Kseniya Simonova facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kseniya Simonova
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| Ксенія Симонова | |
Kseniya Simonova in 2010
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| Born |
Kseniya Oleksandrivna Simonova
22 April 1985 Yevpatoria, Crimea, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
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| Education | Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University (2007) (2008) |
| Known for |
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| Spouse(s) |
Igor Paskar
(m. 2007) |
| Awards | Winner of Ukraine's Got Talent |
Kseniya Oleksandrivna Paskar (Ukrainian: Ксенія Олександрівна Паскар; née Simonova; Ukrainian: Си́монова; born 22 April 1985) is a talented artist from Ukraine. She is famous for her amazing sand animation performances. She draws incredible stories using sand on a light table, and these stories are often shown on a big screen. Kseniya is also a graphic designer, illustrator, and even a film director. She became very well-known in 2009 after winning Ukraine's Got Talent. She is the only artist to receive two "Golden Buzzers" on the Got Talent shows: America's Got Talent: The Champions and Britain's Got Talent: The Champions, both in 2019.
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Early Life
Kseniya Simonova was born in 1985 in Yevpatoria, a town in the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine. At that time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Her mother, Irina Simonova, is an artist and a teacher. Her father, Alexander Simonov, used to be a military officer and now designs furniture. Kseniya started painting and drawing with her mother from a young age.
Kseniya's parents didn't really want her to become an artist. She explained that being an artist is a "constant struggle." She knew it wouldn't be easy, but she was ready for the challenge. She wasn't interested in a super comfortable life; she always wanted to create something more.
In 2007, Kseniya married Igor Paskar. He is a theatre director, a journalist, and a magazine editor. They have two sons.
Education and Early Career
Kseniya went to the Artistic School of Yevpatoria. She also studied at the School of Fine Arts. Later, in 2002, Simonova began studying psychology at the Tavrida National V.I. Vernadsky University. She graduated with honors in 2007. While studying psychology, she also started studying graphic design at the Ukrainian Academy of Printing in 2003. She finished her graphic design studies in 2008.
From 2006, Kseniya worked as an artist for a magazine called Crimean Riviera. In 2007, Kseniya and her husband, Igor, started their own magazine called Chocolate. It was published in both English and Russian. However, they had to stop publishing it a year later because of money problems.
Sand Stories: How It Started
The idea for sand performance came from Kseniya's husband, Igor. At first, Kseniya wasn't sure about it. But they needed to find a way to earn more money for their family. So, she decided to give it a try.
They found that regular beach or river sand didn't work well. Igor then researched better options online. He even sold his printing equipment to buy special, expensive volcanic sand.
Winning Ukraine's Got Talent
Igor suggested that Kseniya enter the TV show Ukraine's Got Talent. The top prize was a lot of money, about US$110,000. Kseniya decided to participate.
She performed a two-minute sand story and made it to the semi-finals. She wanted to tell a story about World War II using sand. The show's producers wanted her to choose a more popular topic. But Kseniya refused. She said she wanted to bring a "timeless message" to the show, not just pretty pictures.
The sand story Kseniya performed was eight minutes long. It showed a young couple separated by the war. She said it was very emotional and hard to perform. She made it to the finals. In the final round, she performed another sand story called Don't be too late!.
Kseniya was announced as the winner of the competition! She won 100,000 euros. A newspaper called The Guardian said she became an "online phenomenon" because her performance video was watched over 2 million times on YouTube. After winning, she became an international artist. She performed her sand art in many countries. With the money she won, Kseniya and Igor bought a house in Yevpatoria.
Performing Around the World
Since 2009, Kseniya has performed her sand animation stories in many places, including Europe, China, Qatar, India, Australia, Thailand, and Bhutan. She showed her art at big events like the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011 and the Champion League Final Gala in Milan in 2016. Kseniya has performed for important people like the President of Malta, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and members of the British Royal Family.
More Got Talent Shows
In 2019, Kseniya tried out for America's Got Talent: The Champions. The host, Terry Crews, gave her a "Golden Buzzer," which sent her straight to the finals! Her final performance, called Love Always Wins, was highly praised by the judges. Simon Cowell said it was "one of the most beautiful acts in the history of Got Talent." She finished in third place on the show.
In August 2019, Kseniya was also announced as a performer for Britain's Got Talent: The Champions. She appeared in the first episode and performed a sand story called "Never Give Up." One of the judges, Amanda Holden, gave her another Golden Buzzer! This made Kseniya the first artist to receive two Golden Buzzers on the "The Champions" series of the Got Talent shows. In the final, she performed a sand and snow story about Princess Diana and came in third place.
Famous Sand Stories
Live Performances
Since 2009, Kseniya has been invited to perform at special events all over the world. In 2009, she performed her sand story "Planet of Childhood" in Valletta, Malta, for a charity event.
In 2010, Kseniya performed at the Victory Day Gala in London with her sand stories You Are Always Nearby and I Remember. In 2011, her sand story Chess opened a chess tournament in Monte Carlo. Even Albert II, Prince of Monaco liked it!
In April 2011, Kseniya created a sand story for Christian Dior called Lady Dior Moscow. She performed it for a Dior exhibition in Moscow. In 2011, she also performed with symphony orchestras, creating "The Four Seasons" in sand in Florence. She was also a special guest at the Special Olympic Games' closing ceremony in Athens, where she showed the history of Greece in sand.
In July 2011, a famous model, Natalia Vodianova, invited Kseniya to perform a sand story about her life and charity work at a special event in Paris. In January 2012, Kseniya was invited to Bangkok, Thailand, to perform for the king's anniversary. She performed Long Live the King! and gave the princess two discs of her performance. This film was watched 1.5 million times on YouTube.
