Yulia Volkova (Юлия Олеговна Волкова) is a Russian singer and actress best known for her role in the group t.A.T.u. alongside Lena Katina (Елена Сергеевна Катина). After her work with t.A.T.u., Volkova has acted in film and television and, more recently, embarked on a solo musical career. Volkova’s biggest success as a musician came from t.A.T.u. […]

Alyosha (Альоша; real name Olena Kucher, Олена Кучер) is a well-known contemporary Ukrainian pop singer and songwriter who has written hits for both herself and other artists. She is known both for her male name—“Alyosha” is usually a diminutive of “Aleksey”—and, of course, her singing. Her website introduces her thus: “In her character, as well […]

Gaitana (Ґайтана; real name Ґайта-Лурдес Ессамі, or Gaita-Lurdes Essami, which means “strong and great” in the Lingala language) is a Ukrainian/Congolese jazz, funk, soul, and pop singer. Her biggest fame may have come from representing Ukraine at Eurovision in 2012, but she also has a slew of successful albums to her name and is one of Ukraine’s most […]

Svetlana Loboda (Світлана Лобода) is a contemporary Ukrainian pop singer. Though she sings mainly in Russian, most of her career has taken place in Ukraine, and she is widely esteemed in her country. She was named a Distinguished Artist of Ukraine in 2013. Loboda grew up in Kyiv, where her parents encouraged her musical leanings […]

Ani Lorak (Ани Лорак; real name Karolina Kuyek, Кароліна Куєк) is a multitalented Ukrainian pop singer. Lorak isn’t shy about her contributions to Ukrainian pop culture—her website describes her as “a singer who was fated to become the nation’s idol.” Born in Bukovina, Lorak wanted to be a singer from the time she was four years […]

Controversial, bizarre, and talented, there is no one quite like Ukrainian singer/comedian/actor/drag queen Verka Serduchka (Верка Сердючка). Serduchka is the drag persona of Andriy Danylko (Андрій Данилко) and frequently performs and sings at concerts and in films. Danylko himself is a wide-ranging actor, composer, singer, and performer who was born in Poltava, Ukraine, to rural roots. […]

Iryna Bilyk is a highly celebrated Ukrainian singer/songwriter and entertainer from Kyiv. Mainly a composer of ballads and dance pop, she has released albums in her native Ukrainian as well as Russian and Polish. Her impressive commercial success in Ukraine, fueled in large part by her ability to adapt to the changing popular music landscape, won […]

Buranovskiye Babushki (Бурановские Бабушки) is a long-running traditional folk choir from Buranovo, Russia. They sing predominantly in their native Udmurt language, a subgroup of the Uralic language family, which also includes Finnish, Hungarian, and Estonian. Formed in 1968 in an effort to preserve the local singing traditions, the group came to national prominence 40 years later […]

IOWA is an indie-pop group from Mogilev, Belarus, who sing in Russian. A relatively young band, they have only released one album since their inception in 2009, Export (2014; no Russian or Belarusian title). The band’s moniker contains several references, namely the US state, an American acronym—Idiots Out Wandering About—and an album by the metal […]