Who are you, mystery Russian lady?

The II Summer Youth Olympic Games kicked off last night in China’s historically on-again, off-again capital of Nanjing with a special effects-laden, two-hour opening ceremony. More fun than Beijing’s 2008 spectacular, Nanjing featured an upbeat pop song, Light Up the Future 点亮未来, sung by superpeople Jane Zhang and Zhang Jie, and foreign guests Kim Soo-hyun and an unknown Russian singer.

An unknown Russian singer.

Far be it for the organisers to include her name in the program, or for official media sources to refer to her as something other than “a female Russian singer.” Chinese sources give her name as 噶丽娅, transliterated as Galiya. Ah, of course! The famed Russian pop princess, Galiya!

Except nobody seems to know who she is.

Popular South Korean actor Kim Soo-hyun received the biggest applause of the four performers, while the blonde Russian songstress went virtually unnoticed. This is unusual, because Chinese audiences usually love white people singing in Chinese. Continue reading →