Valentin Strikalo

Valentina Strykalo's biography looks something like this: (born Yuri Kaplan, October 2, 1988, Zaporozhye, Ukraine) is a rising star of the Ukrainian alternative music scene. Yuri's fictional character, Valentin Strykalo, was first introduced to the public at dawn 2008 thanks to a series of humorous vlog videos. He introduced himself as a young musician claiming to be a talented performer and singer-songwriter from a small village in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. Each of his videos is an appeal to one of the pop stars of the USSR, including Timati, Vyacheslav Malezhik, the duet Potap and Nastya Kamenskikh and PHARAOH. Each video consisted of a short introduction; a song written and performed in a key vaguely reminiscent of the style of the addressed artists; and finally, the songwriter asks to contact him for more information. Despite the introductory part of the video, where Valentine appeared to be very shy, stutter and indecisive, the songs are composed and performed skillfully and with the flavor of a professional musician. It is a pleasure to listen to Valentin Strykalo's compositions for all admirers of his work.

Both his funny and capable style of speech quickly became popular around the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, turning Valentin Strykalo into a star and spawning dozens of similar imitators of his work.

Soon Valentin was invited to a comedy concert in Dnepropetrovsk, which became his first live performance. Almost a year later, in June 2009, he also performed at his first solo concert at the Plan B club in Moscow. Since then, Valentin Strykalo has been giving live performances in Ukraine and Russia, as well as adding new songs to his Youtube channel and writing a blog.

Talking about the work of Valentin Strykalo, the albums will say better than anyone else: they say that Valentin Strykalo is recording his debut album, the details of which he keeps secret, claiming that it was a "surprise" for his growing fan base.

Some say that Strykalo's songs, in addition to well-thought-out, derisive style and genres, embody the spirit of the modern post-Soviet era, the way of life of today's Eastern European youth. The themes of his songs revolve around ex-girlfriends dumping their boyfriend in favor of richer but less manor-based athlete boys; the over-conspicuous lifestyle of the children of notorious oligarchs and the realities of everyday life in the suburbs. In many cities, Valentin Strykalo conducts his concerts with sufficient success as for a person striving for his own success.