Serj Tankian was born on 21 August 1967, in Beirut, Lebanon, and is an Armenian-American vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, record producer and poet, as well as a political activist. Serj is probably best known as a member of the band System of a Down, and a founder of the record label Serjical Strike Records.
So just how rich is Serj Tankian? Authoritative sources estimate that the total amount of Serj’s net worth reaches $18 million as of mid-2016, earned mostly as an active personality in the music industry during a career which began in the early ’90s.
Serj Tankian Net Worth $18 Million
Being seven years old, he and his family moved to Los Angeles, California USA, where he attended Rose and Alex Pilibos Armenian School, a bilingual institution. Serj started to play instruments and write songs rather late, while studying in California State University, Northridge. In 1994, Serj together with other three Armenian-American friends – John Dolmayan, Shavo Odadjian and Daron Malakian – founded a band named System of a Down. The band was active ’til 2006, and in 2010 they reunited. The band has released 16 singles, five studio albums, 11 music videos and an EPs. Three singles – ‘Chop Suey!’, ‘Aerials’ and ‘Lonely Day’ – were nominated for Grammy Awards and one single ‘B.Y.O.B.’ won a Grammy Award for the Best Hard Rock Performance. In addition to this, the band won a Europe Music Award for the Best Alternative Act and MTV Good Woodie Award. The successful participation in the band has increased the overall amount of Serj Tankian net worth considerably.
As a solo artist, Serj has released 12 singles, five studio albums, 23 music videos, two EPs, a live album and video album, adding significantly to his net worth. Moreover, Serj has increased his wealth while producing the albums of System of a Down, Fair to Midland, Slow Motion Reign, Buckethead & Friends and other artists.
In his personal life, after a long courtship, Serj Tankian married Angela Madatyan – an Armenian – in 2012; they have a son and currently live near Auckland, New Zealand. Tankian is co-founder of the organization named the Axis of Justice. In public, he usually speaks for justice and peace; he composes songs and through them he also expresses his opinion about human rights and social justice. Moreover, he was the organizer of a number of protests to gain public attention on recognition of the alleged Armenian genocide. Serj Tankian increases his popularity and net worth in his website . There you can read the latest news about Serj and the organization the Axis of Justice, find the biography of the famous artist, listen to his music, watch videos, find pictures and read about the upcoming projects. In the website there is a community to join if you are one of the fans and want to share your feelings or ideas with people who adore the same person. In addition to this, you can find a store on the webpage where you can buy stuff related to the artist. The website adds to Tankian’s net worth, too.
Alice Tankian, Khatchadour Tankian, Empty Walls, Sky Is Over, Lie Lie Lie
Nicknames
塞尔日·坦基扬 , Танкян, Серж
Facebook
Twitter
IMDB
Music Groups
System of a Down (Since 1994), Axis of Justice, Serart
Nominations
Echo Award for Best International Newcomer
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Trademark
1
Vandyke looking beard
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Quote
1
When I was younger, I was listening to a lot of Armenian music, you know, revolutionary music about freedom and protest. In the 70s I was listening to soul and the Bee Gees and ABBA, and funk.
2
The best way to do that is to pick up a new instrument or an instrument that you don't typically write on and see where it takes you. Whether it's using an acoustic guitar, or piano, or electronics as tools, all of these lead to creating different types of songs and I used all of these methods for this record.
3
People get so attached to a position which they identify themselves with that they just spurt it out, but they can't really give you a viable reason why they feel that way.
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If you allow for a purely capitalistic society, without any type of regulation at all, you will get one monopoly that will eat all of the smaller fish and own everything, and then you'll have zero capitalism, zero competition - it would just be one giant company.
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I've got my own studio, and I've got four- to five-hundred unreleased tracks. I've got stuff that's electronic, orchestral, jazz, I've got rock, I've got metal, you know, I don't have polka.
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I'm not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as minstrels used to in the old days.
7
Harout Pamboukjian is one of the biggest Armenian folk singers in the world. In the '70s, he was making these records that were really Zeppelin-influenced.
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Composing is what I love most from what I do. Each genre has a unique expression that you cannot supplant with another. All the records co-inspire each other though they are not tied conceptually in any way to another.
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The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth.
10
Sometimes it's better to have a benign dictator than a dumb democracy, to be honest.
