Manizha is translated from Farsi as “gentle, fragile”, sangin “stone”.

Manizha is engaged in public activities, opposes domestic violence, since December 2019 has been the ambassador of the Russian non-state charitable foundation “Give Life”, since 2020 the UN Goodwill Ambassador for Refugees.

Early years and education of Manizha

Manizha was born on July 8, 1991 in Dushanbe (Tajikistan).

Manizha Dalerovna has a famous family, her grandfather is a Tajik writer and journalist Todji Usmon, after whom the street is named and a monument in Khujand is erected. Great-grandmother was one of the first women in Central Asia who took off her veil and announced that she would work.

Manizhi’s mother, Najiba Usmanova, is a psychologist by education and owns a clothing design firm Modardesigns. She helps her daughter with clips and costumes for her musicians.

The singer’s father Manizhi is a doctor. The parents are divorced, and the father does not approve of the fact that his daughter is involved in music. Sangin Manizha took her surname from her grandmother, who helped the girl in her musical career.

Manizha has five brothers and sisters, one of whom, Munis Usmanov, is a correspondent for the Russian First Channel.

In 1994, the Manizhi family moved to Moscow during the civil war in Tajikistan. A shell hit the family’s house.

In Moscow, Manizha studied piano at a music school, but a year later she gave up the instrument and began to study with private vocal teachers. Then she had auditions in the choir, but the girl was identified as the second voice in the second cast, which hurt her ambitions, she left the choir.

The question of who the singer Manizha is by nationality is rather complicated. As stated in the biography of Manizhi on Wikipedia, she underwent a DNA test that showed 32 nationalities in her genotype.

Manizha graduated from the Faculty of Psychology at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow.

Singer Manizhi’s career

From the age of 12, the girl participated in various competitions and festivals. In 2003, Manizha received the Grand Prix of the international competition for young performers “Rainbow Stars” in Jurmala, and also became a laureate of the first “Ray of Hope” festival of children’s creativity of the CIS countries organized by the Mir TRC. 2004 she was a laureate of the IV international festival-competition “Kaunas Talent”.

In 2005, Manizha recorded the songs “My Angel”, “Fish in the Sand”, “Dance of Love”, “Tu Budi” in Tajik and Russian, the compositions were rotated on radio stations in Tajikistan.

Since the beginning of 2007, Manizha has performed under the pseudonym Ru.Kola. She recorded the song “I Neglect”, filming a video with Semyon Slepakov.

In 2007, Manizha became a finalist of the All-Russian Five Stars competition in Sochi.

In the spring of 2008, Manizhi’s debut album “I Neglect” was released, but then she left the production project “Ru.kola”.

Then in the career of Manizhi there were the groups “Assai” and “Krip De Shin”, then the singer lived and worked outside of Russia. She studied vocals at gospel schools in London and New York.

In 2012, Manizha, together with Andrey Samsonov (Laska Omnia), participated in the creation of the soundtrack for Ivan Vyrypaev’s film Dance of Delhi. As part of Laska Omnia, she performed at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg as the opening act for American singer Lana Del Rey. Together with musician Mikhail Mishchenko, Manizha recorded the album “Core” in 2014. Collaborated with musician Escome.

Since 2013, Manizha began her career on Instagram. On the popular social network, she posted short (15-second) videos, and then launched a series of musical Mondays on Instagram, where she posted her creative collages every week, in which she performed covers of the works of world famous musicians.

Later Manizha began to perform not covers, but her own compositions, some of which were later included in her first album, for example, “Don’t Tell Me”.

In December 2016, Manija launched her debut Instagram album, Manuscript. Every week Manizha opened one new song, for each of which Intagram videos were filmed and separate art accounts were created.

In 2017, clips were shot for the songs “Sometimes” and “Chandelier”.

Manizhi’s second album “YaIAM” was released in March 2018. Then the clips “Emerald” and “Mama” were released.

In 2016 and 2017, Manizha was nominated for the TOP 50 award of the Sobaka.ru magazine. The most famous people of St. Petersburg, and in 2017 she won in the Music category.

Manizha is a performer of the Russian version of the soundtrack “On the path of a warrior,” for the film “Mulan” (2020).

Eurovision 2021

In March 2021, based on the results of the audience vote, she was selected for the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Rotterdam. This news was announced on the air of the First Channel.

During the selection process, Manizha outpaced other contenders, notably 2Mashi and Therr Maitz. The participant was determined by the voting of the audience during a special show.

Manizha performed the song “Russian woman” at the competition.

It must be said that Manizhi’s victory caused an ambiguous reaction, in particular, among the politicians of the Russian Federation. Thus, the Chairman of the Federation Council Commission on Information Policy Alexei Pushkov wrote in social networks: “A little-known singer with the song“ Russian Woman ”is being sent to Eurovision. But neither the text nor the music have anything to do with the Russian woman. It looks very strange, not to say very badly. Nobody will vote for this even in Russia. Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Vitaly Milonov in social networks was outraged by the choice of the singer who will go from Russia to the Eurovision-2021 song contest.

LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky also did not approve of the choice of the Russian participant for the Eurovision-2021 song contest. He noted that the song “Russian woman” by the singer Manizha is unlikely to have a good effect on the authority of the Russian woman and the country.

According to the results of voting by the audience and the jury at Eurovision, Manizha took ninth place.

Manizha received 204 points, losing to eight participants in the final, according to the online broadcast of the competition on the official Eurovision-2021 channel on Youtube. The winner of the competition was the Italian group Maneskin.

Public activities and views of Manizhi

Manizha is known for her social stance. The singer speaks out against domestic violence. In February 2019, Manija launched a social campaign, within the framework of which a free mobile application “Silsila” (in Persian “thread”) was released to help victims of domestic violence.

Since December 2019, she has been the ambassador of the Russian nongovernmental charitable foundation Give Life, and Manizha has also supported other charitable foundations.

Since 2020, she has been a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Refugees.

Manija often speaks out in defense of the rights of women, migrants and the LGBT community, according to her biography on the Know All website.

Personal life of Manizha

Manizhi’s personal life is practically not covered in the news of show business, the singer herself rarely speaks out and the name of her young man did not get into the media. The singer says that her main love is music. However, Manizha plans to start a family.

The singer would like to find herself a worthy husband, give birth to children, but, according to her, she still feels small herself, says Manizhi’s biography on the 24-Media website.

Manija names Thom Yorke from the band “Radiohead”, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Bjork as his idols.