Millions have heard the name Eva Poklonskaya, a star who captured the world’s hearts during her audition on Russia’s “The Voice.” She also gained the attention of millions on YouTube from videos of her vocal lessons with prominent vocal coach Cheryl Porter.
Eva is a versatile and genre-breaking singer, ranging from pop and gospel to R&B and soul. And she’s making her own music! Eva released her jaw-dropping single, “In Another Galaxy,” which showcases her flawless vocal range and unbelievable techniques.
With her song, Eva paints a picture of love transcending all boundaries, be it universe, time, or planet. She starts the song with an intimate touch, gradually building up to a beautiful fusion of pop and gospel. Eva’s incredible vocal prowess, especially the soaring high notes towards the end, is nothing short of genius!
Go check out “In Another Galaxy”!
Q&A with Eva Poklonskaya
Q: Ms. Eva Poklonskaya! It is the greatest honor to interview you for Rising Artists. You have such a precious, soulful voice that I will never forget hearing years ago when YouTube recommended a video of you training with prominent vocal coach Cheryl Porter. Before we get into the interview. I must say, you slayed that cover of “I Know Where I’ve Been” from “Hairspray.” It was such an important piece for my community when it came out, and you did that song justice! And it’s amazing to see how much you’ve bloomed.
Anyways, we’re four months into 2024. How has the new year been treating you so far?
EVA POKLONSKAYA: It is such an honor for me to be interviewed by you, Rising Artists! Having told so many inspiring stories of other musicians and introducing their art to the world, it is such a pleasure to be one of them on your platform.
Thank you so much for such words about my cover of “I Know Where I’ve Been”! Cheryl had taught me so much through this song historically, technically, musically, and professionally that it had become an important step in my life as an artist.
2024 is a big year for me already, as it has welcomed me with a lot of musical projects, one of which is my new single, “In Another Galaxy.” Also, having had the opportunity to work with many professionals from the beginning of the year, I know that there are a few releases planned for the following months, which everyone will find out about very soon.
Q: “In Another Galaxy” doesn’t sound like a vocally easy song because of its high range and how you articulate your runs. I’d love to know about the vocal prep you endured to nail the recording.
EVA: “In Another Galaxy” is a song that I wrote in 2021, inspired by the boundless cosmos and the love for my family.
The song itself has been with me for some time, before recording it this year, and was always living in my head in different variations, driven by different emotions. The more I lived with it, the more it evolved into what it is now. Consequently, the vocal choices matured with me emotionally, technically and musically. In this way, my main preparation to record the song was to live with it and become one with it.
Q: What was the songwriting process like for “In Another Galaxy”?
EVA: “In Another Galaxy” was the first song that I decided to try and fully produce the rough arrangement for. I listened to many masterclasses on music production from artists like Charlie Puth and Mark Ronson, which pushed me towards finding the sound of this song and writing a skeleton, based on which Mr. Ho and I recorded the final version of the production for the song.
As the melody was born first, with a “silhouette” of the lyrics, its soulfulness motivated me to be vulnerable and dig deep into what I wanted to say to the closest people in the world in the time that we have on Earth.
Such a perspective on life from the outside had driven me into abandoning the limits of our globe and go into the vastness of our galaxy and what is beyond. This inspired me to use the concept of energy conservation as the base to prove the existence of eternal love that we share with our families.
Q: I love how you fused some elements of pop, gospel, etc., in “In Another Galaxy.” I’ve heard you sing gospel, blues, jazz and more. So, it makes me wonder who your influences are in general and what influences you had in mind for “In Another Galaxy.”
EVA: The fusion of all genres in me is a result of the incredible parenting I had as a child and still have as an adult. My father loves progressive rock and introduced me to the best music groups of all time, like Supertramp, Genesis, Toto, Asia, 10cc, UK and many more. My mother, on the other hand, introduced me to the world of solo artists like Richard Bona, George Benson, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Kim Burrell and many more, which were all over the specter of different genres!
As a result, my music influences are vast and diverse, which formed the way I write songs. Specifically, “In Another Galaxy”‘s production is influenced deeply by my father’s musical taste, whilst, melodically, I find it had formed out of the solo artists my mother had introduced me to.
Q: I loved the music video. It kind of seemed like a collab between “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.” I can tell a lot went into the music video, and you had an amazing turnout at the premiere, which happened in a movie theater, which was so cool! What were your emotions like from making the music video to releasing the video?
EVA: The music video for “In Another Galaxy” was a new kind of experience for me, as it was a huge project for my whole team. I am very thankful to every single person that took part in the creation of the music video, as it was not easy to make at all. We only had 3 days, a place far, far away from home to travel to by train and cars, 4 locations none of us ever visited before, new language, new culture, new people, and, as a bonus, my dog, that never was in a car for more than 20 minutes, to take with us.
This is why seeing the music video released, even on the big screen of a movie theater monitor, just as we pictured it in our heads from the very beginning, was more than a dream come true, but a miracle!
I often find myself rewatching it, and, honestly, it holds a separate place in my heart that warms my soul.
Q: You started singing at such a young age. The world saw you set fire to the stage at 15 with “This Is A Man’s World” on Russia’s The Voice: Kids. Millions of people saw Cheryl take you under her wing and train you vocally, pushing you past your limits. And, like I said, I was shocked at how much you’ve bloomed as an artist, composing original music and shocking people with your vocal capabilities. What was the journey like from The Voice to now?
EVA: Since “The Voice,” I have devoted myself to songwriting and finding my place in the world of art and music. It has been such a wild, exciting and soulful journey for me as I have learned more about myself, the world and others than ever before. The major shift in this period of time was maturing from existing to living, from listening to hearing, and from saying to thinking.
I am still evolving, learning and figuring life out, but I am very happy with where I am now!
Q: What were some lessons you learned on that journey? Or what did you learn about yourself?
EVA: “The Voice” was a major turning point in my understanding of myself as an artist and what I want to bring to the world. My mother, knowing of the songs I wrote and recorded on video or audio in my room, always pushed me to write and compose.
However, I never thought I was mature enough to share my emotions with the world outside the walls of my room.
But my journey on “The Voice” made me grow up and realize how wrong I was in not sharing my voice through my songs, as it was the only true, honest and meaningful way for me to do so. Having met many artists on the TV show, I wanted to find myself in that rich world of self-expression, which drove me to finish my original songs and start taking songwriting seriously.
Q: You also have “Beyond the Milky Way” and “Beyond the Cosmos” out as a part of your EP. Are you working on an album? If so, what’s the album’s central theme?
EVA: “In Another Galaxy” is an independent project that captures my sense of life, love and place at a single moment of time. For this, I love art, as I see it as marks on a wall of a child’s height. Each year, I look at the last one from a new perspective, never being able to come back to the way they were before, but moving on and finding ourselves in the present.
“Beyond the Milky Way” and “Beyond the Cosmos” are afterthoughts that capture the essence of my emotional state when writing “In Another Galaxy”. The more I thought of the limitless Cosmos, the further I departed from my life on Earth, time and place, floating beyond our galaxy, the Milky Way, and then beyond our known Cosmos.
Whilst the thoughts drove me insane from the inside out, I really wanted to capture that powerlessness against the omnipresent sky, stars and possibilities above, which were the main reasons for the inclusion of the musical afterthoughts. When listening to them, I hope you will undergo the same journey, flying away from where you are physically to a place no one will ever be in or see or even know of in our reality.
While this EP is a separate project, it inspired many of my subsequent releases, which I will surprise you with soon!
Thank you so much for listening to the EP “In Another Galaxy”!
Interviewed & Written by Taylor Berry
