Ани Лорак

Ani Lorak (Ukrainian: Ані Лорак, Russian: Ани Лорак), real name Carolina Myroslavivna Kuiek (Ukrainian: Кароліна Мирославівна Куєк) (born 27 September 1978, Kitsman, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine) is a successful Ukrainian singer and artist. She has three times appeared to be a strong front-runner to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest. Lorak represented Ukraine at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Shady Lady and came in 2nd place. She also came second in the «Press Award Eurovision Song Contest» and won the «Artistic Award» for her performance.

Born in the small west Ukrainian village Кицмань (Kitzman), just north of Чернiвцi (Tshernivtzi), as the daughter of a choir leader (father) and an employee of the administration of cultural affairs and host at a radio station (mother) young Кароліна (Karolina) soon developed the desire to become a professional singer. She would often participate in singing contests at school, and already at the age of 14 (1992) she took part in the highly acclaimed Pervotsvit competition, where she first met her later producer, Yuri Falesoys. In March 1995 Каролина traveled to Russia, where she participated in a competition of the Moscow TV station Утренняя звезда (‘Morning Star’). Due to the fact that another participant with the name Кароліна (Karolina) was already there it was immediately decided that Ани change her stage name. The solution was to simply read her first name backwards: Кароліна (Karolina) became Ані Лорак (Ani Lorak). After these proceedings Ані moved to Kyiv which offered more possibilities to organize her professional career. Soon she took part in the ‘Big Apple Music - 96’ competition in New York which gained her fame even beyond the Ukrainian border. At the popular Ukrainian festival ‘Таврийские игры ‘96’ she was ticketed ‘Discovery of the Year’, followed by working on her debut album. She gained two massive chart successes with Манекенщица and Боже мой, the latter being the soundtrack title for the film “Право на выбор”. By the end of the year the debut Хочу Летать (‘I want to fly’) hit the market.