Софія Ротару | en

Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru (born August 7, 1947) known as Sofia Rotaru (Ukrainian: Софiя Ротару [sɔˈfijɑ rɔˈtɑru]) is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage.

Born to a large, impoverished family in Marshintsy, Ukraine , Rotaru, nicknamed Bukovinsky Solovey (Nightingale from Bukovina), emerged in 1966 as a pop folk star in the movie Solovey iz sela Marshintsy (Nightingale from Marshintsy) in the Romanian and Ukrainian-speaking world after her manager and future husband Anatoliy Jevdokymenko made her change her music style from folk to pop music with Chervona Ruta.

In 1972, Sofia released the multilingual album Sofia Rotaru, re-released three times and covered by numerous singers, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Rotaru had first gained international recognition after participating in 1968 in the International Youth Song Festival in Bulgaria and winning first prize at the Golden Orpheus in 1973 and second prize in the category of Polish songs at the Sopot International Song Festival in 1974. In the former USSR her career was marked by her stage success and numerous controversies. Rotaru is recognised by the Kyiv Patriarchate. Xenia Minosyan has named her the Ukrainian Show Queen and the edition of Postimees in Russian has called her a queen of pop music., Lithuanian "Litovskii Kurier" Ukrainian news portal "openbiz", newspapers - Russian "Vechernaya Moskva", United Arab Emirates' "The National" call her "Queen of Pop".

Rotaru has been performing for more than 40 years. According to polls, she is the most popular pop artist in Russia and topped the Moscow airplay with "Ya nazovu planetu imenem tvoim" in 2008. Rotaru reported the highest income of all celebrities in Ukraine in 2008.

Her repertoire consists of more than 40 albums and 400 songs recorded in many languages. While Sofia Rotaru commonly goes by her last name, her official last name is Jevdokymenko-Rotaru (Ukrainian: Євдокименко-Ротару). Jevdokymenko was the surname of her late husband. Yalta is her main residence, although she also lives in Kyiv, Moscow and Baden-Baden. .