Anastasia Prikhodko, Ukrainian singer
Anastasia Kostyantynivna Prikhodko (Ukrainian: Анастасія Костянтинівна Приходько, romanized: Anastasiya Kostyantynivna Prykhodko; born 21 April 1987) is a Ukrainian activist, politician, and former singer-songwriter. Known for her deep contralto singing voice and blend of folk rock and pop music, Prikhodko announced that she would be ending her music career in order to enter politics in October 2018. Prikhodko had previously made herself a major figure during Euromaidan and the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, expressing support for Ukrainian forces and vowing to never perform in Russia again.
Prikhodko first received mainstream attention in 2007, after winning series seven of the Russian music competition Fabrika Zvyozd. Her win led her to collaborate with Ukrainian producer Konstantin Meladze. In 2009, Prikhodko represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, with the song "Mamo", written by Meladze. Her participation in the competition came with a number of controversies following her disqualification from the Ukrainian national final and subsequent queries regarding the integrity of the judges and validity of the competition; afterwards, she took part in the Russian national final and won. Prikhodko went on to place 11th in the Eurovision final.
After ending her collaboration with Meladze in 2010, Prikhodko has attempted to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest on two more occasions: 2011 and 2016; she was a finalist in the former year, but was eliminated in the semi-finals in the latter year. Beginning in 2014, Prikhodko became politically active as an activist for pro-Ukrainian forces and pro-Europeanism in Ukraine. In 2015, Prikhodko announced that she would no longer perform in the Russian language. After confirming her departure from the music industry in 2018, Prikhodko announced that she had registered with the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" political party of Yulia Tymoshenko to enter politics.
Prikhodko unsuccessfully took part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election in Ukraine's 11th electoral district on behalf of the Fatherland party.