Verka Serduchka

Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko (Ukrainian: Андрій Михайлович Данилко; born 2 October 1973), better known as his drag persona Verka Serduchka (Ukrainian: Вєрка Сердючка, romanized: Vierka Serdiuchka, IPA: [ˈwʲɛrkɐ serˈdʲutʃkɐ]; Russian: Верка Сердючка, romanized: Verka Serdyuchka, IPA: [ˈvʲerkə sʲɪrˈdʲʉtɕkə]), is a Ukrainian comedian, actor, and singer. He represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 as Verka with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai", finishing in second place. He has sold over 600,000 records. He has appeared in films, most notably a cameo as Verka in the American comedy film Spy (2015).

Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko was born to a working-class family in Poltava on 2 October 1973. His mother, Svitlana Volkova, came from the noble Khomentovsky family, who were friends with the artist Ilya Repin. In 1980, at the age of seven, he lost his father to lung cancer. Since childhood, he had a talent for drawing and music, and he entered art school in 1984. His talents were manifested in other areas as well; he was the captain of the KVN school team, played as a schoolboy for the CPTU No. 30 team, and performed annually on the stage in the summer children's camp. In addition, he became interested in theater and entered the local theater studio in the seventh grade, where he was engaged in a studio called Grotesque and was part of the theater group Compote. In 1991, he graduated from Poltava Secondary School No. 27, and later graduated from the Kyiv State College of Circus and Variety Arts.

In 1990, Danylko began to create the character of Verka Serduchka, a flamboyant middle-aged woman from a rural family, working as a railroad sleeping car attendant. He presented Serduchka publicly for the first time in a Poltava comedy competition on 4 January 1991. He invented the character's name by combining the randomly picked first name Verka and the last name of a former school classmate, Anna Serduk. Danylko later gave his Serduchka character a "mother," played by actress Inna Bilokin, who had been Danylko's close friend since school.

In 1995 Verka Serduchka debuted on Ukrainian television in an advertisement for PrivatBank. Danylko's persona achieved great popularity, and soon he started touring Ukraine and even took part in concerts organized by the Ukrainian government.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Danylko hosted a talk show called "SV-show" ("SV" is an abbreviation for Ukrainian: Спальний Вагон, "Spalnyy Vagon", which means sleeping car), which debuted on 1+1 and was later broadcast on various Ukrainian television channels. In 2001, Danylko made his first appearance in one of several musicals produced for television, mostly in female comic portrayals based on the Serduchka character (see Filmography). Several of these productions were shown in the New Year's Eve broadcasts of Russia-1 television.

After Verka Serduchka, Danylko created other characters, such as a police officer, a soldier, and a female ballet dancer. He established a troupe called the Danylko Theater to tour Ukraine and Russia. In 2002, Danylko, along with his group, toured in the CIS and Baltic countries with the program "I Am a Revolution" for the whole year. The following year he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine soon after the Danylko Theater concert tour "I Was Born for Love".

Apart from pop and dance performances as Serduchka, Danylko has also performed ambient musical compositions under his real name, including the 2005 album После тебя (Posle tebya: After you).

The National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) –through a national final– selected Verka Serduchka to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai".

Serduchka's song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" was sung in two languages: German and English. In the final, "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" came in second with 235 points. The single reached No. 6 in the French charts and went on to be No. 28 on The Official UK Singles Chart on 20 May 2007. This was the first time a non-UK, non-winning Eurovision entry had made UK charts since 1974.

In 2011, a writer from British newspaper The Guardian described "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" as the "best song never to win Eurovision" before going on to describe Serduchka as "an oven-ready Christopher Biggins".

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

Serduchka had planned to participate in the Ukrainian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. He automatically qualified for the final, but withdrew his nomination in October 2010.

In January 2013, Andriy Danylko bought a 1974 Rolls-Royce, once owned by Freddie Mercury, at the Autosport International Show in Birmingham with the intention of donating it to a museum. This idea fell through over the years because there was no suitable museum on the subject in Ukraine. The deal was made over the phone and he paid £75,000 for the car.

Danylko appeared as the character Verka Serduchka in a cameo role in the 2015 American action comedy movie Spy, which premiered 22 May 2015 in New York City and 4 June 2015 in Ukraine. In the scene, set in Paris, Serduchka's open-air performance of "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" is interrupted by CIA agents Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) and Rick Ford (Jason Statham).

Since 2016, Andriy has been a constant judge at Vidbir, Ukraine's National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, Serduchka announced the results from the Ukrainian jury. Bilokon, portraying Serduchka's mother, accompanied Danylko.

Danylko's visual image as Verka Serduchka is characterized by his persona's grotesque costumes, absurdly large breasts (according to Danylko himself, created with the help of inflated condoms) and the use of surzhyk. His initial popularity was amplified by the use of colloquial phrases and mentions of simple life situations, as well as a great talent for improvisation. After the beginning of Danylko's television and music career, Serduchka's visual appearance underwent a slight change, with railway uniform being replaced with a sparkle-covered jacket, and the inflated bust becoming even larger. The new image was finalized with torn tights, a green boa scarf and high-platformed shoes and can be seen as a parody on contemporary post-Soviet show business. Verka's provocative behaviour during interviews contributes to this effect.

Danylko has said in interviews that he does not engage in cross-dressing outside of his public performances, with a distinction between his stage persona and his personal life. He is reluctant to discuss his private affairs beyond this, though he has stated in interviews that he had a difficult relationship with a woman with whom he lived for eight years. In January 2015, photos of Danylko kissing actress Inna Bilokin were posted online by a friend.

In 2003, Danylko was honored with the title People's Artist of Ukraine. In 2007, Verka Serduchka received the Barbara Dex Award for worst outfit in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.

Verka Serduchka's performance with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" is one of the eight brightest numbers in the history of Eurovision.

In 2016, Serduchka's costume from the performance at "Eurovision-2007" went to the ABBA The Museum (Stockholm), where in honor of the 60th anniversary of the competition was an interactive exhibition "Good Evening, Europe!"

In 2020, the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" was heard in the BBC America thriller series Killing Eve in the episode "Are You from Pinner?", where the character Villanelle dances to the song at a harvest festival while visiting her rural Russian hometown.

In August 2022, by Decree of the President of Ukraine, Danylko was awarded the Order of Merit Third Class.