Early career Ruslana started her career as the winner of the
Slavianski Bazaar song competition in Vitebsk, Belarus in 1996 with the song
Oj, letili dyki husi. In 1997, Ruslana began working on
Christmas with Ruslana – the first
L'viv Christmas television project of an All-Ukrainian scale including the video clip
Ballad of a Princess which was the first animated music video made by a Ukrainian singer. Her first album
Myt Vesny – Dzvinkyi Viter (
A Moment of Spring – Wind Bells), released in 1998, received high praise from the critics. Still, wider recognition did not come until 1998 with the song
Svitanok (
Sunrise) and the album ''Myt' Vesny – Dzvinkyj Viter Live
. Svitanok
was the first Ukrainian big-budget music video. In 1998, Ruslana was awarded Person of the Year, the song Svitanok'' was awarded Song of the Year and its accompanying music video was awarded Music Video of the Year. In the second half of 1998, she organized a charity tour which had the aim of raising funds for the restoration of the old castles from Western Ukraine. The tour was a success and thanks to Ruslana's efforts, the
Zolochiv Castle was restored. In 1999, she worked on the Christmas musical
Ostanne rizdvo 90th (
The Last Christmas of the 90s), which won the Ukrainian
Movie of the Year award. With the video clip to the song
Znaju ya (
I Know), which is about the ancient people of the
Hutsuls living in the Ukrainian
Carpathians, Ruslana set new standards for modern video clip filming.
Education In 1995, Ruslana graduated from the
Lviv Conservatory as professional conductor and classical pianist. She was the student of one of the most prominent Ukrainian composers and conductors,
Mykola Kolessa who is regarded as 'the father of the Ukrainian conducting school'. She used to be a part of the student choir of the Lviv Music Academy.
2004: Wild Dances Project and Eurovision victory " at the opening of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2005.
Wild Dances Project Ruslana's father is from the West-Ukrainian area of the
Hutsuls, the dwellers of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. They have a unique culture with an ancient and rich history that inspired Ruslana to create her concept album
Wild Dances. It combines powerful and permeating ethnic drums, trumpet sounds of the
trembita, an ancient
Hutsul music instrument, with modern dance beats. The album was composed by Ruslana after an expedition to the
Carpathian Mountains in spring 2003. The album
Dyki Tantsi (
Wild Dances) was released in June 2003 in Ukraine. The album sold more than 170,000 copies in the first 100 days after its release, even without a supporting tour. Ruslana was named the most popular person in Belgium, However, the singer had to decline the offer due to her involvement in the organization of a big charity concert dedicated to the victims of the
Chernobyl disaster. Therefore, Ruslana appeared at the event only as a guest star. She performed a medley of
Wild Dances and
Heart on Fire at the opening ceremony being accompanied by the Zhyttia ballet and the Ukrainian drums ensemble ARS Nova. After interviewing the competitors in the
green room she also performed her latest single
The Same Star. During this performance, Ruslana wore a red costume inspired by Ukrainian ethnic elements. Also in 2005, Ruslana designed the cover for
Jonathan Safran Foer's
The Unabridged Pocket Book of Lightning which was produced as part of
Penguin Books' 70th birthday celebrations.
2006 In 2006, Ruslana's song "
Wild Dances" was named Germany's all-time favorite Eurovision entry in an internet poll arranged by the German public television broadcaster
NDR. During the television program , "Wild Dances" was presented as the winner, ahead of well-known classics, such as "
Waterloo" and Germany's only winner (at the time), "", which finished in sixth and twelfth place respectively. The programme was viewed by a television audience of approximately six million people in Germany. For the
FIFA World Cup 2006 Ruslana went on tour in Germany to support the
Ukraine national football team. She performed in Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Leipzig, and
Nuremberg.
2008: Wild Energy and Grand Theft Auto IV Ruslana's project
Wild Energy was based on the science fiction novel by Maryna and Sergij Diachenko
Wild Energy. Lana. In a future city which experiences a global energy crisis, far more threatening than lack of oil and gas, people are lacking their will to live, their energy of the heart – the "fuel for people". Lana, one of the synthetic inhabitants, sets out to find the mystical energy source. After many adventures, she discovers that the wild energy comes from her own heart.
Wild Energy combines the art of music and video production, literature and social commitment in an extraordinary way. In June 2006 Ruslana presented the new single and video
Wild Energy in a unique fantasy style. In this video clip, the singer develops from a synthetic blonde girl into her wild image. In March 2008 Ruslana's Ukrainian album
Amazonka was released in Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The English album
Wild Energy was released by
Warner Music in Canada and several European countries in autumn 2008. The album was recorded at the
Hit Factory Studio in Miami and contains two collaborations with American Urban superstars
T-Pain and
Missy Elliott. On this release Ruslana creates her own distinctive technique of incorporating ancient ethnic styles of the
Carpathian Mountain people with modern popular music. In
Grand Theft Auto IV, Ruslana lends her voice as the host of
Vladivostok FM. Her song "
Wild Dances" is featured as one of the songs on Vladivostok. On 13 May 2008,
Grand Theft Auto IV broke the
Guinness World Records for "Highest grossing video game in 24 hours" and "Highest Revenue Generated by an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours". It sold 3.6 million copies on day one generating $310 million in revenue.
2009–2010: Asia Song Festival & new album recordings in Seoul, Korea In 2009, she was invited to attend the sixth
Asia Song Festival which took place in Seoul, Korea. The event was held at the
Seoul World Cup Stadium where Ruslana sung in front of an audience of 60,000 people. Together with the
Zhyttia ballet, she performed three songs from her first international album: "
Wild Dances", "
Dance with the Wolves" and a bilingual version of "Play, Musician!". Her act was met with great enthusiasm by the Asian public who didn't know her until that moment. Even if she was supposed to receive only an award for her contribution to the cultural exchange between Ukraine and Asia in music, in the end she also won the main award of the festival, receiving the golden statue for the best artist of the Asia Song Festival 2009.
