Анастасия Приходько

Anastasia Konstantinovna Prikhodko (Ukrainian: Анастасія Костянтинівна Приходько; born on April 21, 1987 in Kiev, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian folk rock and traditional pop singer, known for her deep contralto. She won the Russian Star Factory contest in 2007. Prikhodko represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 on May 16, 2009 in Moscow finishing at the 11th position with the entry, Mamo. Prikhodko graduated from the Kiev National University of Culture and Arts, majoring in folk vocal. Her mother is a theater critic and is working for the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. Prikhodko won the seventh edition of the Russian television singing talent contest Star Factory.[5][6] During the show, Prikhodko was filmed telling another contestant that she did not like the Chinese people and the blacks.[7] She apologized about this shortly after the incident. Anastasiya first entered the semi-finals of the Ukraine national selection for the 2009 Eurovision but after the semi-final was held to select the 15 entries to compete in the final she was taken out of the competition because: * the song was too long * the song was pre-released Prykhodko and her manager Olena Mozgova (ex-wife of Oleksandr Ponomareva, one of the jury members) immediately claimed that both broadcaster NTU and the jury members did not use trustworthy methods to choose the contestants for the final. The duo send a letter to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko in which Prykhodko stated: "as a citizen of Ukraine, native Kievian, patriot of the country, I was deeply staggered by the impertinent actions and unethical comments of representatives of NTU, and also members of so-called "objective, impartial and independent" judges of the competition.....I only ask to give me a honest chance to come forward before an all Ukrainian audience in the finale of the National selection". The letter was co-signed by fellow Ukrainian artist Sofia Rotaru, Kostyantyn Meladze, Mykola Mozgoviy and Tina Karol.The Ukrainian national final, to be held on 8 March, was temporarily suspended by a tribunal based in Kiev due to Prykhodko's protests.[7][8] Prykhodko later entered into the Russian national final on 7 March, winning with "Mamo" ("Мамо", means "Mother!" in Ukrainian) that was both viewers' and experts' choices at the Russian national preselection on March 7, 2009. Anastasiya sings her entry in both Russian and Ukrainian. "I'm sure if you're representing own country, you should sing in it's native language, "Russian preselection committee has agreed to my principal condition - to perform "Mamo" in the final of Russian preselection in mix of Ukrainian and Russian languages". Prykhodko is the first Ukrainian singer to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.