Eugenia Vlasova and Andru Donalds

Eugenia Vlasova was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Both of her parents had significant artistic background (mother was a movie actress but abandoned the carrier after giving birth to her daughter, father is still a singer with the Chapel named after Levko Revutskiy). However Eugenia did not spend much time in her father’s environment (that was the way their family life went) and believes that it was her step-father who brought her up and who gave her some of her warmest memories. As a broad-minded person he used to spend hours and hours in cognitive conversations with Eugenia. Thus it is him who she owes her character, inquisitiveness and persistence to and who has really replaced her father.
Her strong, bright and distinctive voice along with her love for music were the key factors in her further destiny. In 1994 she entered the R. Glier State Higher Music College majoring in variety vocal and successfully completed it in 1998. While on her second year she started taking part in various music contests and in 1996 eventually became a prize-winner of the “Song Vernissage”. Even now, looking back at her first appearance at the “Ukraina” Palace of Culture, she is still anxious: “… my knees were shivering, I was scared to death and could hardly keep myself from running away”. But in the end the debut took place and provided Ukraine with a new rising star.
Eugenia’s performance at the “Slavyanskiy Bazaar” festival in Vitebsk, Belarus, where she achieved a laureate status turned to be an important stage in her carrier. There were two songs sung: “Sizokryliy ptakh” (Gray-winged bird) penned by Vladimir Ivasyuk and “Ne zabuvay” (Don’t forget) which may be considered as her first noticeable hit. Then, in November, 1998, followed a trip to the Italian city of Rimini, a home of the 1998 “Queen of the Song” international song contest. Especially for that occasion Kim Breitburg and Nikolay Trubach had written a number called “Vyberi menya” (Choose me) but according to the contest’s regulations each and every artist was supposed to sing in the language of his or her home country therefore a Ukrainian version of the song was made. Retitled “Muzyka dusha moya” (Music is my soul) it ensured Eugenia Vlasova the unconditional victory. Despite the “fearful” date, Friday, 13th, Eugenia left Italy collecting the Grand Prix as a trophy.
The young aspiring singer’s success attracted attention of music industry. Then followed the impressive appearances and prize-winnings at the annual “Song of the Year” festival (its Russian-Ukrainian version held in Kiev) summarizing the results of 1997 and 1998.
Around the same time (in 1998) Eugenia became a winner of the “Golden Fortune” All-Ukraine open popularity poll in the “21st Century’s Hope” nomination. Those days her repertoire was only shaping and “Ne zabuvay” (Don’t forget) was the most appreciable song. In 1999 Eugenia penned “Wind of hope”, the song unnoticed by the listeners at the time but doomed to dramatically change her status in the years to come. Within that time period Dmitriy Kostiuk became her manager.
Impressed by her huge potential he placed his stakes on “Wind of hope”. The new arrangement was prepared and the track itself was re-recorded and carefully mixed. Having joined their efforts the singer and the manager finally succeeded in turning the song into a potential mega-smash. Further on the “Wind of hope” video was filmed to grace Ukrainian and Russian TV airplay. The deafening success of the song made it Eugenia Vlasova’s trademark. “Wind of hope” has radically changed the singer’s image establishing her as a force to be reckoned with and launching her to long-awaited stardom.
November 2001 saw the release of the “Wind of Hope” full-length album which has sold in amount of almost 100.000 copies and to this day remains in demand.
Eugenia’s carrier was growing strong, a string of new videos and hits, “Severnoye siyaniye” (Northern lights), “O tebye” (About you), “Budu silneye” (I’ll be stronger), “Plach obo mne” (Cry about me), just to mention a few, followed the head start. She found a firm lodgement upon Ukrainian music Olympus but, as it frequently happens, at the most unexpected moment a break occurred. In 2004 Eugenia Vlasova became a mum and for a long time had fully devoted herself to the motherhood and domestic cares bringing up her daughter Nina.
Having missed the stage so much all that period she returned to full-time music activity in 2005 and the first result turned to be a joint effort with Andru Donalds (one of the voices of famed Michael Cretu’s ENIGMA). It was Eugenia who first phrased an idea of making something new in a duet exactly with Andru for she was, and still is, his die-hard fan. He listened to some of Eugenia’s recordings and found himself stunned by her voice and her singing style. Shortly after Dmitriy Kostiuk discussed the possibility of the joint project with him and eventually, on May, 11, 2005, the respective contract was mutual