A star in her native Ukraine for many years, Ruslana became her homeland's biggest musical export after storming to victory in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest. Born Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko in Lviv in 1973, she attended an experimental music school at the age of four and fronted various bands in her teens before graduating as a conductor and classical pianist from the Lviv Conservatory.
After winning the Slavyanskiy Bazar song competition in 1996, she worked on her own Christmas TV special and recorded her debut album, Myt' Vesny: Dzvinkyj Viter, with producer Oleksandr ...