乌克兰超级巨星ruslana（鲁斯兰娜）凭借《wild dances》（《狂野舞蹈》）26岁的她当年一举夺得2004年第49届欧洲音乐大赛冠军，此曲是她同名专辑中的主打歌曲，这首歌曲的歌词一半为乌克兰语，一半为英语，结合了传统乌克兰民族音乐及现代摇滚等音乐元素。自从在2004年欧洲电视歌曲大赛上进行了一场轰动一时的表演以来，ruslana已经成为顶级音乐明星之一。一夜之间，她突然拥有了数以百万计的歌迷，数以百计可能的演奏会机会，更重要的是，她赢得了世界的认可。她的音乐风格独一无二，将东欧民族风味的异国情调与摇滚、流行乐曲和舞蹈混合在一起。 __Ruslana在成为世界流行乐坛一颗冉冉升起的新星的同时，也把更多更多的精力放到了乌克兰国内的公益事业中，她资助了一些养老院的老人，帮助她们重新找回晚年生活的乐趣，并且她还是一位忠实的和平主义者，还在乌克兰国内局势动荡的时期带头走上街头游行，支持那些为乌克兰和平发展做出贡献的政治家。
Early life
Ruslana was born on 24 May 1973 in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) to Ukrainian parents Nina and Stepan Lyzhichko. She was raised in Lviv Oblast (province). Encouraged by her mother Ruslana studied from the age of four at an experimental musical school and sang in different bands, including in the vocal-instrumental band Horizon, the band Orion and the children’s ensemble Smile. After a ten-year secondary school with mathematical bias, Ruslana entered the music Conservatory in L'viv where she graduated as pianist and orchestra conductor in 1995. She has a half-sister named Anna.
Musical career
Early mucial period
Ruslana started her career as a winner of Slavyanskiy Bazar song competition in Vitebsk, Belarus in 1996 with the song Oj, letili dyki husi. In the same year she was amongst the nomination for "The Singer of the year 1996" of the First All-Ukrainian National Show The Person of the Year and the video for "Dzvinkyi Viter" (Wind Bells) was awarded "Best video of the year" at the television festival The Golden Era.
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 in Ukraine.
Her first album Myt' Vesny - Dzvinkyj Viter ("A Moment of Spring – Wind Bells"), released in 1998, received high praise from the critics.
Still, wider recognition didn't come until 1998 with the song Svitanok (Sunrise) and the album Myt' Vesny - Dzvinkyj Viter Live. Svitanok was the first big video clip in Ukraine. In 1999 Ruslana became Person of the Year, the song "Svitanok" was Best Song of the Year and the video of Svitanok was awarded as the Best Video of the Year.
In 1999 she worked on the Christmas musical Ostanne rizdvo 90th (The Last Christmas of the 90's), which won the Ukrainian Movie of the Year award. With the video clip to the song Znaju Ja(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.
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 which inspired Ruslana to create her song and album Wild Dances. The Wild Dances style combines powerful and permeating ethnic drums, trumpet sounds of the trembita, an ancient Hutsul music instrument with modern dance beats.
The album Dyki Tantsi (Wild Dances) was released in June 2003 in Ukraine. It was the first album ever to get 5 times platinum in Ukraine, selling over 500,000 copies. The English version of the album Dyki Tantsi was released in Europe in autumn 2004: Wild Dances - Welcome to my wild world. The song Wild Dances brought Ruslana the victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and entered dozens of European music charts. She also achieved golden records in Sweden, Russia, Greece, Czech Republic and Slowakia.
Eurovision Song Contest
2004
Ruslana was chosen by NTU, using an internal selection, to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. Before the contest she was a hot favorite for victory by the bookmakers. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 she performed her self-composed song, Wild Dances and won the contest receiving 280 points (the highest amount of points received by a winner of the Eurovision Song Contest from the first 50 editions of the contest). Also, she received points from every country in the semi final and from every country except Switzerland in the final. Wild Dances was number one in Belgium for 10 consecutive weeks, Greece and Ukraine.
2005
Ruslana opened the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song Heart on Fire. At the interval act she performed The Same Star which became a hit as soon as it was released, entering most of the music charts all around Europe. The song Heart on Fire was released on her 2008 album Wild Energy.
2006
Ruslana's song Wild Dances was named the Best of Eurovision by the Germans. On the television program Grand Prix Hitliste, Wild Dances was presented as the winner, ahead of famous songs, such as Waterloo and Germany's only winner, Ein Bißchen Frieden, which finished sixth and twelfth, respectively. The program was viewed by a television audience of approximately six million people in Germany.[2]
2008
Ruslana was a guest performer at the national final of Azerbaijan with her Wild Energy show. Azerbaijan made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.
Wild Energy Project
Ruslana's new project Wild Energy is 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 for life, 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. Within the frames of the FIFA World Cup 2006 Ruslana went on tour in Germany to support the Ukrainian national football team. She performed in Hamburg, Cologne, Berlin, Leipzig, and Nuremberg.
In Grand Theft Auto IV, Ruslana hosts Vladivostok FM. Her song Wild Dances is featured as one of the songs on Vladivostok.
In March 2008 Ruslana's Ukrainian album Amazonka was released in Ukraine, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The English album Wild Energy was released in Canada on 2 September 2008 and was released in several European countries on 10 October 2008 and China in November. The album was recorded at the Hit Factory Studio in Miami and contains two collaborations with American Urban superstars T-Pain and Missy Elliot.[3] On this release Ruslana creates her own distinctive technique of incorporating ancient ethnic styles of the Carpathian Mountain people with modern popular music.
[edit] Political activities
In autumn 2004 Ruslana actively supported the democratic processes in Ukraine known as the Orange Revolution. She declared her support for Viktor Yushchenko during the disputed Ukrainian presidential elections. She became one of the prominent figures that addressed the mass crowds rallying in support of Yushchenko's demand that his original defeat be declared fraudulent. From spring 2006 to summer 2007 she was a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament for the party Our Ukraine.[4]
Social commitment
Ruslana was appointed Good Will Ambassador of Ukraine by the UNICEF and combats trafficking in human beings. She released two video clips which aim to make potential victims aware of the dangers of human trafficking. In February 2008 Ruslana performed at an anti-human trafficking event in Vienna, Austria, organized by UN.GIFT (The United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking) in front of 117 international delegations. Her song Not For Sale became the anthem of the anti-trafficking campaign
Within the frames of the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 in Kyiv she gave a charity concert for children suffering from the consequences of the Chornobyl tragedy. For another charity project Ruslana joined forces with German rock star Peter Maffay[6]. In April/May 2007 they went together with artists from 14 countries on a four weeks tour through Germany. The funds gathered benefited children in need.
Ruslana has also staged numerous charity concerts benefiting Children's hospitals in Kiev, L’viv and Dnepropetrovsk
With her project Wild Energy Ruslana supports the use of renewable energy. She regards the energy of the sun, the water and the wind as an energy independence. The project gradually developed into this bigger meaning. Ruslana wants to make people aware of the dangers of global climate change.
After large regions in Western Ukraine were hit by a flood in July 2008 Ruslana set up the co-ordinating and relief centre "Carpathians. Flood. SOS! 2008". The aim of the centre is to create a database of the people in need, to provide emergency humanitarian help and to collect and distribute donations both from the public and from other Ukrainian artists and sportsmen to support the victims of the flood.