Ruslana

Ruslana Stepanovna Lyzhychko (born May 24, 1973, Lviv, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian singer, pianist, conductor, dancer, producer, and public figure. People's Artist of Ukraine. Honorary citizen of Lviv. People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 5th convocation.

She was born on May 24, 1973 in Lviv in the family of Stepan Ivanovych and Nina Arkadyevna Lyzhychkiv. Mother - Nina Arkadyevna Lyzhychko (née Sapegina) (born January 7, 1950, Sverdlovsk), Russian, since 1975 she worked at the Institute of Petrochemistry in Lviv, since 1996 she has worked in the production agency of Ruslana Studio "Luxen" as chief media manager. Father - Stepan Ivanovych Lyzhychko (born June 2, 1949, Konyushky village, Rohatyn district, Ivano-Frankivsk region), Ukrainian, worked as a heat engineer at the Institute of Petrochemistry, then founded his own company. The parents divorced in 1991.

As a schoolgirl, Ruslana sang in the band Orion, then in the children's ensemble Smile. After graduating from children's music school, the future singer entered the Lviv Conservatory. Lysenko to the conductor's office.

While studying at the conservatory, she took composition lessons from Myroslav Skoryk, conducting lessons from Mykola Kolessa and Yuriy Lutsiv, vocal lessons from Larysa Buzhko, and piano lessons from Yuriy Bon. She graduated from the Conservatory with a degree in "Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra".

The singer's musical career began in 1993, when Ruslana took part in two music festivals in Ukraine: the All-Ukrainian Festival of Contemporary Song and Popular Music "Chervona Ruta - 93", which she won, and the All-Ukrainian Festival of Pop and Rock. music "Taras Bulba - 93".

The following year, Ruslana and her producer Oleksandr Ksenofontov founded the Luxen studio, on the basis of which they began to work in radio advertising. Famous music videos from Oriflame, Coca-Cola, Stimorol are voiced by Ruslana. The singer devoted more than two years to this occupation.

In 1994, Ruslana won the Grand Prix of the first All-Ukrainian Television Festival "Melody".

On December 27, 1995, she married Alexander Xenofontov.

In 1996 she took part in the International Festival of Arts "Slavonic Bazaar", where she took first place.

Since the beginning of 1996 she has been working on the first major creative project - the show "Ringing Wind" with "live" sound. This project was dedicated to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance in Lviv and was a synthesis of classics and rock.

At the end of July 1996, the singer recorded her first single and music video "You". The video, which was filmed in Olesky Castle, became the first stage of the "Ringing Wind" project. The filming was attended by a symphony orchestra and musicians of the Tea Fans Club, who then reunited specifically for this project.

On September 28, 1996, a concert on the theme of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's fairy tale The Little Prince took place on the stage of the Lviv Opera House, which became the next stage of the project. After this project, the Ukrainian press called Ruslana "a new wave in music." She became a laureate of the first All-Ukrainian national program "Man of the Year-96" in the nomination "Pop Star", and she was named "Singer of the Year-96".

In 1997, the singer took part in the VI festival "Tavrian Games", became its laureate.

At the end of 1997, Ruslana made a show "Christmas with Ruslana", which included an acoustic concert, filming a TV show of the same name and a presentation of the animated film "Ballad of the Princess". In the same year, the singer was awarded the title of "Outstanding Lviv Woman of the Year".

She became a graduate of the National show-concert "Song of the Year-97" in the field of Ukrainian popular music.

In 1998, the singer released two albums: the studio "Spring Moment" and the concert "The best concerts of the ringing wind."

Ruslana's calling card was the song "Dawn", which won the prize "Golden Fire-Bird-98" in the nomination "Best Song of the Year". The music video for this song was also named the best music video of the year.

In the second half of 1998, Ruslana organized a tour with charity concerts in the ancient castles of Ukraine in order to raise funds for their restoration. "Tour of the ancient castles of Ukraine" drew attention to their condition. The result was the restoration of Zolochiv Castle.

In 2000, having finally completed the project "Ringing Wind", Ruslana started a new project - "Hutsul". The project released the single "I know", the film "Stop! Filmed! ”, Audio and video albums, a film about the project, a Christmas music film. The presentation of the Hutsul Project took place at the opening of the 10th Tavriya Festival in 2001.

