Lucy Diakovska

Ludmilla "Lucy" Diakovska (Bulgarian: Людмила Дяковска, Lyudmila Dyakovska; born April 2, 1976 in Pleven, Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian singer-songwriter, music producer, dancer and musical actress, who rose to fame as one of the founding members of the successful all-female pop band No Angels, the "biggest-selling German girlband to date," according to the German media. After a series of commercially successful releases with the group, Diakovska released two singles and her solo album Lucylicious under her same-titled stage name in 2005. In 2008, she became a member of the jury on the Bulgarian version of Music Idol, alongside Funky, Vili Kazasian and Esil Duran. Diakovska is the oldest child of Lubomir Diakovski, an opera singer, and Rositza Diakovska, a pianist. Her younger brother named Alexander (b. 1982) is a professional basketball player. Her grandfather is a famous Bulgarian folk composer. At the age of six she got her first stage performance at a local opera house and in the following years she trained herself in singing and dancing. After her high school graduation in 1994 Diakovska decided to move to Germany to get trained at the Stage School of Music, Dance and Drama in Hamburg. At the same time she worked as a dancer for the musical "Buddy", where she even got hold of a recurring role a little later. Encouraged to chance her luck in the professional music business, Lucy decided to audition for the 2000 debut of the German reality television program Popstars. She entered the competition with thousands of other women, and the judges Simone Angel, Rainer Moslener and Mario M. Mendryzcki were impressed with her performance in Hamburg. She earned a position in the top thirty finalists and immediately travelled to Mallorca, Spain to join her competitors for a workshop there. In the end Diakovska made it to the final ten on the show, and during a special episode in November 2000, jury member Moslener disclosed that Lucy was chosen to become part of the final girl group, later called No Angels. With the final five members of the band in place, Popstars continued tracking the development and struggles of the No Angels. However, it took another four months until the band released "Daylight (In Your Eyes)", a partial cover of Victoria Faiella's unreleased 2000 single, which would subsequently appear on the band's debut album Elle'ments. Both the single and the album became an unexpected but major success, beating new records, when both peaked at #1 on the German, Austrian, and Swiss singles, airplay and albums charts - all at the same time. In the following years the band released another two #1 studio albums (Now ... Us! and Pure), a Live album and a successful Swing album (When The Angels Swing). Altogether the albums spawned twelve singles - including four number 1 singles and six Top 10 hits -, making the No Angels the most successful European girl group of their era with a final amount of more than 5 million sold copies. On September 5, 2003 the four resting members (now without Jessica) announced that they would no longer be performing together after three years of continual touring and increasing cases of illness. The release of The Best of No Angels in November of the same year marked the end of the band, whose members each went their separate ways. While some pursued solo careers in film and television, Lucy returned to musical stages, performing in Cats and Buddy, once again. Afterwards Lucy founded her own label Schmanky Records and released three singles and the album The Other Side under her pseudonym Lucylicious. Since then she has been guest in several music and game shows on TV, including a recurring function as a member of the jury in the karaoke show Shibuya. Lucy joined again No Angels who made a powerful revival. In March 2008 they were selected to represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 finals in Belgrade in May. In the meantime, Lucy was on the jury of the 2008 Bulgarian Music Idol. Official Website: www.lucydiakovska.tv Lucy's Myspace: www.myspace.com/lucydiakovska Official Fanclub: www.schmanky.tv