Artūrs Šingirejs (born 10 April 1984), better known as Dons, is a Latvian singer and songwriter.
He is one of the most popular singers in Latvia, having won the Latvian Music Recording Awards' Top Radio Hit award eight times for most played song.
He is set to represent in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with "Hollow".
He has released eight solo albums and has won numerous awards including Latvijas Radio's Muzikālās Banka Song of the Year five times.
Artūrs Šingirejs was born on 10 April 1984 in Brocēni, Saldus district, Latvia to a Belarusian father and a Latvian mother, who performed professionally as a soloist in the Liepāja group Santa, led by Zigmars Liepiņš.
He has one brother and three sisters, one of whom was the first to encourage him to perform on stage at the age of four.
His mother taught him English from the age of 6 and he credits Freddie Mercury as one of his first musical idols.
He studied piano at the Saldus Music School.
He had his first solo performance at age 16 and stated, "My first performance was at school, and I realized that I wanted to do this - there is something here that binds me".
He later studied culinary arts before returning to music as a profession.
He learned to play the guitar and sing through self-study.
2003
Born in Saldus, Latvia, Dons began his career in the Latvian reality show Talantu Fabrika () in 2003.
Dons gained popularity in 2003 by participating in the Latvian reality show Talantu Fabrika ().
During the show, he met and dated fellow contestant Lily (real name Linda Kalniņa).
He joined Radio SWH Rock as a DJ host after winning the reality show, which he says was much more stressful than performing on stage.
The album became a best seller in Latvia and they earned a nomination for Top Radio Hit with "Just For You" at the 2003 Latvian Music Recording Awards.
2004
He released a duet album, Viens Otram (2004), with fellow contestant Lily (real name Linda Kalniņa, m. 2009; div. 2013).
Dons and Lily released an English language duet album in 2004, Viens Otram ().
In 2004, his song "Ja es būtu vējš" was nominated for Top Radio Hit at the Latvian Music Recording Awards.
2006
His first solo album Lights On (2006) was mostly in English.
After the success of the duet album, Dons focused on a solo career, releasing his first solo album (mostly in English) Lights On in 2006.
The album was nominated for best Rock album and his single, "Lights Out" was nominated for best Rock song at the 2006 Latvian Music Recording Awards.
2007
In 2007, he performed in Zigmars Liepiņš' popular musical theatre Adata with the song "Ja Tu Man Esi" ("").
The song was nominated for Top Radio Hit at the Latvian Music Recording Awards that year.
2008
He has won Best Rock Album once from two nominations with Lelle (2008) and has been nominated once for Best Pop-Rock Album with Signāls (2013).
In 2024, he won the Supernova song competition with his English-language single "Hollow" to represent Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest.
He found success releasing his next seven albums in the Latvian language: Lelle (2008), Signāls (2013), Varanasi (2014), Sibīrija (2015), Tepat (2016), ''Namiņš.
Kaste.
In 2008, Dons released his second solo album, Lelle (), which was his first Latvian language album.
The album was the first of many where he collaborated with lyricist Ingus Bērziņš.
It won the Best Rock Album in the Latvian Music Recording Awards that year.
The success of the album proved his audience preferred his music performed in Latvian over his English language music.
2009
Afterwards, he moved between London and Los Angeles with Lily, saying in interviews at the time that she was his muse and source of inspiration; they married in 2009.
While living abroad, he adopted and subsequently abandoned several stage names; first he used Art Green and later went by Art Singer while in the United States.
Dons later commented on his numerous names, "Call me whatever you want. I have a lot of names. The name Art Singer I use in England is an abbreviated name. Art Green was the predecessor of Art Singer, but I somehow didn't feel that name... In Latvia I'm known more as Dons, which I chose myself. That nickname came in and dragged me along and I get along with it well".
While in Los Angeles, he received four offers to be the lead singer in various rock bands.
2010
Previously, he attempted to represent Latvia in the Eurovision Song Contest twice with the songs "My Religion is Freedom" (2010) and "Pēdējā Vēstule" (2014), finishing in second both times in the Latvian national finals.
2014
At the Latvian Music Recording Awards, he has won Best Pop Album twice from five nominations for Varanasi (2014) and Tūrists (2020).
2018
Vārdi (2018), and Tūrists'' (2020).
In 2021, he signed with Universal Music and will release his first album Laiks on the label in August 2024.
