Biography of Ruslana Lyzhychko
Ruslana’s family
Ruslana Stepanovna Lyzhychko was born in the Ukrainian city of Lvov. The mother, the future singer Nina Arkadievna, worked at the Lvov Petrochemical Institute. But after her daughter’s musical career took off, she changed her field of activity. now mom works as a chief media manager at her daughter’s production center, which is called Luxen Studio.
Ruslana’s father, Stepan Ivanovich, is now in business. Previously, together with the mother of the future singer, he worked as a heat engineer at the petrochemical institute. True, the singer’s parents have not lived in the place for a long time – they have been divorced since 1981.
Ruslana Lyzhychko has a sister – Anna.
Singer Ruslana without makeup
Education and the first laurels of Ruslana
Little Ruslana was sent to a music school by her mother. Childhood can be considered the time when the career of the famous singer began. Even then, Ruslana participated as a vocalist in the groups “Horizon” and “Orion”, she sang in the children’s ensemble “Smile”.
The girl received her general education at the 52nd secondary school in Lviv. After graduating from school, Lyzhychko entered the conservatory, from which she graduated in 1995 with a degree in symphony orchestra conductor and pianist.
In 1996, Ruslana won the festival “Slavianski Bazaar. The same year also brought Ruslana Stepanovna in Ukraine a nomination for the title of Singer of the Year, in addition, and the video for her song “Dzvinky Wind” was awarded the nomination for “Best Video”. By that time, the singer’s husband (married since December 1995), Alexander Ksenofontov, began to produce the Ruslan project and write songs for her.
In Lvov, in 1997, Ruslana began work on the TV project “Christmas with Ruslana”, which became the first Christmas TV show from this city.
Musical career of Ruslana Lyzhychko
In 1998, Ruslana released her debut album called “Dzvinky Vіter” (“Sounding Wind”). Critics responded positively to this record. One of the songs from this disc – “Svitanok” – became the “Best Song of the Year” at the “Golden Firebird” music festival in 1998.
In 1999, the singer released a disc of Christmas songs “Stop Rіzdvo 90s” (“last Christmas of the 90s”), the track list of which included folk and author’s Christmas songs in original instrumental arrangements. Ruslana continued the same theme in her next studio work of 2003 – “Good Vechir Tobi…” (“Good Evening to You…”).
Ruslana, mindful of her Hutsul (paternal) origin, began to actively combine in her music the motifs of Hutsul melodies, saturated with the sound of Ukrainian folk instruments, with the actual dance sound and rhythms. Her experiments in this area culminated in the release in 2003 of a disc called “Diki Tantsi” (“Wild Dances”), which became platinum in Ukraine 5 times. This record sold 500,000 copies.
In 2004, the singer released an English version of the disc called “Wild Dances” with an eye on the European listener. The Romanians highly appreciated the work of the Ukrainian woman and awarded in 2004 an award for the “Best Foreign Album”. The album was also nominated for a similar type of award in Hungary.
2004 was one of the busiest years in Ruslana Lyzhychko’s biography, this year she took part in the Eurovision Song Contest, representing Ukraine with the song Wild Dances. Ruslana reached the semi-final of the competition with the second result, and in the final, which took place on May 16, 2004, the singer won this competition. All European countries, excluding Switzerland, gave Ruslana a total of 280 points. Interestingly, the video filmed for this song, after being shown on the MTV Russia channel, was recognized by critics in the TV show “12 Angry Spectators” as the worst of the week.
For winning Eurovision, the singer was awarded the title of People’s Artist of Ukraine in 2004.
In 2005, Ruslana opened the competition with the song “Heart on Fire” as the winner of the previous Eurovision Song Contest. Also, being an invited guest at the competition, Lyzhychko sang another new song called “The Same Star”.
The victory at Eurovision responded to the singer in 2006 – German TV recognized her song “Wild Dances” as the best in the history of the contest. When in 2008 Azerbaijan arranged its national selection for this championship, Ruslana participated in its opening.
In 2008, the singer’s new studio work, Amazon, went on sale.
In the same 2008, Ruslana’s English-language album “Wild Energy” went on sale worldwide, which included tracks recorded together with such world-class stars as Missy Elliott and T-Payne.
Non-musical activities and personal life of Ruslana
In addition to performing activities, Ruslana also tried herself in the political field, supporting the candidacy of Viktor Yushchenko in his election campaign. In 2006, Ruslana Lyzhychko became a People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the lists of the Our Ukraine party. But political squabbles did not please the singer, and she refused the deputy mandate.
In 2011, in May, Ruslana was a “star coach” in the singing show “Voice of the Country” on the Ukrainian channel “1 + 1”, on which she selected companies with artists Stas Piekha and D. Arbenina – each in her team – 14 participants who intend to compete for victory in this project.
Singer Ruslana loves to shock the audience
In addition, Ruslana voiced the DJ at the radio station, which sounds in the computer game “Grand Theft Auto IV”, the release of the game took place in April 2008. On the waves of the radio station (Vladivostok FM), the song “Wild Dances” in the Ukrainian version also sounds.
The singer also voiced some characters in the Ukrainian dubbing for the animated film Alice’s Birthday, which was released in 2009.