Diana Ankudinova - Born To Sing! Updated 2023 An Amazing Musical Story

Russian singer Diana Ankudinova was born on May 31, 2003, in the far eastern Primorsky Territory in an area north of the city of Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean side of Russia.
Sadly, Diana's alcoholic biological mother who didn't want children physically and emotionally abused Diana by not feeding her, trying to drown her in the bathroom, and at the age of 3, she was abandoned at a bus stop in the winter with a broken collarbone. Diana's biological aunt rescued Diana from the street, but was unable to care for the traumatized girl and feared she might be mentally retarded. Diana's aunt made a statement to the local prosecutor about Diana's abuse, and it was agreed that the young Diana should be turned over to the care of an orphanage in Primorsky Territory.

A massage therapist working there, Irina Ponik, developed a special affection for Diana, and Irina's daughter who sometimes visited her mother at work, began to insist that her mother adopt Diana. In 2008, Irina Ponik filed the necessary paperwork to assume formal legal guardianship of Diana from the territorial department of guardianship and the new family lived in the city of Arsenyev.

At the age of four and a half years, Diana hardly spoke and she was struggling with stuttering and other speech problems. She was examined by speech pathologists who then recommended that she be given singing lessons to improve her general speech and vocal skills. Suddenly, Diana at this very young age quickly discovered that she loved singing, it emotionally opened her up and it became her saving grace. Her adoptive mom also noticed she like to sing along with the TV and decided to continue her voice training.

In 2012, the family moved far away from Arsenyev to the city of Tolyatti in the Samara Oblast of southwestern Russia. The move of thousands of kilometers to Tolyatti was mostly due to Diana's fears that her biological mother might try to find and abuse Diana or even attempt to regain custody of Diana. These fears were so intense that they had been significantly affecting young Diana's mental health. Thanks to the love, kindness, and sacrifices of Irina Polnik and her daughter, Diana may have never overcome her fears.

After the move to Tolyatti, Diana continued singing in public at every opportunity and continued to enter many local competitions. She began studying at the Melody Circle of the Tolyatti House of Culture where she took vocal lessons. As Diana grew older her vocal instructors began to notice Diana's deep, unique, and very rare "Contralto" vocal abilities. In 2017, Diana's vocal range was measured as D3 to A5, which placed her into the rare "Contralto" vocal category, and in her case a further sub-categorization of "Dramatic Contralto," the deepest, richest, and most expressive "Contralto" voice range.

Her first TV audition came when she was 13 years old on "The Kids Voice" where she sang a Yodel song, which the judges didn't seem to understand the difficulty and the vocal agility needed to yodel, but the audience loved her and gave her standing ovation. The judges asked her to sing a verse so they could hear her true voice and Diana sang the last verse of the famous French song by Édith Piaf, "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" (No Regrets) and she got another standing ovation from the audience. Since the judges in their confusion didn't initially select her she didn't advance and there was a huge controversy on the internet after the show.

Much of Diana's initial fame resulted when she was 14 and 15 years old from her winning two consecutive seasons of "You Are Super" and "You Are Super! Grand Prix Super Season." The judges were blown away after hearing Diana's rare "Contralto" voice when she sang a short 2-minute version of the French song "Dernière Danse." Many times during the competition, judges were so mesmerized by her vocals they almost forgot to vote.

The bald judge is Igor Krutoy, a famous Russian composer and songwriter who later accompanies Diana on the piano when she sings "Tomorrow Is A Lie" which he originally composed the music for Lara Fabian who wrote the song. He has also composed songs for Dimash. The other older judge is also a well-known music producer Victor Drobysh and the rest of the judges are well-known singer celebrities in Russia.

When Diana is on stage she is fearless, powerful, and primal, and seems to transform herself into another reality. The rhythm of her body language, however subtle, always flows with the song she is singing. Diana Ankudinova's performances were posted on the internet and they received over 80 million views from around the world. Diana Ankudinova sings mostly in Russian, English, and French but She has also sung in Spanish and German.

In 2021 she was invited to compete on a Russian TV Show called "The Show Must Go On" (translated) with nine celebrity singers on the panel, including Diana. Each Singer on the panel took their turn singing on the weekly show and then assigned points to each other's performances. The person with the most points, in the end, would win the show. The reactions on the other established singer's faces when Diana performed, revealed that they were seeing something very special. In the end, 18-year-old Diana won that show too.

Diana is currently 19 years old as of May 31st, 2022, so the songs in this magical vocal journey are from ages 5 to 18 years old, which means this is only the beginning of her musical journey.

The translations to English on the judge's clips were probably made by a Russian, so if they sound a little like broken English at times, I think they did their best and it's helpful to understand what is being said.

Diana's talent comes from her soul and you don't have to understand the lyrics in foreign languages to feel the emotion and the hypnotic quality in her songs. Smiles and tears are the same in all languages and music transcends them all. Diana Ankudinova was Born To Sing!

If you watch this video to the end, it will blow your mind! No one I've ever heard has a voice like Diana's.