I've been listening to Ukrainian singer (though she sometimes sings in Russian, and even for one album in English) Ani Lorak's albums recently and, though unsurprisingly I've yet to hear anything like "Shady Lady" (unsurprising given that I don't think she's ever done a Philip Kirkorov--or, if you believe the rumors, Dimitris Kontopoulos [I have no idea what to think on that, though I've always thought that "Shady Lady" reminded me of some of his songs, which if nothing else is a very good thing]--song before), there are some gems. That's one of the great things about Eurovision: in addition to getting some great songs for the contest itself, you're introduced to artists with whole back catalogues to investigate.Ani's had a long-running pop career in Ukraine and is a real star there, a big name; she nearly made it to Eurovision in 2005, but (apparently because of her political affiliation and the political drama going on in Ukraine at the time) didn't. This year, she was internally selected (i.e., the people running Ukraine's national final chose her without public input) to be Ukraine's representative; she performed several songs, and the audience--thankfully--voted for her to perform "Shady Lady" in Belgrade.
Укради--an album track from her most recent album, 2007's 15 (named after her number of years in the music business). As I warned earlier, this is not something in the style of "Shady Lady," but, should you prefer your music uptempo, you'll still be in luck here; neither is it a pop-rock song like many of her songs are. "Укради" (or "Ukradi"), which apparently (according to her official site) means "Steal," is a pop song with spacey background effects (well done to the producer or writer who decided to put those in!) and a chorus that relies primarily on fast-paced high notes from Ani, which gives it an unusual but interesting sound; those two effects together combine to make it feel like you're racing across outer space as you listen to the chorus.
To buy Ani Lorak's album 15, go here (physical).
Random fact: while listening to Ani's (while we're going off on a random fact tangent, Wikipedia says that Ani Lorak is a stage name derived from spelling her real name, "Karolina," backwards) English album, I heard the second unexpected K-otic cover I've heard in the past few months--Ani covered "I Really Don't Think So" and Swedish singer Caroline Larsson covered "Hold On My Heart" (which seems especially odd for when you get a feel for what the rest of her music sounds like and what her image is like).
Next up: a Belgian singer I've written about before.
