Daria "Nookie/Nuki" Stavrovich - a Russian rock/metal singer, former vocalist of a band called The Slot and the sole frontwoman of her personal project the Nuki Formation. An amazing singer (as long as you're used to metal screaming type of singing) as well as an inspiring human being, from protesting irresponsible landfill placements to being openly and vocally against the current war since day one.

Probably the same place I learned about her from - The Voice compilations on YouTube.

In 2016 Daria took part in The Voice Russia as one of contestants. More of a gag and a PR move, really, since she's been an established rockstar with her own fanbase by that point, but the conservative public was floored. Somehow the voting almost got her to win the contest, making Daria scramble and ask her fans to vote against her in order to escape the obligatory contract all The Voice winners face. That's probably the only time in the history of The Voice that the loser was so visibly happy to lose!

During the contest she sang Zombie by Cranberries, Army of Me by Björk, Chandelier by Sia, all with her own unique take on them, and, in the outstandingly ballsy move, literally a song that she herself wrote, Ripples on Water (alt. Circles on Water). Here it is with English subtitles, because the lyrics add to the flavor. Although, as many reaction YouTube channels agree, you don't have to understand the text to feel the sheer energy of her performance.

As far as Zombie and Chandelier go, however, I'd prefer to attach more recent performances from this (2022) year. Zombie especially hits hard these days.

On April 4th, 2024 Daria officially left The Slot. The details are unknown, since both the band and Daria herself describe it as a vague "we fought for the band to stay as it was and did all we could, but alas".

However, the reasoning was made abundantly clear later, when Slot, after getting a new vocalist, started singing at the currently occupied Ukrainian territories and were quickly permitted to play concerts again.

Daria, meanwhile, remains unable to book any venue and mainly gets funded through Boosty and fundraisers thanks to a loving community of fans. Yours truly included.

She also released a new album, with majority of the songs making rather pointed metaphors and digs at "Magical country" that "never loved anyone", "Zombies" that continue singing what they're told, "an eternal February" (February 2022 is when the current stage of the war began), bullets that will always come back to sender in the end, and, of course, an "Imperium" that's crashing down and a passionate "BURN IN HELL".

With the current level of censorship that's as straightforward as it gets. So it's not hard to guess why exactly she split away from the Slot, leaving them after 18 whooping years. And it's not hard for me to breathe a sigh of relief that I chose to like a decent person.

- She was once almost murdered by a crazy "If you're not mine then no one elses" fan. Namely, he stabbed her in the neck and she full on had time to bleed out and have her heart stop by the time the ambulance got there. As evident, she was successfully resuscitated. The blade also happened to miss her vocal cords, allowing her to sing again as if nothing happened. She herself shrugs at the memory, sincerely claiming that it affected others around her much more than herself. And jokes: "Now every time I see someone get stabbed in a movie and immediately dramatically die, I kinda laugh. That's not how that goes." Badass, isn't it.

- Inbetween being a badass and singing screaming nu-metal, Daria writes and performs songs for...children cartoons.

- She's a daughter of an opera singer. An untrained opera singer who, allegedly, was just that good (and the town they were living in was just that small), but still.

- She got expelled from her first music school for 'not fitting the mold'. Moved to the capital, hid the fact that she was expelled and "transferred" to a bigger music school. Barely got in there too, for the same reason - but a good teacher stood up for her. The same teacher later recommended her when The Slot was looking for a vocalist. Daria then proceeded to gather a small stadium worth of fans on her concerts. Who's laughing now?