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Mika Newton, an angel from Ukraine

16 April 2011 at 20:39 CEST

Angel is the title of the song that Mika Newton will perform in Düsseldorf. The song composed by Ruslan Kvinta has lyrics by Maryna Skomorohova and tell a love story that evokes freedom and fragility at the same time.

A bumpy ride

But Mika's path to the Eurovision Song Contest was not easy. In late February the final of the Ukranian national selection took place in Kyiv after several weeks of semi-finals which also led to the disqualification of some entries. In that final, after the vote of an expert jury, an internet voting and an SMS-voting, Mika Newton was declared the winner of the three.

However, many viewers complained at this result and accused the SMS-voting to be fixed, so the Ukranian broadcaster announced that a new national selection between the top three placed entries would take take place. Those plans were finally abandoned and instead, a press conference took place to recount the SMS votes in front of the press. With some 32% of the total votes, Mika Newton and Angel were confirmed as the winners.

You can watch the Ukranian national selection in our Web TV Player.

The queen of soundtracks

Mika Newton, 24, had her first vocal success at the age of 9 winning regional and international vocal contests. She first signed to a production company after her victory at the 2002 Black Sea Games International Festival. She's called the "queen of soundtracks", as she sings in many Ukrainian and Russian films and TV series as well as in commercial videos. Besides her singing career, Mika Newton wants to become an actress and has already starred in two films.

Her first single Anomaliya hit number one in Ukraine and Russia. She has released three albums, one of them an international project in partnership with the famous sound producer Brian Rowling, which Mika considers her most valuable experience in life. Mika 's also got acquainted with the legendary producer Walter Afanasieff (Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Lara Fabian, Celine Dion...) who made made a special mention of her vocals and has already written two songs for the Ukrainian singer.

In October 2010 Mika Newton was awarded with the title of the "Woman Of The Third Millennium" for her social and charitable work.

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Ukraine entered the competition in 2003 and won only one year after that with Ruslana's Wild Dances. They've been the runner-ups in 2007 and 2008 and have been present in the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest every year. In Oslo it was the turn of Alyosha who ended up in 10th place with Sweet People. Now Mika has the difficult task to keep that statistic high and qualify from the second Semi-Final on Thursday the 12th of May.