"I Know" was the first music video to be shot and edited specifically for the big screen in modern cinemas. This work involved 250 specialists from five countries, who worked in seven studios.

In 2002, the singer starred in the musical film "Christmas Legends with Ruslana." In the same year she performed again at the Slavonic Bazaar festival.

In the summer of 2003, the singer released a new album - "Wild Dances" with elements of traditional Hutsul music. He became the leader in the sale of music albums of the year in Ukraine. Work on the album (the so-called compilation) took place in May 2003 at Peter Gabriel's world-famous music studio Real World in London. It is a modern compilation of musical material based on ancient ethnic Hutsul motifs (rhythms and dances) and modern trends in pop and rock music. The album summed up the singer's work as part of the "Hutsul Project" for the entire period of its existence.

In July 2003, Ruslana performed with her Hutsul show at the Ukrainian festivals "Bathing Stars" and "Bathing Nights". A month later, the singer took part in the competition of popular music "Matrix" in Yalta. In the same year, she released two new music videos - "Kolomiyka" and "Oh, let's play music" on the song from the album "Wild Dances".

In October 2003, the official sales of the album "Wild Dances" were published - 100,000 copies of the album were officially sold. At the end of November 2003, Ruslana's Ukrainian concert tour with her new show "Wild Dances" began and ended on January 4, 2004. During this tour, the ballet "Life" performed on stage with the singer. The show was directed by Iryna Mazur, and the costumes were designed by Roksolana Bogutska. The tour was held in support of the platinum album.

In December 2003, at the Ukrainian Music Award ceremony, he was initiated by the Association of Recording Companies of Ukraine. For his album Wild Dances, Ruslana received the first official Platinum Disc Award in Ukraine. The award was presented to the singer by Stefan Kravcek, President of the International Federation of the Recording Industry Federation (IFPI) in Eastern Europe.

In preparation for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, Ruslana's PR group conducted comprehensive training: they studied their competitors and conducted special promotional tours in the countries that took part in the voting. During the competition, special PR support was organized. Thus, in contrast to the events of competitors, Ruslana's press conference was held in an unusual way: for example, everyone present could taste Ukrainian vodka and lard. In addition, Ruslana taught journalists to play the trembita.

At the competition itself, Ruslana's show was radically different from the performances of other participants of "Eurovision-2004". A TV commentator for the British BBC studio called Ruslana a "warrior princess". Among the 36 countries that participated, according to the results of the global live telephone voting, Ruslana took first place with 280 points.

Ruslana's victory at Eurovision was marked by state and government awards. The then President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma by his decree awarded the winner of the international song contest "Eurovision-2004" the title of People's Artist of Ukraine. The President announced this at a solemn ceremony honoring the singer on May 18, 2004 in Kyiv. The President also awarded the title of "Honored Artist" to Ruslana's producer and sound director Oleksandr Ksenofontov, and the title of "Honored Artist of Ukraine" to the author and supplier of the concert program of the singer "Wild Dances" Irina Mazur.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine awarded Ruslana Lyzhychko a Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a commemorative badge for significant personal contribution to the development of Ukrainian musical art and victory in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.

After winning the Eurovision Song Contest, boxer Vitali Klitschko presented Ruslana in Las Vegas with the World Music Awards - the World Music Awards for the largest number of Wild Dance albums sold in the world.

In 2009, Ruslana was a guest guest at the 6th Asia Song Festival in Seoul, South Korea. Together with the ballet "Life" she performed three songs from her first international album: "Wild Dances", "Dance with the Wolves" and a bilingual version of "Play, Musician!". Ruslana also received an award for her contribution to the cultural exchange between Ukraine and Asia in music and the main award of the festival, the best performer of the Asian Song Festival.

In 2010, the Inter TV channel launched an extreme project called "Battle of Ukrainian Cities", which was filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 26 Ukrainian cities came together on the famous obstacle course in the fight for the right to be called the best city in Ukraine. Each city was represented by a team of five participants, including two men, two women and a captain - a famous native of this city. Ruslana became the leader of the team from Lviv. At the game she had to overcome a boxing wall, pools with mud, huge spherical trampolines over the water and more. Ruslana's performance contrasted very much with the passing of obstacles by other entertainers - the Lviv woman showed herself better than many men. The whole country witnessed the truly combative nature and intransigence of the Ukrainian Amazon.

