Sofia Rotaru is a Ukrainian pop singer of Moldovan descent, People's Artist of the USSR (1988), People's Artist of Ukraine (1976), People's Artist of the Moldavian SSR (1982), Hero of Ukraine, and National Legend of Ukraine (2021). She was born on August 7, 1947, in the village of Marshyntsi, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR. She holds Ukrainian citizenship.
She is one of the highest-paid singers in the countries of the former USSR — in 2008, she declared the highest income in Ukraine, significantly exceeding 500 million hryvnias (approximately 62 million USD).
During the Orange Revolution of 2004–2005 in Ukraine, she and her family handed out food to people gathered on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kyiv, regardless of their political convictions.
In 2006, she actively participated in the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, running for People's Deputy as number two on the electoral list of the Lytvyn Bloc.
Despite the annexation of Crimea and Russian aggression in Donbas starting in 2014, Sofia Rotaru continued to perform concerts across cities in Russia.
Sofia Rotaru's stance on the war in Ukraine
When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, the singer unequivocally supported Ukraine. On February 28, 2022, Sofia published a post on Instagram where she clearly stated her position and called things by their true names: "Russian missiles are killing civilians", "praying for our defenders and peace in Ukraine"...:
Independence and freedom are expensive — that is true, but is it really worth Russian missiles killing civilians, children, and destroying Ukrainian cities? These facts tear my heart to pieces! I am in Kyiv! Praying for our defenders and PEACE in UKRAINE! I am writing this text, and yes, my hands are shaking. Shaking because brutal battles are raging across all of Ukraine... Strength to all of us and peace!
Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Sofia has been actively supporting the "BON Box" charity fund, which aids families of Ukrainian servicemen. In August 2022, on her birthday, Rotaru urged fans to support the charitable foundation:
...I want to make an appeal to support those who are having a difficult time right now, who truly need our help. Let us do this good deed together!... Today I pray that, as always, a couple of weeks after my birthday, we will celebrate Ukraine's Independence Day! That as soon as possible, instead of air raid alarms, songs of Love and Peace will sound in every home, in every family, in every city of our beautiful Ukraine!
Following the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, she ceased all concert and creative activities.
What celebrities say about Sofia Rotaru's stance
She was in Kyiv when they bombed. She said: «I don't know how I survived that moment, how I survived that night. I had no medicines, nothing. I ran to a bomb shelter.
She, like me, has people she communicates with. I really don't like all this ostentatious posturing. Even before the war, I lived in my own creative world. There are people who spread themselves thin over various PR stories, chase hype, hate, and so on. But I don't want to scatter my energy. Sofia Mykhailivna is a very modest person, just like me. She doesn't like giving interviews, and neither do I; she doesn't like appearing on television programs, and neither do I. We are alike.
It seems to me that she was told: it's better to speak this way because you live in Ukraine. In Crimea, okay, she has property, but there are also apartments in Kyiv, houses elsewhere. Understand: how could she go to Crimea, how would they treat her in Kyiv after that? She is, after all, a Ukrainian singer. Who knows what they told her there; maybe they intimidated her: «Why would you go to that Russia? They'll erase you there.» And she got frightened and decided to take such a stance. That is precisely what I assume.
