Anastasia Prikhodko, born on April 21, 1987 in Kiev, Ukraine, tried to attract attention by performing her song partly in Russian and partly in Ukrainian. Alexey Vorobyov, who was one of the contestans for the 2008 Eurovisin Sing Contest with the song Novaya Kalinka, fought also for victory this year.Her pop music is especially known and loved in Russian speaking countries. The young talented artist has won the Russian version of Pop Idol, Fabika Zvezd, in 2007. Following that show, Anastasia has been supported by the famous producer and composer Konstantin Meladze. The latter also used to be a member of the expert jury for tonight's national final, but withdrew from that post after Anastasia Prikhodko had been included to the list of participants for the Russian national selection. She will represent Russia in the Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest with Mamo, a romantic song dedicated to her mother.
Her mother is a theater critic and is working for the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine.Anastasiya is a former contestant and winner of the Russian talent show Star Factory.
Anastasiya first entered the semi-finals of the Ukraine national selection for the 2009 Eurovision but after the semi-final was held to select the 15 entries to compete in the final she was taken out of the competition because:
the song was too long
the song was pre-released
Prykhodko and her manager Olena Mozgova (ex-wife of Oleksandr Ponomareva, one of the jury members) immediately claimed that both broadcaster NTU and the jury members did not use trustworthy methods to choose the contestants for the final. The duo send a letter to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko in which Prykhodko stated: "as a citizen of Ukraine, native Kievian, patriot of the country, I was deeply staggered by the impertinent actions and unethical comments of representatives of NTU, and also members of so-called "objective, impartial and independent" judges of the competition.....I only ask to give me a honest chance to come forward before an all Ukrainian audience in the finale of the National selection". The letter was co-signed by fellow Ukrainian artist Sofia Rotaru, Kostyantyn Meladze, Mykola Mozgoviy and Tina Karol
("̀amo", means "Mother!" in Ukrainian) that was both viewers' and experts' choices at the Russian national preselection on March 7, 2009. Anastasiya sings her entry in both Russian and Ukrainian. "I'm sure if you're representing own country, you should sing in it's native language, "Russian preselection committee has agreed to my principal condition - to perform "Mamo" in the final of Russian preselection in mix of Ukrainian and Russian languages".
