A UKRAINIAN refugee from Redditch will live out her dream by singing alongside former Eurovision star and Liverpool pop sensation Sonia.
Tatiana Volikova, aged 42, arrived in the UK last year alongside her two children, Daniil, aged 18, and Zlata, aged seven, and was forced to abandon her vocal coaching business as a result.
But the singer has been given the chance to take the stage once more thanks to a special project which has brought the National Lottery funded European Youth Music Refugee Choir (EYMRC) together with Sonia for a special rendition of her 1989 UK No.1 hit You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You.
Following rehearsals at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool a week ago, Tatiana and the choir performed the song with Sonia at The National Lottery funded Everyman Theatre on the aptly named Hope Street in Liverpool.
Over 50 refugees and asylum seekers from countries including Ukraine and Afghanistan make up the choir, with Volikova singing a special second verse in Ukrainian.
She said: “I am really enjoying it and it is a very big honour for me to stand on the stage with someone so famous in Liverpool and the UK.
“Sonia is very supportive, and I feel much more comfortable with her on stage. I am like a fish in water now.
“I was a vocal coach, digging deep into signing techniques and I am hoping that I will find some people here who are interested in my experience. The best things that happened in my life were because of music.”
Volikova spent two months in Poland before making her way to the UK, leaving the father of her children and many other friends and relatives behind.
But she has been welcomed in by the local community and is hoping to set up a small business working as a vocal coach having found her feet on British shores.
She added: “I was lucky that everything ended happily.
“Our hosts are a very nice family and I really appreciate what they do for us.”
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