For Olya Polyakova, the road to her international breakthrough has taken an unexpected route.
Already a major pop star in Ukraine, Polyakova has spent years headlining arenas, topping charts, collecting awards and appearing on Ukrainian television, including as a mentor and coach on The Voice. She also previously shared the screen with Volodymyr Zelensky during his pre-presidential career in comedy. But when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Polyakova’s career – like so much of life in her homeland – was thrown into uncertainty.
Rather than stepping away from music, however, she gradually found a new purpose in it. As the war continued, Olya began performing for Ukrainian troops and audiences at home, discovering that her music could provide both a soundtrack to the realities of wartime and a temporary escape from them.
“Part of my job is to help people forget about the war even for an hour,” she has said.
That duality has become central to Polyakova’s recent work. She has performed for multiple Ukrainian troop brigades and released songs addressing the experiences of those living through the conflict, including ‘In Your Arms’, which focuses on women waiting for their soldier husbands to return home, alongside more defiant, escapist material such as ‘Warrior’. Her return to live performance also revealed just how much emotional release audiences were seeking: shows could begin in tears before ending with crowds dancing as though life had briefly returned to normal.
Now, Olya is looking beyond Ukraine. Her first major international push arrives with ‘My Future Ex’, a glossy, high-energy pop track that introduces her larger-than-life personality to a wider audience.
The song occupies a deliberately nostalgic space, bringing together the pulsing energy of contemporary pop with the four-on-the-floor drive and oversized choruses of classic ’80s hi-NRG. It gives Polyakova plenty of room to showcase the full range of her voice, moving from soaring high notes to more sultry, swooning moments.
“Sometimes you fall in love with someone and you know it’s going to end with fights, or tears, or both,” the powerhouse vocalist says of the track. “I wrote this song for everyone who has been there and done it anyway. It’s kind of like a dance workout for a broken heart.”
Polyakova co-wrote ‘My Future Ex’ with its producers, Red Triangle, whose credits include Sabrina Carpenter, Halsey and David Guetta. The track was mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Guy Massey, whose credits include The Beatles and Kylie Minogue.
The new single marks a striking new chapter for an artist whose career has already undergone a profound transformation. Polyakova has performed for crowds of up to 130,000 people in Kyiv while also taking her music to Kharkiv, a city that has endured repeated Russian attacks.
For Olya, music has become both a reflection of the moment and a way of temporarily stepping outside it. With ‘My Future Ex’, she is now taking that mission – and her pop ambitions – beyond Ukraine.
Download / stream ‘My Future Ex’ here.
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