Святослав Вакарчук
Born May 14, 1975 in Mukachevo in the family of a physicist, future rector of Lviv University and Minister of Education of Ukraine Ivan Vakarchuk (from December 2007 to March 11, 2010).
Graduated from Lviv School No. 4 with in-depth study of English with a silver medal. For two years he studied violin at a music school, studying at the same time playing the button accordion.
During his school years he took part in KVN, the creation of a school theater, was actively involved in basketball.
1991-1996 - studied at the Physics Department of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (specialization - theoretical physics). Second higher education - international economist.
1996 - entered the graduate school of the Department of Theoretical Physics of the same university. The topic of his Ph.D. thesis is "Supersymmetry of electrons in a magnetic field" (later one of the albums S. Vakarchuk called "Supersimetry", and one of the songs - "Susy" (an abbreviation for SUperSYmmetry).
The Okean Elzy group, thanks to which S. Vakarchuk became famous (he is the author of most of the texts and music, vocalist, leader of the group), was created in 1994. After graduating from university, Vakarchuk could continue his studies abroad, but still chose the career of a musician. The group successfully performed at several festivals, and Svyatoslav, together with O. Ye., Went to Kiev to record their debut disc "Tam, de us is dumb" (1998).
He was an active participant in the Orange Revolution. Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, as a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for Youth in Ukraine, took part in many social and cultural projects. It was reported that all the money received from the sales of the single "Merry, brothers, the times have come ..." were directed to an orphanage in the city of Makeevka.
He is fond of different cultures of the peoples of the world. Favorite pastime is traveling. Favorite writers - Ivan Franko, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Lina Kostenko. Among modern Ukrainian prose writers, he distinguishes the style of the Kharkiv resident Sergei Zhadan and the early prose of Yuri Andrukhovich. He considers “The Beatles”, “Rolling Stones”, “Red Hot Chili Peppers”, “Pink Floyd” and “Queen” to be musical idols.
In 2008 he released his first solo album "Vnochi", recorded together with the musicians of Okeana Elzy and 30 other invited musicians.
In 2010, the group released their seventh album "Dolce Vita", with which they toured Russia, Europe, Asia and North America.
In early 2011, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, together with other Ukrainian musicians (Sergei Babkin, Max Malyshev, Dmitry Shurov and Pyotr Chernyavsky), created a musical project "Brussels" and released an album of the same name, with which they made a concert tour.
In 2013, the organizing company of the concert and tour and all members of the Okean Elzy group were fined in Russia for violating immigration laws.
In 2013, "Okeana Elzy" released the album "Earth", the group in support of it gives the largest concert tour. Lasted from May 2010 to November 2014.
In March 2014, part of the concerts in Russia in support of this album were canceled by the Russian side due to opposing views and assessments of political events in Ukraine.
In 2014, Vakarchuk continues to take part in the Ukrainian show "The Voice of the Country" as a mentor to young musicians. According to the results of the third season of the project, which took place in 2013, his ward Otar Nemsadze took second place in this show. In 2014, a member of Vakarchuk's team, Igor Grokhotskiy, became the winner of the fourth season of the Voice of the Country project.
