Ruslana

Ruslana Lyzhychko (born May 24 1973 Ukrainian: ??????? ???????) is the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

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Born in 1973, she is a Ukrainian singer, dancer, producer, composer, conducter, and piano player. She writes, composes and produces her own songs and music videos.

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Ruslana started her career as a winner of Slavyanskiy Bazar song competition in 1996. Her first album, Myt' vesny (???? ?????, A Moment of Spring, Ukr) got a high appraisal from the critics. It was a relative success given the overall state of Ukrainian music market of that time. Still, a wide recogintion 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 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. Her album Dyki Tantsi (Wild Dances) which was issued in 2003 went double platinum in Ukraine, selling over 200,000 copies.

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She won the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song Wild Dances, which earned 280 points, receiving points from 34 of the 35 other countries participating in the contest (the exception being Switzerland whose own entry was eliminated after scoring no points in the semi-final).

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In 2004's disputed Ukrainian presidential elections, she declared her support for Viktor Yushchenko. She was one of the scores of prominent figures that addressed the mass crowds rallying in support of Yushchenko's demand that his original defeat be declared fraudulent, and at one stage she was even quoted as saying she was ready to go on hunger strike for the cause.

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May 24: May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). There are 221 days remaining....

1973: 1973 was a common year starting on Monday....

Ukrainian: Ukrainian can mean:...