Олег Скрипка

Born in 1964 in Sovetabad, then part of Soviet Tajikistan (now Ghafurov), into a family of Ukrainian and Russian origin, Oleh Skrypka (Олег Скрипка) emerged in Kyiv in the late 1980s as a singer, composer and leader of the rock band Vopli Vidopliassova. A graduate of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in 1987, he founded Vopli Vidopliassova the same year; the band became part of the Kyiv Rock Club scene with a blend of rock, punk, ska and Ukrainian folk influences. With the group, Skrypka lived in France from 1991 to 1996 — a period marked by numerous tours across Europe and the involvement of French musicians — before returning permanently to Kyiv and maintaining an active stage presence in Ukraine and abroad. Alongside Vopli Vidopliassova, his solo career took shape in the early 2000s with albums that mix rock, singer‑songwriter traditions and arrangements inspired by traditional music, including Inkoly (2001), Vidrada (2004), Serce u mene vrazlyve (2009), Shchedryk (2010) and Jorjina (2011), as well as a recording of the song “Ukrayina” in 2016. Highly active onstage, Skrypka also founded the Krayina Mriy festival in 2004, focused on Ukrainian and neighbouring cultures, and later the Rock Sich festival, devoted to various currents of Ukrainian rock.