Of course, no country can truly call itself a modern Western nation without at least one Avril-Lavigne-style rebel-girl-with-guitar pop star. Ukraine was finally accepted into the fold with the release of Anomaliya by Mika Newton last year - a record that conforms to all recognised international standards on perkiness, angst and a-bit-goth-but-not-enough-to-scare-the-boys presentation. Membership of NATO can only be months away. In all seriousness, Newton is really rather good - a few steps up from her Canadian counterpart and on a par with the much improved Yulia Savicheva. I like her a lot - the irresistable punk-pop of the title track in particular. She has an
English language website too.

Mika Newton - Anomaliya