Grey Wiese appeared at Urgant Live in Düsseldorf for an evening that brought together backstage energy, live music, sharp humour, and a personal conversation about life between countries.

Before the show, Grey Wiese stepped into the scale of the Düsseldorf venue: a full audience, a live band, an atmosphere far larger than a traditional television studio, and the kind of anticipation that only arrives moments before the room fills. From dressing-room conversations to the walk toward the stage, the evening captured the movement and intimacy behind a major live performance.

Wide concert stage in blue light, with three people speaking near a desk, a Düsseldorf night skyline on the screen, and audience silhouettes in the foreground.

Onstage, the conversation with Ivan Urgant moved from Düsseldorf itself to the story of Grey Wiese’s life in Germany. Having lived in the country for 23 years, Grey Wiese — Sergey Grigoryev-Appolonov — spoke about arriving as a student with €500, travelling from Saratov through Berlin to Stuttgart, and quickly discovering that the money would not last long. The first weeks brought excitement, uncertainty, a mini-job in an office, and the beginning of a new life in Baden-Baden.

“It has been 23 years in Germany already.”
“I arrived with €500. After two days, I had already spent €200 — and then I realised I had only €300 for the whole month.”
“At one point, I even started to forget Russian — I had entered the culture that deeply.”
Grey Wiese at Urgant Live

Concert hall viewed from the rear, with the stage and interview visible at right, a suspended screen above, and a large seated audience.

The conversation also explored the small cultural habits that become part of everyday life over time: order, punctuality, detailed instructions, German humour, and a relationship with rules that Grey Wiese now recognises in himself.

“I sometimes feel more German than anything else. In punctuality, for example. I always follow the rules.”
Grey Wiese at Urgant Live

Three people in conversation on a concert stage, seated and standing around a desk beneath warm circular lights and a Düsseldorf city backdrop.

With stories from Baden-Baden, Paris, Berlin, and Düsseldorf, Grey Wiese brought a candid, funny, and deeply personal perspective to the Urgant Live stage. It was an appearance built on more than performance: a portrait of movement, reinvention, and the unexpected ways a person can belong to more than one place.

Concert stage with a presenter, a seated guest, and musicians beneath a large Düsseldorf skyline screen, with audience silhouettes in front.

Watch the full Urgant Live interview on YouTube