Age: 28
Education: psychology and pedagogy, Hryhorii Skovoroda Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi State Pedagogical University
Profession: Rapper
Did you know? Her first stage name was Al.kaida.
Only a year ago Alyona Savranenko was a nursery school teacher. Today she is arguably Ukraine’s best rapper, known by her stage name Alyona Alyona.
Although she released her first tracks more than 10 years ago, they didn’t make it beyond the local hip-hop community and she was too shy to reach out to any labels. But in 2018, Alyona Alyona gave it another try.
“Ten years in the game — it’s a sin to keep quiet,” she says in one of her songs.
The rapper has always been passionate about music. As a kid, she listened to all kinds of songs “soaking it up like a sponge.” But hip-hop always reached her heart more than other genres. She remembers that a huge 1990s hit, “Gangsta’s Paradise” by U.S. artist Coolio, was her introduction to the hip-hop culture.
Alyona Alyona tried out her first rap lines at the age of 12 in a school performance.
By that time, she had occasionally performed comedy and pop songs. But rapping gave her a whole new feeling.
“It’s like getting naked in public,” she told the Kyiv Post.
The artist later studied psychology and pedagogy, had a number of jobs and ended up working at a nursery school in Baryshivka, a small town in Kyiv Oblast.
Then, her life changed drastically after she released a music video for her track “Rybky” (“Fish”) in October 2018. A bold and unconventional work, it quickly went viral, reaching millions of views on YouTube.
The rapper’s next tracks and music videos achieved similar success. While music critics praised her confident flow and deep lyrics, there were more factors that attracted a broad audience to her music. There are few good rappers in Ukraine, few rap in Ukrainian and even fewer are female. Alyona Alyona’s full-figured appearance made her even more captivating in Ukraine, where model-looking singers still dominate showbusiness.
The rapper’s breakthrough song, “Rybky,” made it to her debut album “Pushka (“Gun”), released in April. The long play was an instant hit, featuring songs about Alyona Alyona’s childhood, path to success and her modern self.
“We all choose the way forward, but we shouldn’t forget our roots,” she says.
Although she raps about herself, the songs are hardly egotistical. In fact, there is a lot of self-irony in her lyrics — a rarity in a genre known for its boastful presentation. “Big and funny,” she describes herself in a song of the same name.
“I’m all for naturalness,” she says.
In the next months, Alyona Alyona gave her first solo show in Kyiv, which sold out, and went on tour, first around Ukraine and later in a number of European countries.
Her domestic popularity soon crossed the border. In April, U. S. Vogue did a story about the rapper. In May, the New York Times listed the Ukrainian artist as one of Europe’s 15 “most important acts, musically and socially, right now.”
Another highlight of her career came in September, when Alyona Alyona won a prestigious music prize, German Anchor Award, as best emerging artist of the year.
Despite her busy schedule packed with shows, Alyona Alyona kept writing and recording to surprise her fans with a new release in November. The mini-album “V Hati Ma” (“Mom in the House”) offers a mix of lyrical tracks and the rapper’s calling cards, grooving rhythmic songs. It has been praised as presenting a more mature version of Alyona Alyona’s lyrics, where she weighs her popularity, reflects on burning out and wonders about her future, yet confidently states “tomorrow is my time.”
