Singer from Crimea combines music career with lawmaking

She is serious-minded, quiet – almost appearing shy at times. The 29-year-old star only starts to open up as the interview progresses.

But that’s not the only unusual thing about the performer. She’s also one of Ukraine’s new crop of post-revolutionary lawmakers, having been elected to parliament in October 2014.

It was quite an unexpected move for the singer and her fans alike, as Ognevich had never expressed any political ambitions before the tumultuous events in Ukraine that started in late 2013. She was elected after taking a prestigious fourth spot on the election list of the Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko.

Now, as the Verkhovna Rada has gone on summer break, Ognevich is back to working on her first album. Before, she only released singles.

“It will be a fusion of new-age and ambient music with some elements of symphony,” she says. But the singer-legislator is superstitious and doesn’t want to reveal the release date and name of the album.

Ognevich first came to fame as Ukraine’s entry at the 2013 Eurovision song contest, where she won third place – a turning point in her career. As her popularity increased, so did the number of shows in Ukraine. Abroad, she has big fan clubs in Spain, Italy and South Korea.

Her entering the politics was connected to the Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014. Ognevich is from Sudak on the eastern coast of Crimea, and her family still lives there. Her parents didn’t recognize the Russian takeover of Crimea and have refused to exchange their Ukrainian passports for Russian ones.

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Ognevich hasn’t been to the peninsula since the annexation. Before the Russian takeover, she had signed a contract with the Crimean government to be the face of a tourism promotion campaign for the summer of 2014. Some 75 percent of tourists to the peninsula each year came from mainland Ukraine. But she broke off the contract immediately after the annexation that she considers illegal.

Her civic position led her into politics last year, when she met Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko.

She met Lyashko when giving a free concert to Ukrainian soldiers fighting against Russian-backed separatists in Donbas.

“He asked me to join his team, and I agreed,” Ognevich says, adding that she never regretted the decision, but also complaining that some experienced politicians don’t see her as their equal.

Nevertheless, she has already gained a fair amount of lawmaking experience: In her eight months in parliament, she has co-authored five draft laws, one of them being about copyright and related rights.

“As a singer I understand the scale of [copyright] piracy in Ukraine,” she says. Now she wants to focus her efforts on copyright issues.

Ognevich says her boss, Lyashko, isn’t too strict and sometimes allows her to skip parliamentary meetings so she can give a concert.

“He has a great sense of humor and it’s very easy to get along with him,” the singer says of Lyashko.

Combining two careers demands time and a strict schedule. She rises at 6 a.m., and does an hour of classical ballet exercises. After parliament sessions she does vocal exercises. She also maintains a strict diet. She keeps silent for up to five days every month to save her voice.

And despite being a legislator, Ognevich’s future sights are set on pursuing her artistic career. She says her biggest dream is to win a Grammy music award.

“I want to be a worthy representative of Ukraine abroad,” Ognevich says.

Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at trach@kyivpost.com