Do we like Ruslana?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of courage for Ukraine and a documented stand for gay tolerance, with the harm record thin rather than spotless.
Ruslana is the Ukrainian singer who won Eurovision in 2004 in Istanbul with Wild Dances. She was offered the chance to represent Ukraine only in December 2003, so the win came together fast. It made her Ukraine's first Eurovision winner and a household name well beyond it.
She was already an activist in the 2004 Orange Revolution. In 2006 President Yushchenko asked her to join parliament, and she became a People's Deputy on the Our Ukraine bloc's list while staying non-partisan, working on the European integration committee. By June 2007 she had given up her mandate to go back to music, so her time in politics was short.
Her real turning point came in the winter of 2013 to 2014. She sang to Maidan protesters night after night in freezing weather and read out messages from a box through the microphone. She cancelled shows to be there. In March 2014 she received the US International Women of Courage Award from Michelle Obama, cited for courage and leadership in advocating for peace and human rights.
On the harm check, we found no harmful words or acts from her, and no dodgy company. In 2008 she said it was sad that Ukraine, which wants into the EU, lacks basic tolerance towards gay people, and she planned to perform at an EU-backed summer camp for young gay people. She copped criticism in the Ukrainian press for it. To be fair, that is one old report; we found nothing on trans issues, vaccines or climate either way.
Her best-known contested position is on Russia and Eurovision. Interviewed in 2025, she said Russia cannot take part, and asked how the music of a country destroying cities could be considered true. Whether you read that as a principled stand or a political one depends on where you land on the war. She says she wants the contest itself to stay apolitical.
The recent bit is warm rather than messy. In Vienna she was asked a question in Russian and answered in English, with a few words of Romanian as a courtesy, then posed for a photo with the reporter. She also got fellow guests saying the words for music unites us in their own languages, and finished by singing part of Wild Dances live.