- Alex Ovechkin walked out on stage in front of more than 70,000 fans at Luzhniki Stadium
- His cameo came during “My Game,” a track tied to Russian hockey for close to 20 years
- Read below for the video and what Ovechkin yelled at the crowd
Alex Ovechkin spent Friday night in front of 70,000 people without a stick in his hands.
The Capitals captain walked out on stage at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow during the first big joint concert by Russian rappers Basta and Guf. He turned up for the closing song, “My Game,” hugged both artists and stuck around to dance.
Basta stopped the show to introduce him to the crowd.
“Moscow! Make some noise for our friend, Alexander Ovechkin.”
Ovechkin grabbed the mic and kept it short, per Sport-Express.
“Guys! Moscow! Luzhniki! Russia!”
Then he shouted out his wife, Anastasia, in front of the whole building. Take a look at the cameo:
Picking that song was no accident. “My Game” has carried real weight in Russian hockey since Avangard prospect Alexei Cherepanov, who died at 19 after collapsing during a KHL game in 2008, claimed it as his own. Basta later dedicated the track to him during a show in Omsk.
Ilya Kovalchuk used it as his goal song with the Kings and the Capitals. Kirill Kaprizov has said he still listens to it.
Ovechkin has never hidden that Basta and Guf are two of his favorites, naming both on a Russian podcast back in 2020 and sitting down for an interview on Basta’s show in 2023. He has some bars of his own on record too, having rapped a verse on Sasha Belyi’s “Champion” more than a decade ago.
Friday also was not his first turn on that particular stage. Ovechkin sang “My Baby” with a Ruki Vverkh crowd at Luzhniki in 2022 and dedicated it to Anastasia.
The party is close to over. Ovechkin is due back in North America on September 10, per RMNB, to start prep for a 22nd NHL season on a one-year deal that can pay him up to $9 million. Whether Ovechkin eventually takes his last shifts back home is a question for next summer, and Dynamo Moscow has already said it would build a KHL team around him.
