Eva Rivas is one of my favourite actresses of all time. I grew up in the Russian Empire, so when I heard about her, it was like the world and I had been transported to another place. Early life. Eva Rivas was born in Yaroslave to an Armenian family and a Greek father and mother of Russian and Greek background. She later took the stage name Eva Rivas in her Greek theatre performances.
Growing up in Yaroslave, she enjoyed singing in the popular “Armenian orchestra”, singing the popular melodies in songs such as, ‘Dobrevskiye v Vasikova’, ‘Kosmopeloi’ and many others. It was this career which brought her to Russia where she appeared in many well-known and impressive plays and movies. She then spent seven years in Soviet Union, studying classical music and culture, while studying the language and literature of the Russian Empire. After this period in Russia, Eva returned to France to study ballet.
From this time, Eva Rivas had gained a good knowledge about Russian culture and all the various historical periods of Russian history, both past and present. This knowledge was borne out of her association with the Russian Dance Theatre. It is interesting to note that in this period of her life, at the age of 34 years old, she was already wearing clothes of different colours and patterns, even though she looked more like a petite woman! All this and more gave her the experience and the persona to play the lead role in such a role as the sultry, beautiful, yet tough character of Eva Rivas in the play, ‘The Goodbye’.
The story behind the creation of Eva Rivas’ stage name is connected with Marina Tsatsouline’s death. Tsatsouline was a famous actress and songwriter from the Ukraine who had developed a close relationship with Vasili Oschepkov, a famous Russian director and film producer. They first came together while filming a movie in Bilan, Ukraine. Tsatsouline had taken the help of a translator who had been also studying Russian, while translating one of the songs that Marina had written for the film. The translated words ended up in the final composition, ‘Don’t Take Me Alive’, which is one of the most popular songs from the movie.
At one point, Marina Tsatsouline even asked Vasili to give her permission to use the name’Eva Rivas on the song, since it was a friend’s name. However, he refused this request, stating that he would not consider giving anyone permission to use his original name. This caused much conflict between Tsatsouline and Vasili, as she felt it was unfair for him to reject her request. On the other hand, Vasili stated that he thought that it would be unfair if people were to only focus on the lyrics of the song contest rather than on the melody and notes. He added that he would not mind if people used their own names to perform in the contest as long as they did not change the words of the original composition.
After the song was performed at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, it immediately became famous all over the world. Eva Riva’s original song has gone on to become a number one single in over twenty countries. Eva Riva has also won the hearts of many young fans, making her one of the best-known artists from the Ukraine. Now you can also enjoy the great songs of Eva Rivas during your personal music playlists. If you happen to know some Russian speakers, you may want to learn a few phrases from this song to quickly practice while out with friends or in any other situations where you would like to speak Russian quickly. Enjoy!
