OLYA POLYAKOVA
THE UKRAINIAN POP ICON LAUNCHES GLOBALLY WITH
THE NEW SINGLE ‘MY FUTURE EX’ – LISTEN HERE
NOW WORKING ON HER DEBUT ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ALBUM
Olya Polyakova is long established as a pop icon back home in Ukraine, an arena-headlining, multiple award-winning, chart-topping star, who has also previously starred in sketches alongside Volodymyr Zelensky during his previous life in comedy, and has been a mentor and coach on ‘The Voice’. But it appeared her music career was over when Russia first invaded her homeland back in 2022. Instead, she gradually realised that people needed both songs that reflected the struggles of war as well as those that provided the optimism of a brighter future, creating an unlikely new era as a wartime singer.
Now Olya Polyakova looks to explore new frontiers, her first international push starting with her new single ‘My Future Ex’. Listen HERE. Watch the lyric video
The single highlights Olya Polyakova’s status as a larger-than-life personality with everything it takes to propel her domestic status to a huge international audience. ‘My Future Ex’ sits in a rarely travelled space, the gap between the charisma and the pulsating energy of the modern pop scene with the four-on-the-floor punch and huge choruses of old school, ‘80s cool, nostalgic hi-NRG. It’s a collision course of sounds that Olya’s voice is perfect for, her vocal flowing seamlessly from soaring, full-power high notes to sultry swooning.
Olya says, “Sometimes you fall in love with someone and you know it’s going to end with fights, or tears, or both. I wrote this song for everyone who has been there and done it anyway. It’s kind of like a dance workout for a broken heart.”
Olya wrote the song alongside its producers, Red Triangle (Sabrina Carpenter, Halsey, David Guetta), with mixing provided by the Grammy-winning Guy Massey (The Beatles, Kylie Minogue). Expect an accompanying video directed by James Slater (Sam Fender, CMAT) to follow soon.
In recent times, Olya Polyakova has been performing for multiple Ukrainian troop brigades, as well as singing about issues such as women waiting for their soldier husbands to return home (‘In Your Arms’) or making defiant, escapist pop (‘Warrior’). When she returned to performing, she discovered how much emotional catharsis she offered: audiences would be in tears at the start, and by the end, dancing like crazy just as they would in regular times, she commented “Part of my job is to help people forget about the war even for an hour”. She has played to 130,000 people in Kyiv, but also performed in Kharkiv, a city plagued by Russian attacks.
Yet her support has been immensely practical, too. When a Russian shelling destroyed a school in Shybene, Olya made a significant donation to help finance the reconstruction of the building and attended its reopening. She also collaborated extensively to support the Childhood Without War project, helping to provide thousands of Ukrainian children with safe accommodation, education, and medical support. She has also performed the Ukrainian national anthemic before FC Shakhtar football games across Europe, including at Tottenham Hotspur. All proceeds from the Shakhtar Global Tour for Peace matches were directed toward humanitarian aid for Ukrainians affected by the war.
When war first broke out, she fled with her family to France. Her children subsequently settled at school and at university in the UK, and it wasn’t long before she felt compelled to head home. Her new songs connected in a big way and suddenly she became a figure that she hadn’t anticipated: a wartime singer who could offer respite from the struggle.
Olya Polyakova is now working on her first English-language album. She was recently profiled by The Times, the story headlined “Life as a pop star in a war zone.”
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