Taras Petrynenko / Тарас Петриненко

Taras Petrynenko (Тарас Гаринальдович Петриненко) is a Ukrainian musician, singer, composer, and poet. He is known as the author of the song “Ukraine” (“Україна”), which has become a de facto anthem of the country. Some of his other well-known songs are “Song About a Song” (“Пісня про пісню”), “Lord, Have Mercy On Us” (“Господи, помилуй […]

Sofia Rotaru / Софiя Ротару

Sofia Rotaru (Софiя Ротару) is an enormously popular and influential Soviet, Ukrainian, and Romanian/Moldovan singer. Her career has lasted almost 50 years and is still going, and she has not only won most of the major music awards and lifetime achievement awards, but she is also a People’s Artist of both Ukraine and Moldova and a […]

Verka Serduchka / Верка Сердючка

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. […]