Slavic

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. […]

Shadowboxing 3: The Final Round (Бой с тенью 3: Последний раунд—the name sounds quite dramatic in Russian, but the actual meaning is less exciting) is a 2011 Russian action/drama film, the third and last in the Shadowboxing franchise. The series started with 2005’s Shadowboxing and continued with 2007’s Shadowboxing 2: Revanche (Реванш). In real life […]

Vopli Vidopliassova (Воплі Відоплясова) is a critically acclaimed Ukrainian rock band from Kyiv. Formed in 1986, the band’s unique blend of punk, folk, jazz, rock, and ska with traditional Ukrainian elements has won them international renown. To date, the band has toured extensively throughout much of the former Soviet Union, much of Western Europe, Israel, […]

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 […]

Mieczysław Szcześniak is a highly prolific Polish singer and songwriter. A trained jazz musician, he has explored a large variety of popular music styles throughout his almost 30-year career on the Polish music scene. From singing standard pop ballads to mixing Caribbean rhythms with Slavic folk harmonies, Szcześniak has garnered wide critical acclaim in his native Poland […]

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 […]

Janek Samołyk is a singer-songwriter from Wrocław, Poland. He’s worked as a solo artist since 2008, singing in both English and his native Polish. His compositions tend to be heavily influenced by ’60s-era British folk and pop and modern indie rock. Although a relatively young artist, Samołyk has recorded three full-length albums to date, achieved critical […]