Julia Samoylova

Yuliya Samoylova is a Russian singer and songwriter. She was born in Ukhta, Russia, Soviet Union. At age 13, she was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. She moves in a wheelchair.

From an early age, Samoilova participated in various competitions. At the age of fourteen, she won the music festival Na kryl’yakh mechty. In 2005, she participated in the Schlager competition in Yekaterinburg, where she took the 2nd place. In 2008, she founded the group TerraNova, which existed until 2010. In November 2012, she participated in the third season of  Factor A, a casting show. On February 7, 2014, in Sochi, at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games, she performed the song “Vmeste”.  In the same year, she was able to release three singles, one of which was a duet with Gosha Kutsenko. At the end of 2016, she participated in the recording of the song and the video “#ZHIT’” along with such performers as Polina Gagarina, Grigory Leps, Timati and Mot. Also in December 2016, another duet with Gosha Kutsenko was recorded – “Ne smotri nazad”.

 

In 2017 she was chosen to represent Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Flame is burning”. However, she performed in Crimea in 2015, which made the Ukrainian authorities decide she was not allowed to enter the country, not making an exception for Eurovision. She did go to Eurovision in the end, but she had to wait a year. In 2018, she represented Russia with the song “I won’t break”. In the same year, she won a Russian Music Box Award.

 

On April 27, 2021, the EP “Belaya liliya” was released in Russian and Ukrainian, followed in October of the same year by the single “Storm”.