2011–2012: The Voice of Ukraine and Ukrainian album Ey-fori-YA In 2011, Ruslana was appointed as one of the judges of the Ukrainian version of
The Voice show. Her involvement in the project was featured on the Dutch TV where the original show of the series kicked off. Eventually, Ruslana's alumni, Tonya Matvienko, placed 2nd in the grand final of the Ukrainian show. Also in 2011, her song
Wild Dances was used by the American gymnast
Jordyn Wieber as the soundtrack for her floor exercise. Wieber eventually became the 2011
World Women's All-Around Champion and won the golden medal at the
2012 Summer Olympics performing her floor exercise on Ruslana's song. Despite its intercontinental rock and pop nature, the album
EY-fori-YA and the three songs taken from it previously is based on Slavic rhythms. Ruslana integrated old Slavic circle dances, liturgies and elements of classic pieces of Russian composers including
Glinka,
Tschaikowsky,
Mussorgsky, and
Rachmaninow. More concept concerts followed within the framework of the
EURO 2012 public fan events.
2013: International album My Boo! (Together!) & Clash of the Choirs Her third international album was set to be released in 2013 under the title
My Boo! (Together!). The new material shows how versatile Ruslana is as an artist as she completely changed her style since the
Wild Energy project, from a wild
Amazon to an Urban pop princess. Most of the album was produced by
Vlad DeBriansky in Los Angeles and includes the names of American top musicians such as
Rusty Allen, Victor Little,
Oscar Seaton, Brian Coller as well as
Stefan Örn from Sweden who won the
Eurovision Song Contest 2011 as a songwriter.
Goran Bregovich, the legendary
Balkan musician from Serbia produced the song
Kray At the same time of the release of the new English album Ruslana's Ukrainian album
ЕЙ-форі-Я (
EY-fori-YA,
Euphoria) was re-released under the new title
Мій Брат! (разом) (
Miy Brat! (razom!),
My Brother! (together!)). The renaming of the album had become necessary because of the coincidental same name of the winning song of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The Swedish singer
Loreen won the event with the song
Euphoria, one month after Ruslana had released her Ukrainian album and song of the same name. In order to avoid misunderstandings Ruslana's renamed not only her album but also her English song
Euphoria into
This Is Euphoria. In August 2013 Ruslana globally released the single
This Is Euphoria digitally. The track was composed and produced by Ruslana and the Swedish musician
Stefan Örn. She was invited to perform at the
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013 which took place in her country's capital Kyiv. Nevertheless, she withdrew her act from the show considering the violence shown by the Ukrainian authorities against
those who were peacefully protesting in the country's capital. She was one of the coaches of the first season of the
Clash of the Choirs TV show in Ukraine. Ruslana and her alumni from the city of
Lviv have won the grand final of the project on 5 January 2014, receiving 78% of the tele voting.
2014–2016: Eurovision juror In January 2014 her international album
My Boo! (Together!) was released digitally. For her subsequent album Ruslana intended to study again
ethnic motifs as she regarded the
Wild Dances project as her most creative work. Due to her active involvement in the
Euromaidan in Ukraine, Ruslana had to postpone her musical plans. Ruslana was invited as music expert for Eurosong, the
Belgian selection for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in order to choose the best candidate to represent Belgium at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2014. On 9 and 10 October Ruslana held two concerts at the Manchester Ukrainian Cultural Centre 'Dnipro'. She originally planned on performing only one show however as the tickets sold out within hours, it was decided that she would perform a second concert the next day. Tickets for that show were also almost sold out. On 24 October, Ruslana performed a concert along with the
Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in
Massey Hall in Toronto. The purpose of the concert was to showcase the beauty and the importance of the
Bandura in Ukrainian music and culture. For her final song, Ruslana performed along with the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus as well as the Zoloti Struny Youth Bandura Ensemble based in Toronto. She was a judge at
Vidbir, Ukraine's National Selection for the
Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Out of the three jury members, she was the only one who supported the singer
Jamala who later on became the second Eurovision winner from Ukraine. In late 2016, after Jamala's victory at Eurovision in Stockholm, Ruslana played 3 concerts in Western Europe. In October she played in London, in November she played in Paris and in December she played in Hanover (Hannover). In all of these concerts she spoke about the victory that Jamala brought for Ukraine, and how Ukraine would be opening up to the world again in May 2017.
2017: It's Magical / Ya lyublyu After her long-lasting creative break, which was caused by the dramatic and stormy events in Ukraine, Ruslana presented her new single "It's Magical / Я люблю" at the
Eurovision Grand Finale in Kyiv on 13 May 2017. The new music style combines tender cradle songs with brisk exotic melodies and rhythms. The original, exotic manner of singing which forms the basis of the soundtrack Ruslana acquired on sometimes extreme expeditions into the Carpathian Mountains. The song was released in an English ("It's Magical") and a Ukrainian version ("Я люблю" / "Ya lyublyu" / "I Love"). The film production took place in a unique place, the Basalt quarry in the
Rivne region. Director
Oles Sanin created a thunderstorm in a realistic way for the video clip. The image of Ruslana in the chainmail in which she appears in the clip resembles her internal state. After all the events in her country and her extreme expeditions into the mountains, Ruslana feels like a kind of warrioress who is called to protect the most valuable: Love. In her song, video Ruslana wants to draw attention to the widespread deforestation in the Carpathians. Her aim is the preservation of the Carpathian primeval forests, their unique wildlife, and exceptional culture. ==Political activities==