In 2011 she participated in the talent show "Voice of the Country" on Channel 1 + 1 as a coach.

In April 2012, the Ukrainian-language album "A-fori-Ya" was released. The album, which Ruslana worked on for four years, was recorded in the USA, Sweden and Ukraine in collaboration with Vlad Debryansky. From April to May, Ruslana visited 11 cities of Ukraine with the OGO Show tour, in particular, she joined the public events "Euro 2012".

In 2013 she took part in the show "Battle of Choirs" on Channel 1 + 1 as a choir coach from Lviv, with whom she won.

On May 7, 2017, the President of Ukraine made an official address to the national and international community on the occasion of the grand opening of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv.

• 1998 - The moment of spring. Loud wind
• 1999 - The last Christmas of the 90's
• 2001 - The best
• 2002 - Good evening, you…
• 2003 - Wild dances
• 2004 - Wild Dances
• 2005 - Club'in
• 2008 - Amazon
• 2008 - Wild Energy
• 2013 - My Brother! (Together!)
• 2020 - We are the wind (EP)

On December 28, 1995, she married Alexander Xenofontov.

Owns together with her husband (46% / 53%) Lviv LLC "TRK" Hoverla "" (USREOU code: 30822761) - assets - "Very Radio".

In order to overcome the problem of human trafficking, Ruslana announced a social campaign "Not For Sale". In 2004-2005, after receiving the mandate of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2004-2005, the singer initiated active activities aimed at combating the slave trade. To implement the campaign, she joined forces with the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN GIFT), Vital Voices and the European Broadcasting Union, which acted as project partners.

In 2006, a series of social videos with Ruslana's participation in the campaign was launched. At the Vienna Forum, initiated by the UN Committee on Drugs and Crime, Ruslana presented the single Not For Sale, which was recognized by the UN as the anthem against modern slavery.

At the end of November 2004, protests began in Ukraine against election fraud and criminal authorities. The intensification of events coincided with the singer's concert tour of the Baltic countries. Ruslana took on the role of "people's diplomat", using every opportunity to appeal to foreign journalists to tell as much as possible about the struggle of the Ukrainian people against the tyranny of the government.

In December 2004, at the invitation of Lithuanian MEP Vytautas Lansbergis, Ruslana visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, and held numerous meetings with MEPs from different countries (UK, Germany, Sweden, Poland, etc.) and held two briefings in . During all the meetings, Ruslana called on as many European observers as possible to visit Ukraine during the re-run of the second round of the presidential election.

People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 5th convocation from April 2006 to June 2007 from the Our Ukraine Bloc, № 5 on the list. At the time of the election: Deputy Director of Luxen Recording Studio LLC, non-partisan. Member of the Our Ukraine Bloc faction (since April 2006). Chairman of the Subcommittee on Information Support for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Committee on European Integration (since July 2006). She resigned on June 19, 2007.

At the end of November 2013, Ruslana became one of the key figures in pro-European mass protests. Since December 2013, she has been one of the Euromaidan activists, leading night parties almost to the point of losing her voice in support of opposition forces. For more than 4 months, Ruslana completely stopped her concert activities and spent almost every night from midnight until dawn on Independence Square in Kyiv, which became the center of protests. In total, Ruslana spent more than 100 nights on Independence Square, during which she performed the National Anthem of Ukraine more than 500 times and made the Light a symbol of peaceful protest.

Frequent performer of the National Anthem of Ukraine on Euromaidan, and organizer of the concert program. On December 22, 2013, she joined the NO Maidan along with other representatives of the opposition forces. According to her, she learned about this when she went on stage. [18] According to Ruslana, since December 2013 she has been persecuted by special services, summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office to testify.

In 2014, Ruslana conducted a broad international campaign aimed at supporting and protecting Ukraine's positive image in the world. During the year, she held several face-to-face meetings with leading world politicians, including US Vice President Joe Biden, Senators John McCain and Chris Murphy, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, European Council President Donald Tusk, Latvian Prime Minister Straupovaim Laimda and others. persons.

