Irina Mikhailova(I)

Born in what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan, she discovered at a young age a love for singing and entertaining. At the age of 16, she moved to St-Petersburg, Russia in order to attend music college. She joined a folk-rock group "Yablaka" and began touring throughout the Soviet Union and the Eastern Block. Springboarding from Prague to San Francisco Bay area after collaborating with a theater group, she became involved with all-female folk choir Kitka. In 1997 she released "Russian Twilight" which was her second solo album. The song Zarya from this album would later be used in the 2010 film Salt featuring Angelina Jolie. Expanding from her roots in world-music and delving into the realm of electronic music, she began touring the world with the tribal fusion group Medicine Drum. She has released several dozen collaborations with various artists since and has released eight full-length albums ranging from acoustic-folk to ambient and dance music where she sings in Russian, Balkan languages, English and several others.