Verka Serduchka

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Andriy Danylko

Background information
Birth name	Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko
Also known as	Verka Serduchka
Born	October 2, 1973 (1973-10-02) (age 34)
Origin	Poltava, Ukraine
Genre(s)	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Singing
Years active	1998 – present
Label(s)	CD Land
Website	http://www.serduchka.com

Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko (Ukrainian: Андрій Михайлович Данилко) (born 2 October 1973 in Poltava, Ukraine), better known as his drag queen character Verka Serduchka (Ukrainian: Вєрка Сердючка), a flamboyant middle aged woman, is a Ukrainian comedian and pop and dance singer.

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

In 1990, he started to create the character Verka Serduchka, a flamboyant middle aged woman and conductor. At a humor contest in Poltava on April 1 in 1991, Verka Serduchka was officially presented. This stage name was invented by combining the randomly picked first name Verka and the real last name of his former school classmate Anya Serduk.^[1]^[2] Apart from pop and dance numbers, Andriy has lately begun to appear under his real name performing ambient musical compositions. His popularity, however, is firmly established in his stage personality of Verka Serduchka and most of his performances are done under this stage name.

Following Verka Serduchka, Andriy Danylko created other characters, such as a policeman, a soldier and a female ballet dancer. In such a fashion, the Danilko Theater was established, touring the cities of Russia and Ukraine. In 2002, Andriy Danylko, along with his group, toured in the CIS and Baltic countries, showing the program “I am a Revolution” for the whole year. The next year, soon after the Danylko Theater’s concert tour “I Am Born for Love,” Andriy Danylko received the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s he hosted a talk show called "SV-show" ("SV" is an acronym for Russian: Спальный Вагон, "Spalniy Vagon", which means a sleeping car) on different Ukrainian television channels.^[3]

[edit] Eurovision Song Contest

Verka Serduchka with her ensemble in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Verka was chosen to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" in Helsinki, Finland,^[4] finishing in second place.

Ukraine was automatically put in the final thanks to the top-ten finish of last year's Ukrainian representative Tina Karol with the song "Show Me Your Love". The song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" is sung in 5 languages: German, English, Ukrainian, Russian and Mongolian. However, several Mongols on a talk show by Channel One (Russia), which was shown just before the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 claimed that there is no phrase "Lasha Tumbai" in their language and one of them pronounced the correct Mongolian phrase for "whipped cream".^[5] The Mongolian embassy in Moscow also said that "lasha tumbai" was total gibberish.^[6]Verka Serduchka admitted that “lasha tumbai” was a made-up phrase that sounded like the Mongolian phrase for “milkshake.” While many Russians interpreted it as “Russia goodbye” and consequently a huge controversy was caused in Russia as well as in Mongol.

Participation of Andriy Danylko in Eurovision was not without controversy in Ukraine. One of the all-nation FM radio stations organized in February an action of protest to express their disapproval with the selection of Serduchka to represent the country ^[7]. Some Ukrainians and even members of the Ukrainian Parliament expressed their disapproval with Serduchka's participation in the contest, which they see as a "grotesque and vulgar."^[8]^[9]

The single for Dancing Lasha Tumbai reached #6 in the French charts and went on to be #28 on The Official UK Singles Chart on 20 May 20 2007. This was the first time a non-UK non-winning Eurovision entry charted in the UK since 1974. He then made a brief phone-in appearance on the BBCs The Graham Norton Show, in which his comments made no sense whatsoever. Another call was made, but with a translator in the audience, who told guest Andrew Lloyd Webber he was "rubbish". However, in an interview with Andrew Williams in the 60Seconds column of metro.uk.co (30 July 2007):

AW: Why did you call Andrew Lloyd Webber ‘rubbish’ on The Graham Norton Show? AD: Someone interpreted Serduchka wrongly. I meant I watched Cats the musical on TV. It was boring. You should watch a musical on the stage. Don’t watch Cats on TV.

In the same interview, he admitted that "lasha tumbai" was a somewhat made-up phrase that sounds like the Mongolian phrase for "milkshake" and that many Russians nevertheless managed to interpret it as saying "Russia goodbye!" and caused something of a controversy in Russia as well.

[edit] Personal life

Danylko is known to be not too talkative about his personal life, but he stated that he has lived with a woman for 8 years, though that it was a hard experience for him, and after the breakup he became more creative again.^[10]

[edit] Political life

Danylko announced in 2007 that he would front a new political party, "For Ours!", to compete in that year's Ukrainian parliamentary election, but later abandoned the idea. A public opinion poll in July 2007 placed 'For Ours! Verka Serduchka' at 2% overall support. ^[11]^[12]

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

Ya rozhdena dlya liubvi - 1998
Pirozhok - 2001
Best - 2002
Ha-Ra-Sho - 2003
Chita-Drita - 2003
Zheniha Hotela - 2004
Posle tebya (Andriy Danilko) - 2005
Tralli-Valli - 2006
Dancing Europe - 2007

[edit] Singles

Dancing Lasha Tumbai (2007)
Kiss please (2007)
I am Eurovision Queen (2008)

[edit] Dancing Lasha Tumbai Chart position

Year	Single	Chart positions								Album
Year	Single	SWE	FI	UK	IE	FR	GER	CH	EU	Album
2007	"Dancing Lasha Tumbai"	6	2	28	31	6	74	53	45	TBR

As Verka Serduchka, Danilko also recorded a Polish-language song, Hop Hop Hop, in collaboration with Michal Wisniewski, who performs as Renia Paczkowska.