You're reading: Pop Notes: European Beauties head to Kyiv

The Miss Europe beauty contest to take place in Ukraine for the first time; Okean Elzy grabs three awards at the new Show Biz Awards ceremony

This fall Kyiv will have even more beautiful women than usual, as the famous “Miss Europe” beauty contest takes place in Ukraine for
the first time. Responsible for the event is the composer Omar Harfush and the “Super Nova” modeling agency, who have purchased the rights for holding “Miss Europe 2006.”

“We’re happy the contest will take place in Ukraine,” Harfush said, “The most beautiful girls in Europe live here.”

The beauty-contest selection tour starts this June and will continue for a month, during which the winners of regional contests will then compete with each other. All the lucky winners will then travel to Kyiv to take part in the finals in October or November either at the Palats Ukraina concert hall or the Palats Sportu.

Similar to the winners of the Eurovision song contest held in Kyiv last year, the winner of “Miss Europe 2006” will be picked through interactive voting by the viewers as well votes by the contest jury. The jury’s composition is yet unknown; however, the organizers already confirmed that the American actress Sharon Stone has agreed to head it. In fact, news of Miss Stone’s arrival to Kyiv already circulated once before when she was set to open the Ukrainian movie festival, “Molodist.” She never materialized. Hopefully this autumn Sharon will finally make it.

Okean Elzy gets “best”

The first Ukrainian awards ceremony to honor the best achievements in show business, called appropriately the “ShowBiz Awards,” was held in Kyiv at the National Opera House on April 22. Awards were presented in 17 categories with the winners and nominees determined through the vote of an expert council headed by singer Sofiya Rotaru.

The band Okean Elzy became the star of the ceremony, winning three of its four nominations. Not only was it named “Best Rock Band of the Year,” its latest CD “Gloria” was given the title “Album of the Year,” while band leader Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, who recently appeared in a new role as a UN goodwill ambassador, won “Best Male Performer.” The other winners were hardly more surprising. Tina Karol and the boy band “Aviator” were both named as “New Artist of the Year,” the title of the “Best Female Performer” was given to Iryna Bilyk and Gaytana. Skryabin was named “Best Pop-Band,” TNMK were given the award for “Best Hip-Hoppers” and ManSound got the “best” in jazz. The ceremony also made mention of the people behind the music: the best manager, Yury Nikitin; the best record label, Lavina Music; and the best studio, Mama Studio.