Mika Newton

Mika Newton Мiка Ньютон
Mika Newton (2011)
Background information
Birth name	Oksana Stefanivna Hrytsai (Оксана Стефанівна Грицай)
Born	5 March 1986 (1986-03-05) (age 25)
Origin	Burshtyn, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
Genres	Pop, Soul, Pop rock
Occupations	singer
Instruments	voice
Years active	2002–present
Website	http://www.mikanewton.com/

Mika Newton (Мiка Ньютон; real name Oksana Stefanivna Hrytsay, Ukrainian: Оксана Стефанівна Грицай), born on 5 March 1986,^[1] is a Ukrainian singer from the city of Burshtyn. She leads a rock band whose other members are known as Uncle Fe, Snow, Andrew and "Loco" Vitalii. Their début album Anomaliya (Anomaly) was released in 2005.

Style

Newton has been singing since the age of nine.^[2] Her music and her choice of clothes and accessories are strongly influenced by punk and gothic styles. She has been likened to the Canadian singer/songwriter Avril Lavigne.^[3]

International events have inspired some of Newton's songs: these have included the tsunami of 2004 ("Zunami") and the aftermath of the war in Iraq ("Letter to Baghdad"). Another, "Yahoo.com", reflected her inability to contact a young man she had met during a visit to London, England, whose e-mail address she had mislaid:^[2]

I run around, the feeling inside of me,

The memories breaking free, I will never forget,

I try to think about all I remember is part of address

...saying...yahoo.com.^[4]

Emergence

Mika Newton and her band emerged during a period in which international awareness of Ukrainian rock (and of the country itself) was assisted by the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the staging in Kiev in 2005 of the Eurovision Song Contest, a competition won the previous year by the Ukrainian entry, Ruslana Lyzhychko's "Wild Dances".^[5] Newton’s profile on the Internet was further enhanced by the coincidence in 2007 of the Lebanese-born singer Mika achieving a significant hit with his song "Grace Kelly". This meant that those searching for further information about Mika or his music were liable to stumble unwittingly on Newton’s own website or on other sites with material about her, such as that of the Kiev radio station, Europa FM.

During the second half of 2006 Newton recorded a second album in London.

Eurovision 2011

Newton was originally chosen on February 26, 2011 to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Dusseldorf, Germany, with her entry "Angel".^[6] Following complaints from viewers about the voting procedure in this final, a further final was held on March 3, 2011,^[6] even though Newton had sent a letter to President Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov requesting their involvement in order to prove that the voting was fair and no fraud was intended.^[6] After Jamala and Zlata Ognevich withdrew from this new final in the days before it was scheduled to be held, Newton became the artist to represent Ukraine, but it remained unknown which song she would perform on Eurovision.^[7][8] On March 4 Newton and the competition's organizer NTU declared that "Angel" would be sent to the Eurovision Song Contest "with better arrangements"^[9] and, on 5 March, Newton met Metropolitan Volodymyr of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate and received his blessing for her participation in the contest.^[10]

In the Eurovision final on 14 May 2011 Newton finished fourth with 159 points, behind the entries from Azerbaijan (the winner with 221 points), Italy and Sweden.

Upon her arrival back in Ukraine, Mika was interviewed and was asked what about the other participants whom she met up with. In it, she confessed that Russian delegate Alexey Vorobyov tried to flirt with her but she turned him down.^[11]

References

1. ^ Newton gave her birthday as 5 March on her website [1]. She was said by a reviewer to be 20 years old in September 2006 [2].
2. ^ ^{a b} Yodel Anecdotal » Blog Archive » Of thee I sing
3. ^ Club Contact
4. ^ Yahoo.com
5. ^ The 2004 contest was held in Istanbul, Turkey. It was only the second time that Ukraine had entered the contest.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Busa, Alexandru (2011-02-26). "Ukraine: Mika Newton goes to Düsseldorf". ESCToday. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/16894. Retrieved 2011-02-28. 
7. ^ Hondal, Victor (2011-03-01). "Ukraine: Jamala withdraws from national final". EscToday.com. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/16920. Retrieved 1 March 2011. 
8. ^ Busa, Alexandru (2011-03-01). "Ukraine: Zlata Ognevich withdraws as well". EscToday.com. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/16925. Retrieved 1 March 2011. 
9. ^ Busa, Alexandru (2011-04-01). "Mika Newton to perform Angels in Düsseldorf". EscToday.com. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/16934. Retrieved 4 March 2011. 
10. ^ Предстоятель УПЦ МП благословил певицу Мику Ньютон на участие в конкурсе «Евровидение»
11. ^ Міка Ньютон Розповіла брутальну правду про Воробйова (Russian)

External links

• Mika Newton official site
• official fan club
• Mika Newton on Facebook
• Mika Newton on Myspace
• Mika Newton on Twitter
• official channel on Youtube

Achievements
Preceded by Alyosha with "Sweet People"	Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011	Succeeded by TBA

Persondata
Name	Newton, Mika
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 June 1991
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death