Olya Polyakova is long established as a pop icon back home in Ukraine, an arena-headlining, multiple award-winning, chart-topping star, who has also previously starred in sketches alongside Volodymyr Zelensky during his previous life in comedy, and has been a mentor and coach on ‘The Voice’. But it appeared her music career was over when Russia first invaded her homeland back in 2022. Instead, she gradually realised that people needed both songs that reflected the struggles of war as well as those that provided the optimism of a brighter future, creating an unlikely new era as a wartime singer.
Now Olya Polyakova looks to explore new frontiers, her first international push starting with her new single ‘My Future Ex’. Listen HERE.
The single highlights Olya Polyakova’s status as a larger-than-life personality with everything it takes to propel her domestic status to a huge international audience. ‘My Future Ex’ sits in a rarely travelled space, the gap between the charisma and the pulsating energy of the modern pop scene with the four-on-the-floor punch and huge choruses of old school, ‘80s cool, nostalgic hi-NRG. It’s a collision course of sounds that Olga’s voice is perfect for, her vocal flowing seamlessly from soaring, full-power high notes to sultry swooning.
In recent times, Olya Polyakova has been performing for multiple Ukrainian troop brigades, as well as singing about issues such as women waiting for their soldier husbands to return home (‘In Your Arms’) or making defiant, escapist pop (‘Warrior’). When she returned to performing, she discovered how much emotional catharsis she offered: audiences would be in tears at the start, and by the end, dancing like crazy just as they would in regular times, she commented “Part of my job is to help people forget about the war even for an hour”. She has played to 130,000 people in Kyiv, but also performed in Kharkiv.
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