Marina Vladimirovna Devyatova (Russian: Мари́на Влади́мировна Девя́това, born 13 December 1983) is a Russian singer and interpreter of Russian traditional music. She was a finalist of the third edition of Narodni Artist (People's Artist), the Russian equivalent of American Idol.
Marina Devyatova was born on 13 December 1983 in Moscow in the former Soviet Union. She is the daughter of Natalya Lopato, a choreographer, and singer Vladimir Devyatov, who was awarded the distinction People's Artist of Russia.[1] Devyatov discovered his daughter's talent in her early childhood, when she started singing and feeling rhythm at the age of three.[2][3] Her parents divorced when she was five years old.[3] After the divorce, she was raised mainly by her mother. At the age of 11, she met again with her father, who encouraged her wish to become a professional singer and took her to sing with him at one of his concerts at the Rossiya concert hall.[3]
In 1990, her parents enrolled her in the Shostakovich Children's Music School to study choral conducting.[4] In 1999, she continued her studies at the Schnittke Musical College, specializing in solo folk singing.[5] Two years later, she won the all-Russian Ippolitov-Ivanonv contest for folk music performers held in Voronezh.[5]
In her fourth year in music college, she accepted an invitation to become the lead-singer of the Indrik-Zver musical ensemble, which performed traditional Russian and Slavic music incorporating elements of modern rock and pop.[6] Combining study and work, Devyatova attended the Faculty of solo folk singing of the Gnessin Academy of Music between 2003 and 2008.[7] During her first year in the institution, she made her first appearance at the renowned Slavic Music Festival Slavianski Bazaar, held yearly in Belarus.[8]
Amid persistent criticism that her music lacked format, Devyatova decide to participate in the 2006 edition of the program Narodni Artist/Народный Артист (People's Artist).[9] She went on to reach the final, where despite being praised by the jury after performing the folk song "This could be love" in a duet with the winner of the first edition, Aleksey Goman, the public chose Mongolian-Russian performer Amarkhuu Borkhuu as the winner.[10][11]
Despite the loss, her presence in the contest made her gradually known and allowed her to start an international tour in Germany, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, USA, South Korea, China, Laos, Vietnam and even Mongolia. In 2007, she was part of Russian delegation in Guatemala at the ceremony of choosing the capital of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The city of Sochi on the Black Sea coast was selected and she performed the patriotic World War II song Katyusha at the event.[12]