Anita Tsoi

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Anita Sergeyevna Tsoi

Background information
Born	February 7, 1971 (1971-02-07) (age 37)
Origin	Moscow, Russia
Genre(s)	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Violin, Piano, Flute, Guitar
Years active	1997 - Present
Label(s)	Soyuz
Website	AnitaTsoy.RU

Anita "Anna" Sergeyevna Tsoi (Russian: Анита "Анна" Сергеевна Цой; born 7 February 1971, Moscow) is a Russian singer of Korean descent.^[1] Her grandparents emigrated from Korea to the Russian Far East, and were later caught up in the 1937 deportation of the Koryo-saram to Central Asia.^[2] Like her sisters, she began violin lessons at a young age; she later studied piano, flute, and guitar.^[3] Her mother was branded a "class enemy" in the 1970s in response to her record of speaking out in support of Nobel Peace Prize-winning dissident Andrei Sakharov, for which she was briefly committed to a mental institution. She attended the teacher training college, then law school at Moscow State University, where she met her husband Sergey Petrovich Tsoi. After graduation, rather than becoming a teacher or lawyer, she began saving up money in order to launch a singing career, while her husband began working as a press secretary for Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov in 1994. Her first album Polyot (Полёт; Flight) was released in 1997; she kept it a secret from her husband until after she had already signed the contract with her production company.^[1]^[4] She went to the United States in 2003 to record an English-language album, where she worked with cinematic composer Lee Holdridge; while there, she was offered a five-year contract as a solo vocalist in the Cirque du Soleil, but turned it down in order to return to Russia and be near her family.^[3] She was appointed as "tourism ambassador" between Russia and South Korea by South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun during his official visit to Russia in 2004.^[5] In April 2007, Sergey made statements in his capacity as Luzhkov's press secretary about the banning of a planned Moscow gay pride parade condemning "aggressive" behaviour by Russian LGBT activists, which sparked a media controversy; Anita, in response, commented that she might attend the planned parade despite the ban, and stated that she enjoys singing in gay nightclubs.^[6] Aside from singing, she also works with international charity Save the Children.^[3]