The winner of the second season of X-Factor, a favorite of the audience, Ukrainian singer Viktor Romanchenko once radically changed his life — and now he is exactly where he belongs: creating and promoting Ukrainian music, organizing charity concerts, and supporting our defenders. His voice is recognized by thousands — deep, sincere, with that special tone that cannot be confused with anything else. The winner of the second season of X-Factor, a favorite of the audience, Ukrainian singer Viktor Romanchenko once radically changed his life — and now he is exactly where he belongs: creating and promoting Ukrainian music, organizing charity concerts, and supporting our defenders. But for those who come from Bilozerka, Viktor is more than just an artist. He is one of their own — a local guy who made his way from the stages of Kherson to nationwide fame and never forgot where he started. We had the opportunity to speak openly with Viktor about life and творчість, volunteering, and the force that always draws him back home — to his native Bilozerka. From sports to the stage We begin the conversation with memories of a place that may be just a point on the map, but for Viktor it is an entire universe. His words feel both warm and slightly bittersweet at the same time. “Bilozerka for me is my parents’ home, where I was born, and my own house, the walls of which we built together with my parents, friends, and neighbors. There was so much happiness there! And of course, the stadium where I trained, the White Lake… Everything there is mine. It is the starting point of my whole life,” Viktor says sincerely. At Bilozerka School No. 1, he was not just an active boy — but a future athlete. In his youth, Viktor associated himself more with sports than with music: he practiced Greco-Roman wrestling, became a champion at the Ukrainian youth championship in Zaporizhzhia, and even competed at the World Championship in Poland. After school, everything seemed predetermined: admission to Kherson State University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, five years of study, a diploma with honors, and a job as a lecturer at the Department of Theory and Methods of Physical Education. — And what about music? Where does this voice that gives you goosebumps come from? — I ask the question Viktor has probably heard many times. “My mother, Liudmyla Volodymyrivna, sang in a choir. She said that my grandmother also had a wonderful voice, although I never heard it… But no one in my family pursued singing professionally. My mother worked as a plasterer-painter, and my father, Dmytro Musiiovych, was a driver. He passed away in 2011 — just when I was about to go to Kyiv for X-Factor. My brothers and sister — there are four of us in the family — also chose different paths,” the singer shares. “And me… Music had been with me since school — gradually, naturally. I remember how my friend Serhii and I would get together, play guitar, come up with something of our own, even record music on a reel-to-reel tape recorder ‘Jupiter’, and make pickups ourselves. At university, I once had to perform at a concert for March 8. Who would sing among the athletes? I gave it a try. I overcame my nerves, went on stage with a guitar — and from that moment on, the stage never let me go. And neither did the teachers — because it seems I ended up singing at all university events,” he recalls with a smile. A large part of Viktor Romanchenko’s creative life is connected with the Bilozerka band “Rendezvous,” where he was a vocalist and bass guitarist. He joined the group back in 1995. Together with the other members, Viktor grew professionally and gained considerable popularity in the Bilozerka area.