Ivan Rebrov, whose real name was Hans-Rolf Ripper, was born on July 31, 1931, in Spandau, Germany, and passed away on February 27, 2008, in Frankfurt am Main. He was a German singer with a vocal range of four octaves.

Rebrov studied vocals at the State University of Music in Hamburg, receiving a Fulbright scholarship, and took lessons from the famous bass Alexander Kipnis. In 1958, he won a singing competition at the institute. In 1954, he joined the Black Sea Cossack Choir under the direction of Andrei Ivanovich Sholukh. It was Sholukh who suggested he take the stage name "Rebrov," translating his father's name and surname, engineer Paul Ripper, into Russian. He advised: "Ivan Pavlovich, if you want to make a career with Russian songs, sing only in Russian!" Rebrov gave up to 300 concerts a year and spoke five languages fluently, including Russian, spreading Russian songs and romances around the world.

He visited the Soviet Union three times: twice as a tourist in the early 1970s and in the spring of 1989, when he had his first solo concert in Moscow at the Dynamo Sports Palace with the N. P. Osipov Folk Instruments Orchestra, invited by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Despite his image as a "Russian bear" in a fur hat, sable coat, and kosovorotka, Rebrov was very popular in Germany and Western Europe. In rare interviews, he said: "With all my soul, I am Russian, my heart belongs to Russia!"