Mykola Mykolaiovych Bortnyk (, born 8 March 1990), better known by his stage name Max Barskih () and alter-ego Mickolai, is a Ukrainian singer and songwriter. He was raised in Kherson, Ukraine, and moved to Kyiv after his graduation. He has released seven studio albums, one compilation album and two extended plays.
Max Barskih was born on 8 March 1990 in Kherson, Ukraine. He is the youngest of three children and has an older brother and a sister. During his childhood, his parents were often away on business trips. According to Barskih, his family was rather poor as a result of to his father's actions; he preferred socializing with friends to raising his children. Barskih has stated that he has negative childhood memories connected to his father's alcoholism and physical violence. His mother and older brother often fought with his father when he would attempt to carry out "discipline" after a night of drinking.
When Barskih was 11, his father left the family, and his mother continued to raise him and his siblings alone. Barskih did not see or communicate with his father again until he was 27, when the two unsuccessfully attempted to reconnect.
Max Barskih rose to fame in Ukraine and post-Soviet countries in 2008 as a participant of the Ukrainian talent show "Fabryka Zirok 2" (Star Factory 2).
In 2010, Max Barskih was awarded "Best Ukrainian Act" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, marking his first major award win.
Barskih also made his acting debut in 2010 in Lara Fabian's<nowiki/>musical feature film Mademoiselle Zhivago (then released in 2013).
In 2012, Barskih entered the Eurovision Song Contest Auditions for Ukraine with the English version of his song "Dance", but narrowly lost to Gaitana who represented Ukraine in Baku with her song "Be My Guest".
Max Barskih has won numerous awards, including "Singer of the Year" Awards at the Baltic Music Awards 2011, the "Crystal Microphone" Awards 2011, the M1 Music Awards 2017, the GQ Men of the Year Awards 2018, the New Radio Awards 2019, the Love Radio Awards 2019 and at the Top Hit Music Awards 2020.
Forbes Magazine USA and Vogue Ukraine have called Barskih "the most internationally successful Russian language singer".
Throughout his career, Barskih has worked closely with Alan Badoev, who is his producer and has also directed most of his music videos. Barskih's videos have gained popularity in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The director likes to use a variety of visual effects for many of his videos, such as in the music videos for "âõÃÂÃÂàÃÂõñÃÂ" ("Lost in Love") which was released in 3D format in the CIS nations.
Barskih composes the music and writes the lyrics of his songs himself (and was e.g. nominated at the 2019 Russian National Music Awards for "Lyricist of the Year"), and partly also does the producing. Most of his songs are in Russian, but he has also sung in Ukrainian (e.g. "ÃÂõñþ" and "ÃÂòþÃÂ") and in English (e.g. "Z.Dance" (partly in English) and "Silence" (entirely in English)).
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Barskih joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In summer 2023, he started a world tour in support of Ukraine from Lisbon.
Barskih writes his songs himself and occasionally also works as a songwriter for other artists.
Barskih has starred as an actor in two musical feature films.