Ruslana's numerous speeches and public speeches at the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg and at the OSCE Session Hall in Vienna had a significant impact and allowed decisions to be made on Europe's future work on the Ukrainian issue. At the TEDx conference in Sao Paulo, Ruslana presented the presentation "Strength in Unity" and called on Brazil and the world to support Ukraine in its struggle. During her visits to Europe, Ruslana gave a sharp press conference at the Berlin Wall Museum, joined the Euromaidan in Munich, took part in the political meeting LesEuropéens - Elections européennes 2014 in Paris on the eve of the French parliamentary elections, held a seminar in Ukraine made an address and a musical number at the VI KongresKobiet Women's Congress and at the LudzieWolnosci award ceremony on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Polish Solidarity in Warsaw.

Ruslana raised the topic of modern mechanisms to combat propaganda at the opening of the U.T.GEM conference in San Francisco, where she also gave a charity concert to raise funds to help the families of displaced people affected by Russian aggression.

In the spring of 2014, Ruslana and a team of like-minded people created the NGO Image Agency of Ukraine (AIU), which aims to strengthen and support civil society to consolidate and strengthen democratic transformation, promoting reform processes in Ukraine. AIU is independent of political influences, but seeks to influence the improvement of the legal, economic and cultural environment.

The agency considers and integrates methods of effective communication between civil society and government, business and the media. Having as a platform the historical tradition of democracy in Ukraine in the form of Viche and, as a result, three people's revolutions in the recent history of the state (Granite Revolution 1991, Orange Revolution 2004, Revolution of Dignity 2014), AIU aims to restore historical and cultural traditions of democracy and will contribute to the growth of the potential of the community institution. To implement its activities, AIU creates a mechanism to attract resources from donors and effectively allocate these resources to support Ukrainian civil society through analytical, informational, social and cultural-educational project activities.

After a trip to Donbass, Ruslana held a press conference in UNIAN on September 1, 2014 together with Volodymyr Ruban, the main message of which was "stop firing on their own", ending the war in Ukraine between their own.

The war was artificially provoked by those who fired, as was the case on the Maidan, in both directions. There is a dirty game that needs to be revealed. We can agree and we must stop shooting at our own people to unite against the real enemy, against the external aggressor. She ended with the phrase: "Poroshenko, when we came to him, did not hear us, Zakharchenko heard and understood."

In the blog she explained: "I am going my own way, I want to bring peace and save the lives of my compatriots". On September 2, she posted a detailed report and conclusions on her Facebook page.

At the end of May 2018, Ruslana visited the global forum Solor Future. Today Influencers Forum Asia in Shanghai, China, where she took part in a panel discussion about her mission, the Wild Energy project, and invited investors to invest in Ukraine, emphasizing that the country has one of the best green tariffs. Also at the forum, she received the Influencer Award in the Visionary Artist category for promoting the idea of ​​switching to renewable energy sources.

At the Wind Energy Hamburg 2018 Global Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on September 28, 2018, Ruslana was named Global Renewable Energy Ambassador to the World by Stefan Gsenger, Secretary General of the World Wind Energy Association. World Wind Energy Association).

In April 2019, Ruslana's large-scale art performance "Chernobyl RE: start" dedicated to the 33rd anniversary of the Chernobyl accident and in support of the international movement for the transition to renewable energy sources took place in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Ukraine's leading figures in the field of clean energy took part in the action, including members of the Global 100% RE Ukraine platform Viktor Kurtev (Bessarabia Development Center NGO), Andriy Konechenkov (Ukrainian Wind Energy Association), Oleksandr Repkin (Ukrainian Hydrogen Council), Olena Koltyk and Iryna Krymus (Ukrainian Renewable Energy Association), Ivan Haidutsky (Institute for Global Transformations), Yuriy Shafarenko (State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Conservation of Ukraine), Halyna Schmidt (Windcraft Kalanchak LLC), Yevhen Mykhalnos (Eugene) )

Ruslana's songs are performed by Filipino singer Well Baria.

Ruslana is the prototype of the main character of the novel by Marina and Serhiy Dyachenko “Wild Energy. Lana ».

Ruslana played a fictional version of herself as the host of Vladivostok FM in the computer game GTA 4. Her song "Wild Dances" is also broadcast on this station.

Vasyl Kondratyuk (musician) is a co-author of many of Ruslana's songs.

In the series 4isla in the 5th season of the 19th series at 8:13 minutes show the cover of Ruslana's album Wild Energy

Ruslana became one of 36 Ukrainian women, whose face and silhouette became the prototype of the Ukrainian series of Barbie dolls "Barbie: Lady of Ukraine".