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Sometimes a good love song can change the world and create positive energy more than any political song can.
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People always ask me 'do you think there should be more bands doing political music?' and I say 'absolutely not.'
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It's probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters that have led us to where we are musically.
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In the last few years I've been listening to jazz more than anything else. I listen to a lot of world music and experimental here and there.
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I've always tried to listen to a lot of different music from around the world.
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I'm a huge Beatles fan, but I've only really gotten into them as an adult.
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I like African music, and I'm a huge Ravi Shankar fan.
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I have a more direct avenue to expression as an artist than I ever would as a politician.
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Capitalism unchecked is not a democratic system.
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You listen to Bob Dylan and you can't help but think of the 60s, it's very relational and if artists are true artists and not just mere musicians they need to be truthful because the music doesn't come from them it comes from the universe and it's to be shared. At best, we're skilled presenters, and I say that at best.
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We first fought the heathens in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.
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I think anytime that you go to the extreme of any mode of economics, be it capitalism or communism, you have these feedback mechanisms that make the system turn in on itself.
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The percentage of Americans in the prison system, has doubled since 1985.
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I'd rather let the music speak for itself.
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I think every artist should follow their vision, their hearts is what they need to reveal, not something that society is looking out for.
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I hate injustice, and I can't help but speak against it. But I don't want to get involved in politics.
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As long as people are living their truth or their vision, whether they're activists or not, that's the important thing.
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As an artist, you never want to write the same song again, you always want to challenge yourself to writing in a different way.
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I believe very firmly that indigenous populations had a really good, intuitive understanding of why we're here. And we're trying to gain that same understanding through psychology and intellect in modern civilization.
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People think our music's very aggressive or angry or whatever, and it's just the opposite, really... I like laughing. And I like being really calm before a show, and smiley.
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We first fought... in the name of religion, then Communism, and now in the name of drugs and terrorism. Our excuses for global domination always change.
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Pretending that we live doesn't make us alive.
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Civilization is a failure. We need to think what we can do together in love and peace.
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Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.
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Fact
1
System of a Down went on hiatus in 2006, but are back together and will tour next year. [November 2010]
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He wrote the lyrics and music for the System of a Down song 'Shimmy'.
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Serj owns his own record label which is called 'Serjical Strike Records'.
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Serj has also sung in other bands for certain songs such as Mushroom Cult by Dog Fashion Disco, and lent his vocals to the song Mein by Deftones. He produced "Enter The Chicken" by Buckethead, and provided vocals to the Buckethead songs We are One, Coma and Waiting Here.
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He is a vegetarian.
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Was a CEO for a computer software company before joining System of a Down
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Vocalist for Grammy Award winning American rock band System of a Down whose members are of Armenian heritage and their songs often have political lyrics like the P.L.U.C.K. about the 1915 Armenian Genocide and the Prison Song which criticizes the prison systems; former song is featured in Ararat (2002) by Canadian-Armenian Atom Egoyan, who admired the genius Soviet-Armenian Sergei Parajanov whose political imprisonment is condemned in Mikhail Vartanov's Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992)
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Promise
2016/II
writer: "Aurora"
The Secret Life of Pets
2016
writer: "Bounce"
Hardcore Henry
2015
performer: "The Awakening" / writer: "The Awakening"
Rap Critic Reviews
2014
TV Series performer - 1 episode
The Voice Israel
2013
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Mulatschag
2012
TV Series performer - 1 episode
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2011
performer: "Goodbye - Gate 21"
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
TV Series performer - 1 episode, 2011 writer - 1 episode, 2011
Serj Tankian: Elect the Dead Symphony
2010
Video performer: "Feed Us", "Blue", "Sky Is Over", "Lie, Lie, Lie", "Money", "Baby", "Gate 21", "The Charade", "Honking Antelope", "Saving Us", "Elect The Dead", "Falling Stars", "Beethoven's C**t", "Empty Walls"
Guitar Hero: Metallica
2009
Video Game writer: "Toxicity"
Guitar Hero World Tour
2008
Video Game writer: "B.Y.O.B."
Body of Lies
2008
performer: "Bird's Eye" / writer: "Bird's Eye"
Fear Itself
2008
TV Series performer: "Lie Lie Lie" / writer: "Lie Lie Lie"
Liam Parker 
$18 Million
