Svetlana Loboda

Svitlana Serhiivna Loboda (Світлана Сергіївна Лобода; Светлана Сергеевна Лобода; born 18 October 1982), also known by the stage name Loboda (stylised in all caps), is a Ukrainian singer and songwriter.

Svitlana Loboda was born on October 18, 1982, in Oleksandrivskaya Clinical Hospital in Kyiv, in the family of Sergii and Natalia Loboda.

Until 1989, she lived with family in Irpin (Kyiv region), where the singer spent her childhood.

She graduated from a music school in the classes of piano, conducting, and academic vocal.

After receiving her first musical education, she entered the Kyiv Variety and Circus Academy in the Variety Vocal Department.

Already in the 1st year, Svitlana became a member of the musical group "Cappuccino", which occupied a worthy place on the Ukrainian stage.

However, she later realized that it was not quite her format and left the group at the end of her contract.

Also, Loboda participated in the first Ukrainian musical "Equator" (directed by Viktor Shulakov), where she got one of the main roles — the savage Mirana.

After the premiere of Equator, Loboda was talked about in Ukraine as a rising star.

For the period of the musical, a song and video — "Black Angel", recorded and filmed with Svitlana Loboda, were released in wide rotation.

On December 28, 2003, Loboda created her own band called Ketch.

In the spring of 2004, having passed a casting, Loboda became a new soloist of the trio "VIA Gra".

As a member of the group, she took part in a tour across Asian cities, and starred in the music video "Biology" and the New Year musical "Sorochynskyi Yarmarok" by the TV channel "Inter".

Three years later, Svitlana left the band and in December she released her first single, "Black and White Winter".

In November 2005, Loboda's first solo album, “You Will Not Forget”, was released.

In 2006, the music video and then the single "Black Angel" was released, and after a trip to Japan, Loboda recorded the song "Wait, man".

The same year, she hosted the show Shoumaniya on Novy Channel, and in 2007, she became the host of “Miss CIS” on TET channel.

She opened her own travel agency, “Happy Vacations”.

In October 2007, the music video for the lyric song "Happiness" was released.

On October 18, 2007, Loboda organized a photo exhibition of her own photos dedicated to India.

The aim of the exhibition is to help orphans and children with cancer.

In 2008, the creation of a collection of youth clothes "F*ck the macho" began, in the same year the second album "Not Macho" was released.

On October 18, Loboda won the National Olympus Award in the category "Original Performance Style".

In Spring 2009 "Be My Valentine" was submitted for the Ukrainian qualifying round of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

On March 8, Loboda won the 2009 Eurovision qualifying round and got the right to represent Ukraine in the final part of the contest.

On March 18, she presented her music video "Be My Valentine" (Anti-crisis girl!).

At the opening ceremony of Eurovision 2009, Loboda appeared in bandages and with abrasions on her body, make-up designed to draw attention to her "Say Stop Domestic Violence" initiative.

Subsequently, French singer Patricia Kaas joined this campaign.

In 2009, Loboda created "Anti-crisis boy" T-shirts and "Anti-crisis bag", especially for the contest.

In January 2010, the video for the song "Live Easy" was released, where Loboda appears as the fat girl she became after her failure at Eurovision.

Following "Live Easy", Loboda recorded a duet song "Heart Beats" with Max Barskikh, and soon a video was released.

In 2010, Svitlana Loboda officially renamed her musical project and registered the brand and trademark LOBODA.

In the summer of 2010, the single "Revolution" was released.

At the VIVA awards, Loboda presented the single "Thank You" dedicated to her daughter.

In April 2011, Svitlana Loboda together with soccer player Andriy Shevchenko became the faces of the PEPSI campaign in the project "Pepsi Refresh Project", the essence of which was to help young creative people find their way in life.

The video for the project was shot by the British-American director Nick Lively, who flew to Ukraine especially to work on this project.

Loboda took 12th place in the final of the contest with 76 points.

The low final positions did not prevent her from taking first places at the preliminary competition concerts in London, Paris, and Amsterdam.

"Anti-crisis girl" video ranks third in the number of views on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.

According to the statistics of search queries from the countries participating in Eurovision, Svitlana Loboda took 4th place in the Google ranking.