21 Facts About Julia Volkova

Julia Volkova was born on 20 February 1985 in Moscow, Russia, to a middle-class family.

Julia Volkova's father, Oleg Volkov, was a businessman and her mother, Larissa Volkova, was a hairdresser.

At the age of 6, Julia Volkova enrolled in music school and began learning how to play the piano.

Julia Volkova has insisted that she was banned from Neposedy for misbehaving, but Neposedy representatives deny this, saying that she simply graduated as all of their members did at a certain age.

On 16 August 2011, Julia Volkova announced on her website as well as on Facebook and Twitter that she had officially signed with Russian label Gala Records, a subsidiary of EMI records.

On 1 March 2012, it was reported by the press that Julia Volkova was one of the 25 artists in the final selection who would be competing in order to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Julia Volkova entered the competition together with Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan as a duo, with the song "Back to Her Future".

In late 2012, Julia Volkova had surgery on her vocal cords and continued to perform while recovering.

Julia Volkova has sought further treatment to recover her singing ability.

In 1996 and 1998, Julia Volkova participated in sketches from the children's comedy TV show Yeralash.

In May 2004, Julia Volkova announced that she was pregnant by her then longtime boyfriend Pavel Sidorov, which caused some controversy due to Sidorov already having a wife and daughter.

In 2007, Julia Volkova had a long-term relationship with Uzbek businessman Parviz Yasinov.

Julia Volkova gave birth to a boy named Samir on 27 December 2007, again in Moscow.

In 2010, Julia Volkova confirmed that she and Yasinov had broken up, but denied claims that she had been separated from her son.

In 2012, Julia Volkova was diagnosed with stage I papillary thyroid cancer.

Julia Volkova underwent surgery at a Moscow hospital, during which her thyroid was removed, along with the tumor itself.

Julia Volkova later underwent two surgeries to restore her vocal cords in Israel and was treated twice in Germany.

In September 2014, Julia Volkova appeared as a contestant on a Ukrainian game show called Lie Detector and made comments considered to be homophobic.

Julia Volkova criticised Katina's "meaning" behind the video and confirmed that they would be shooting a video for the new single.

On 5 March 2014, Julia Volkova posted another video message on her official YouTube channel in response to Katina's video.

Julia Volkova stated that despite "reasons of severe trepidation on the part of Lena about [Volkova] and [her] behaviour," collaboration between the two was possible, referring to the release of their new single as well as their music video.