Sergey Nikolayevich "Chizh" Chigrakov was born on February 6, 1961 in Dzerzhinsk town of the Gorki (Nizhni Novgorod) Region. He became interested in music as a schoolboy, under the influence of his elder brother. From the age of 14 he played in a school ensemble. He finished a local music school majoring in accordion. 

From the early 1980s Sergey Tchigrakov worked as a concertmaster in Dzerzhinsk House of Culture and played in various bands, the most remarkable of which was Gruppa prodlennogo dnya (Day-care centre). Then, in the late 1980s he appeared in the Kharkov band under the same name and headed by Alexander Chernetsky. Later the band came to be named Raznye Lyudi (Different People). In 1993 Sergey Tchigrakov recorded the solo album Chizh (Siskin) in Leningrad and in a year settled there. In autumn he founded the Chizh and Co. After a train of successful albums in the 2000s Chizh stopped recording new songs, but goes on touring with the old ones.