Aida Yurijivna Nikolaychuk, sometimes spelled Nikolaichuk, is a Ukrainianpop singer and model, who was the winner of the third season of Ukraine's X-Factor TV talent competition in 2012. She drew special attention during the show's second season when judges interrupted her performance of Polina Gagarina's Lullaby, suspecting that she was lip syncing to a recording, and asked her to sing a cappella. Although visibly surprised, Nikolaychuk sang the song equally well without accompaniment. In 2013, she released her first single, "On Your Planet", which was included in her debut album "We’re under one sky".
Early life
Nikolaychuk was born on 3 March 1982 in Odessa, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. She started singing in the first grade, when she became the school choir soloist, and later on performed at school as a hip hop backup singer until 2002, and in her school choir in the fifth and eighth grades.
In 2011, Nikolaychuk participated in the casting show for the second season of the Ukrainian television show X-Factor, quitting her job as a cashier to enable her participation in the show. After a unanimous decision by the show's judges to accept her, she proceeded to the training portion of the show. After Nikolaychuk's retirement from X-Factor, the video of her performance at the casting show reached a record number of views on YouTube. Nikolaychuk then decided to proceed with her participation in X-Factor. She participated in the second season of X-Factor Online. In November 2011, she was announced as a weekly winner of X-Factor Online, and on 31 December 2011, she was announced as the winner of the X-Factor Online second season. By winning X-Factor Online, Nikolaychuk gained entry to the training section of the show for the third season, bypassing the audition and pre-screening stages. In 2012, Nikolaychuk was invited to performances in Moscow and Berlin. On 10 October 2012, she was interviewed by imka TV. Participating in the third season of X-Factor, Nikolaychuk got to twenty-fourth place in the training section of the show in the 25-years and older category. Her category mentor was Igor Kondratyuk. Nikolaychuk then sang for judges including German singer Thomas Anders. After the visiting judge's performance, Nikolaychuk was placed in the top rankings for her category, and as one of the twelve top finalists. Also in her category were Eugene Litvinkovich and James Golovko. She then entered the direct elimination rounds, in which a contestant on the show is eliminated weekly by judges' vote. Nikolaychuk was never selected for elimination. On 22 December 2012, she participated in the final show. Her rivals were Aleksey Smirnov and Evgeny Litvinkovych. On 29 December 2012, she was chosen as a superfinalist and Alexey Smirnov was eliminated from the show. On 5 January 2013, at the Gala concert, Nikolaychuk was announced the winner of the third season of X-Factor. On 6 March 2013, the news website Segodnya listed the most-viewed videos of Ukrainian female singers. Nikolaychuk's video, with millions of views, took 5th place. In May 2013, Nikolaychuk visited Berlin. While there, she participated in photo shoots and spoke at a restaurant, "Peterhof".
2013–present: Singing debut and further work
After winning the third season of X-Factor, Nikolaychuk started working with artists in the Commonwealth of Independent States countries, and signed a contract with Sony Music. Aida ended the contract with Sony Music in 2014. At the end of May 2013, she presented her debut single and music video, "On Your Planet", released 27 May. On 31 May 2013, she held her first solo concert in her hometown, Odessa. On 8 June 2013, Nikolaychuk acted as a visiting judge for Mini-Miss Ukraine 2013. Nikolaychuk currently performs in concerts and appearances in Ukraine. On 4 September 2013, Nikolaychuk participated in the competition "Promotion", organized by the Russian television channel Music Box, presenting her debut video, and was selected as a winner. On 4 October 2013, Nikolaychuk performed at Little Miss World 2013 in Bulgaria. On 24 October 2013, she had her second solo concert in Dnepropetrovsk and visited the local tabloid newspaper, "Komsomolskaya Pravda". On 14 December 2013, the first Aida solo album "My Pod Odnim Nebom" was released. On 16 December 2013, the names of nominees for the annual music award YUNA-2013 were released; Aida was nominated for "Discovery of the Year". In the results of the national poll «Favorites of Success – 2013», Aida was recognized as "Female Singer of the Year" due to the amazing support of her fans. She was announced as a participant of the National Final to select the entrant for Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
