Anastasia Prikhodko

Anastasia Kostyantynivna Prikhodko (Анастасія Костянтинівна Приходько; born 21 April 1987) is a Ukrainian activist, politician and former singer-songwriter.

Prikhodko was born on 21 April 1987 in Kyiv to parents Konstantin Rybalov and Oksana Prikhodko.

Her father, a Russian, is originally from Rostov-on-Don and worked as a miner, while her Ukrainian mother works as a theatre critic for the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.

Her parents have since separated, and Prikhodko was raised by her mother; her father returned to Russia after their separation.

Prikhodko has an elder brother, Nazar, whom she has collaborated with in music.

Prikhodko is additionally of partial Japanese ancestry, having a Japanese great-grandfather.

When she was 15, Prikhodko auditioned to join the Ukrainian girl group VIA Gra, but was rejected.

Prikhodko attended R. Glier Kyiv Institute of Music and Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, studying folk vocals.

After beginning her music career in 2005, Prikhodko first experienced mainstream success in 2007, after being cast in series seven of the Russian music competition Fabrika Zvyozd, an international version of the Spanish program Operación Triunfo.

Prikhodko continued to advance through the competition until the finale, where she was declared the winner.

Prikhodko garnered controversy during her participation in the show, after she was caught on film admitting to another contestant that she did not like Chinese people or black people, drawing accusations of racism.

She immediately apologized for her comments.

Following her win in the competition, Prikhodko was signed to a contract by Ukrainian music producer Konstantin Meladze, who was a frequent guest on Fabrika Zvyozd.

She has gone on to state that she did not enjoy being on reality television, and that her only friend during the experience was a member of the production crew.

Prikhodko first received mainstream attention in 2007, after winning series seven of the Russian music competition Fabrika Zvyozd.

Her win led her to collaborate with Ukrainian-Russian producer Konstantin Meladze.

She released several singles in 2007, none of which managed to gain massive mainstream attention.

In 2008, Prikhodko released the single "Bezotvetno", a duet with Meladze's brother Valery Meladze.

"Bezotvetno" went on to become Prikhodko's breakout hit, reaching the top forty in Russia.

In 2009, Prikhodko represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, with the song "Mamo", written by Meladze.

Her participation in the competition came with a number of controversies following her disqualification from the Ukrainian national final and subsequent queries regarding the integrity of the judges and validity of the competition; afterwards, she took part in the Russian national final and won.

In January 2009, Prikhodko took part in the Ukrainian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

After frequent changes in plans, the Ukrainian competition was split into two rounds: a non-televised 30-song semi-final and a televised 15-song final.

Prikhodko competed in the non-televised semi-final on 8 February 2009 with the song "Za tebe znov".

After the semi-final ended, it was revealed that Prikhodko had not qualified to the final.

Prikhodko responded to the results by stating that the Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC was not transparent in the selection of the finalists, calling their integrity into question.

It later emerged that Prikhodko had not performed "Za tebe znov" in the semi-final, and was actually disqualified from the competition for performing the non-competing song "Vsyo dlya tebya".

Prikhodko and her management stated that they were under the impression that the semi-final was simply a showcase of vocal capabilities, and that performing the potential Eurovision entry was not required.

Prikhodko launched a formal complaint against the broadcaster for their handling of the event; their complaint was supported by Meladze in addition to the Ukrainian singers Sofia Rotaru, Mykola Mozhovyy, and Tina Karol.

As a result of her complaint, the televised final was postponed by a Kyiv court.

The court later ruled in Prikhodko's favor, but she allowed the televised final to go ahead.

Following the controversy with the Ukrainian national selection, Prikhodko instead applied for the Russian national final.

After ending her collaboration with Meladze in 2010, Prikhodko has attempted to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest on two more occasions: 2011 and 2016; she was a finalist in the former year, but was eliminated in the semi-finals in the latter year.

Prikhodko went on to place 11th in the Eurovision final.

Prikhodko had previously made herself a major figure during Euromaidan and the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, expressing support for Ukrainian forces and vowing to never perform in Russia again.

Beginning in 2014, Prikhodko became politically active as an activist for pro-Ukrainian forces and pro-Europeanism in Ukraine.

In 2015, Prikhodko announced that she would no longer perform in the Russian language.

Known for her deep contralto singing voice and blend of folk rock and pop music, Prikhodko announced that she would be ending her music career in order to enter politics in October 2018.

After confirming her departure from the music industry in 2018, Prikhodko announced that she had registered with the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" political party of Yulia Tymoshenko to enter politics.

Prikhodko unsuccessfully took part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election in Ukraine's 11th electoral district on behalf of the Fatherland party.