Kseniya performed in Tokyo with Life Always Wins, a sand story about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. During UEFA Euro 2012 in Ukraine, she performed a sand art concert in Kyiv to support the Ukraine national football team. She also performed in Denmark, where the Danish government organized concerts for her.
Since 2013, Kseniya has created sand animation stories for Morocco's Royal projects about protecting the environment. One of her films, "Beautiful Morocco," was watched over 2 million times on YouTube. In 2016, she was a special guest at the Morocco Awards gala.
In November 2015, Kseniya was a special guest in Thimphu, Bhutan, for the 60th birthday of a former king. She created a sand story called Gorgeous Bhutan. Both the former king and the current king loved her art. The current king even called Kseniya his friend. In 2016, Kseniya made a film called "Astana, my love" about the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. It was viewed over 30,000 times in just a few days. She also performed a sand animation about football in Milan for the UEFA Champions League Cup presentation.
In 2017, she performed in the Belgrade National Theatre in Serbia with a show about Serbia. Her art exhibition, Progress, traveled to five big cities in Serbia. In 2018, she performed in the biggest concert hall in Greece with sand stories about Greece. Later that year, she performed six shows in Hong Kong for over 30,000 people.
Sand Stories and Music
Working with Orchestras
Kseniya Simonova has performed her sand stories with many symphony orchestras. These include the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Aalborg. Her performance in Sydney with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, called Ascending Bird, was watched online 33 million times!
In 2017, Kseniya performed with the Belgium National Orchestra, which played The Nutcracker. In 2018, she was a special guest at a Christmas concert with the Wermland opera orchestra. In August 2018, she performed at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland with pianists Georgy Gromov and Maria Masycheva. They played Cinderella by Prokofiev, and Kseniya brought the story to life with sand. They performed it again in Berlin in December 2018.
Working with Popular Music
In 2010, Kseniya worked with Japanese singer-songwriter Fuyumi Abe. Kseniya's sand art was featured in the music video for the song "Sora Ni Mau." In 2011, Kseniya returned to TV for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. She performed on stage during the performance of the Ukrainian entry by Mika Newton.
Kseniya's sand art, Share Your Heart, was the background for Ukraine's song "Angel" at Eurovision 2011. They performed in the semi-finals and the finals, and Ukraine came in fourth place. Kseniya said she dedicated Share Your Heart to children in a Simferopol orphanage that she helped.
In 2012, Kseniya worked with Esperanza Spalding, who won a Grammy Award. They created a sand story video for the song "Endangered Species," which was about protecting nature in Amazonia. In 2014, she made two videos for the British rock band Menace. One video, for the song "To the Marrow," used a special technique called "snow graphics." In 2014, her art was in the music video "If You Lose Her" by American R&B singer Joe. In 2015, her sand art was used in a video for the song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Cadence, a Canadian acapella band.
In May 2019, Kseniya participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 as part of Team Moldova. She created a stage act using snow stories for Moldovan singer Anna Odobescu. In 2023, Kseniya created a music video for folk/rock artist August Gilde's song 'Animals'.
Other Art Forms
Graphics
Besides her sand stories, Kseniya Simonova has been a graphic artist since 2005. In 2006, she created her own style of graphics called "psychoanalytic line graphics." She still works in this unique style today.
Literature
Kseniya has written poems and stories since she was young. In school, she studied old English folk songs and poems. She also translated poems by famous writers like William Shakespeare and Robert Burns. In 2014, she released a book about her own life called Another Story, which included her own drawings.
Awards and Recognition
- 2009 - "Person of the Year" finalist in Kyiv
- 2013 - Received the title of Merited Artist of Ukraine
- 2016 - Named "Artist of the Year" at the Yevpatorian Awards
- 2018 - Received The Human Rights Medal for her volunteer and charity work
Exhibitions
In 2009, Kseniya had her first art show called Sand Personality. It included over 300 pictures made with sand art and graphics. This exhibition was shown in cities across Crimea from 2009 to 2010. In 2014, she presented her second exhibition, Another Story. This show had 165 pictures in different styles, including sand animation, graphics, and painting.
In 2017 and 2018, her third exhibition, Sand Geography, opened in Simferopol and Evpatoriya. This exhibition was about the different places she visited around the world. It included over 100 artworks by Kseniya, such as sand drawings, graphics, and paintings.
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Exhibition: A Sand Personality
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Exhibition: A Sand Personality
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Opening of the exhibition: Kseniya and the Mayor of Yevpatoria
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Exhibition: A Sand Personality
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Exhibition: A Sand Personality
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Exhibition: A Sand Personality
Helping Others (Philanthropy)
In June 2008, Kseniya and Igor started a local charity organization called Live, my Sun! (Живи, Солнышко!). This group helps sick children who need medical treatment. They provide support and information to children with cancer.
Working with Brands
In 2010, Kseniya made a sand animation advertisement for The Sunday Times newspaper. In 2012, with help from Puma, she created a series of short sand animation films called Dreamcatcher. These films showed the lives and early dreams of famous football players like Cesc Fàbregas and Gianluigi Buffon. Kseniya met the athletes, interviewed them, and drew their faces. She then showed their childhood dreams in her sand art. Kseniya and Puma showed these films during UEFA Euro 2012 in Ukraine on TV and online.
Current Projects
Since 2013, Kseniya has been working on a show called White Era. She uses all her skills in different animation techniques for this program. In 2017, Kseniya also started working on The Forgotten Kingdom — Sand Stories with the Guy Mendilow Ensemble. This project has received awards and funding from important art organizations.
See also
In Spanish: Ksenia Símonova para niños
