jacobs recalls. “The first one I think that really went viral was the ‘25 or 6 to 4’ cover they did. I’m just a fan of excellent musicianship across genres. Even though I’m not the biggest Chicago fanatic, I appreciated the musicianship of that video, especially the guitar solos – so intricate.”

The video stuck with Jacobs and a few years later a promoter friend of Jacobs, who was helping bring the band to play its first show in L.A., encouraged the agent to check them out.

“They had booked a couple shows for themselves [including] a showcase for themselves at APAP (Association of Performing Arts Professionals). So we met at APAP and hit it off and I told them I would love to help you guys book some more shows. We extended that tour from three shows to six or seven shows in January of 2019. And they did so well that I brought them back two more times that year,” Jacobs said. “Then obviously COVID hit so we took a little pause and it’s just been really building since then.”

Leonid & Friends was founded by musical director, multi-instrumentalist and producer Leonid Vorobyev who graduated from East Siberian Institute of Culture as a Choir Conductor and spent 30 years working as a music producer, sound engineer, composer, and musician. As his bio on the band’s website explains, Vorobyev was planning to retire in late 2014 and to celebrate he got a bunch of friends together to record a cover of Chicago’s song “Brand New Love Affair.” It turns out his time in music was far from over.

Along with Vorobyev, the roster for Leonid & Friends includes Vasilii Akimov on vocals/guitar, Igor Javad-Zade on drums, Sergey Kurmaev on keyboards/backing vocals, Konstantin Kovachev on lead guitar, Maxim Likhachev on trombone, Andrey Zyl on trumpet and Oleg Kudryavtsev on saxophone, as well as vocalists Ksenia Buzina, Danil Buranov and Bobby Alcott.

Leonid & Friends got its start solely performing Chicago covers and has since expanded its setlists to include its take on tunes by Earth, Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, The Carpenters and others.

Jacobs notes that, similar to his experience, the fanbase has been built by fans discovering Leonid & Friends via viral videos or by word of mouth, with friends encouraging one another to attend the shows.

“There are other, you know, quote unquote cover bands who have excellent musicianship, but their musicianship is second to none,” Jacobs says of Leonid & Friends. “I mean, these are some of the best musicians across Eastern Europe and beyond. So, I think the first thing that sets them apart is really just the quality of the show and the music. They don’t use big production elements or lasers or anything like that. It’s just their name on a screen and the music.

“And then the second thing that really sets them apart is the dedicated fan base. … They’ve been able to cultivate this fan base to where it’s beyond just fans of the band. It’s also a community. They’ve got close to a million followers on Facebook. In addition to that, they’ve got over 75,000 fans in a Facebook group of super fans talking about shows [they’ve seen] and the setlists.”

And then the celebrity endorsements don’t hurt either.

“A big reason for how they got their start, too, is because Chicago saw these videos and reposted them out of mutual respect and recognition,” Jacobs says.

“They have this long list of super super established and famous artists who recognize them and endorse them. Even several artists who have played with them, sat in with them. … David Foster came out to their show at the Canyon Club in Agoura and we have a video of him raving about the band. Obviously, Jerry Seinfeld … Arturo Sandoval has played with them before. Um, uh, Robert Kool from Kool & the Gang, Philip Bailey from Earth, Wind & Fire. Um, you know, Gregg Bissonette and Nigel Olsen, who’s the drummer for Elton John … and Alan Parsons loves them.”

The band’s fall tour, which has dates booked through late November, boasts stops in major markets like the Majestic Theatre in Dallas, the Paramount Theatre in Denver and The Wiltern in Los Angeles. And in Milwaukee, the band’s show at The Pabst Theater sold out months in advance and was upgraded to The Riverside Theater.

Jacobs notes his strategy in helping build up the Leonid & Friends’ touring has been focusing on secondary and tertiary markets, where the band really shines.

“They’re covering the entire country. I think there’s only two states they haven’t played in – Alaska and one of the Dakotas. They do really well everywhere. They’re very much not a [solely] L.A., New York, Chicago, type of routing. I think one year we had like three or four shows in Iowa on one tour alone. Generally, I think they even do better in secondary and tertiary markets … You know, a lot of fans live in suburban areas and they want to go to their local venues … So [it’s just making things more comfortable and easier for their fans.”

Looking ahead, Jacobs hints at even bigger plans for the band as Leonid & Friends continues showing off their musicianship on stage and putting in time on the road. The initial dates are already booked for an East Coast tour in 2027.

Visit https://leonidandf.com/ for more information.

_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/09/11/paladin-artists-gil-jacobs-talks-leonid-friends-selling-out-theatres-across-the-u-s/)._