Andrey Danilko

Andriy Danylko was born to a working-class family in Poltava. In 1980, at seven, he lost his father to lung cancer. An avid amateur performer since childhood, he graduated from the Kiev State College of Circus and Variety Arts.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Danylko hosted a talk show called "SV-show" ("SV" is an abbreviation for Ukrainian: Спальний Вагон, "Spalnyy Vagon", which means sleeping car) on various Ukrainian television channels.

In 1990, Andriy Danylko began to create the character of Verka Serduchka, a flamboyant middle-aged woman from a rural family, working as a railroad sleeping car attendant. Danylko presented Serduchka publicly for the first time in a Poltava comedy competition on January 4, 1991. He invented the character's name by combining the randomly picked first name Verka and the last name of a former school classmate, Anya Serduk.

In 2001, Danylko made his first appearance in one of several musicals produced for television, mostly in female comic portrayals based on the Serduchka character (see Filmography). Several of these productions were shown in the New Year's Eve broadcasts of Russia-1 television.

After Verka Serduchka, Danylko created other characters, such as a police officer, a soldier and a female ballet Dancer. He established the troupe "Danylko Theater" to tour the cities of Russia and Ukraine. In 2002, Danylko, along with his group, toured in the CIS and Baltic countries with the program "I am a Revolution" for the whole year. The following year he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine soon after the Danylko Theater concert tour "I Was Born for Love".

In 2003, Danylko was honored with the title People's Artist of Ukraine.

Apart from pop and dance performances as Serduchka, Danylko has also performed ambient musical compositions under his real name, including the 2005 album После тебя (Posle tebya: After you).

Danylko announced in 2007 that he would front a new political party, "For Ours!", to run in that year's Ukrainian parliamentary election, but he later abandoned the idea. A public opinion poll in July 2007 placed 'For Ours! Verka Serduchka' at 2% overall support.

Serduchka had planned to participate in the Ukrainian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. He automatically qualified for the final, but withdrew his nomination in October 2010.

In 2013, Danylko bought a Rolls-Royce that once belonged to Freddie Mercury, with plans to donate it to a museum devoted to the group Queen.

Danylko has said in interviews that he does not engage in transvestitism outside of his public performances, with a distinction between his stage persona and his personal life. He is reluctant to discuss his private affairs beyond this, though he has stated in interviews that he had a difficult relationship with a woman with whom he lived with for 8 years. In January 2015, photos of Danylko intimately kissing Inna Bilokon were posted online by a friend.

In the 2016 telecast of the Eurovision Song Contest, Serduchka announced the results from the Ukrainian jury. Bilokon, portraying Serduchka's mother, accompanied Danylko.

For the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest hosted in Ukraine, a series of short video clips, titled "Verkavision", were produced that chronicled the fictional back story of the character of Verka Serduchka and her journey as a Eurovision "star". Verka also appeared on stage during the final, and opened the televote.