Wild Dances

Wild Dances

"Wild Dances" (Ukrainian: Дикі танці) is the name of the song by Ukrainian pop-star Ruslana Lyzhichko (Ruslana). "Wild Dances" was the winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Turkey.

After qualifying from the semi-final the song turned the tables in the final, and the 280 points it received were sufficient to claim a first famous Eurovision victory for Ukraine. With a mixture of English and Ukrainian lyrics, "Dyki tantsi" had the distinction of becoming the first Eurovision winner to be sung at least partly in a language other than English since the rule-change of 1999, when countries were allowed to sing in a language of their choosing, rather than one of their official languages. With this win, Ukraine became the third ex-USSR member to win the Contest (Estonia and Latvia having previously done so).

The song was remembered for an energetic performance, which Ruslana gave in a leather outfit, inspired by ethnic tradition of Ukraine.The work on the song lasted for about 3 months. Editing and sound engineering was done by Ruslana together with specialists from Kiev, London and New York. The recording was done together with a guitarist from Cool Before, and an ex-trumpet player from Zdob Si Zdub. The wild drumming part (in terms of drive and rhythm) was done by Ruslana herself. Ukrainian and English lyrics of the song, as well as the chorus and melody, suffered significant changes since the initial stage.

The song was bought with exclusive copyright in Vietnam by Hồ Quỳnh Hương, a very famous Vietnamese female pop star who performs it in Vietnamese as Vũ điệu hoang dã.

The song is used as a soundtrack of the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

American gymnast and 2011 world champion Jordyn Wieber uses this song for her floor exercise music.