Alyona Zhigareva: “Men notice that every woman blows their brains out.

On I Ona  is a musical collaboration that wins the hearts of the audience with every new track. She is emotional, strong and at the same time knows that real strength is in weakness. Beautiful girl and songwriter Alyona Zhigareva spoke exclusively for Woman Magazine about feminism, starting a family, and plastic surgery, and shared her favorite designers and beauty products with her readers.

You write your own songs. Tell us how to catch the right creative wave in order to produce a track that will win the hearts of listeners?

Yes, we write our own songs. But we didn’t immediately subdue the right creative wave. In this business, though creative, you need a practical and analytical approach. Our first songs didn’t resonate as much with listeners as our last songs did. These were the first dates with the listener, we got to know them, get to know them, their musical tastes and preferences. In the first songs, we learned to understand what people like, what stories they want to hear from us. To be honest, there is no formula for a successful song – only sincere and honest songs written from the heart win the hearts of listeners. Probably the song that determined our vector in our own sound and style was the track “Vid Illuzii”.

This song was written in ten minutes. I just took out my tape recorder and started humming along. Surprisingly, neither the original melody nor the first verse and chorus changed during the recording of the song. The words in the original are the same words I recorded on the tape recorder.

Lyosha and I write all of our songs together. But in our creative duo, I am responsible for the emotional note that is embedded in each song. As a girl, being in a state of emotional lift (and it does not matter if it is with a “plus” or “minus” sign – love or sad memories), I always try to write something. That’s why I always have my dictaphone handy.

How much time do you devote to your work?

Every morning when I wake up, I try to devote the first hour or hour and a half to myself and not to get involved in any work stuff. Of course, I don’t always manage to do that – we have a million work chats and all the notifications and messages start coming in the morning. You could say that I wake up and go to sleep with my work: everything needs to be controlled, adjusted and kept on the pulse. And so the whole day passes – whether you are driving in the car or working out at the gym – everyone needs to give answers to questions – both PR people and managers.

Being a singer is not just about getting on stage and singing. It’s songwriting, rehearsals, organizational meetings, PR plans. It takes a long time. Especially since I’m a complete failure at time management.

Do conflict situations arise at On I Ona? Who is the first to make concessions?

We are all human beings, and there are conflicts. But Lyosha and I have the wisdom to leave all misunderstandings aside and not turn everything into a conflict. We are a guy and a girl, we have different characters, temperament and psycho-type.Conflict is our everything. That’s what the band On I Ona is built on.

Of course, all the contradictions are specifically about music – we like different styles, we think differently about music. Honestly, sometimes I don’t understand how we even manage to write music together!

But we always find a balance and are willing to make concessions. If someone is wrong, he always admits his guilt. I never “turn on the girl” and don’t expect concessions from Lesha. Equality everywhere and in everything! (smiling)

Many girls begin to really suffer from the fact that the man they want to marry did not come into their lives. Especially after the constant moralizing of parents, married classmates, etc. Do you think there is an ideal age for marriage?

Our society has suffered from all kinds of clichés and clichés. The reason for this was the Soviet upbringing, when everyone was labeled. This applied not only to marriage issues, but also to other areas of life. Now we have echoes of all this, of course, in Europe and America people are free of clichés – only after 30 people begin to think about marriage.

I can’t name the ideal age for marriage. You should get married not because you have to, or because it’s time, or because your biological clock is ticking, but because you have met the right person.The most important thing that keeps the difference in characters together is love. It is love that helps fight through all the difficulties in a relationship. Men should probably think about getting married at about 30, and girls – as it goes…

When I was 15 I fell deeply in love with a guy and at 18 I married him. Now I understand that it’s not worth getting married at 18 (smiling).Because at such a young age people don’t always understand how to find balance and harmony in relationships, and that’s the main thing in them. But really, everyone has different experiences, everyone has their own destiny and you should not look up to anyone else.

Is it necessary to be ready to create a family (morally, financially) or, as they say, in a whirlwind?

By no means and never in a headlong rush! The older we get, the more conscious we become about relationships and starting a family. When you have butterflies in your stomach, euphoria, the first state of falling in love – enjoy communication, each other, get to know each other, but there is no need to start a family right away.When falling in love passes – that is when the time comes for love, more conscious, thoughtful, when you can already consider the flaws of each other, specific character traits. Men notice that every woman is a pain in the ass (laughs). Men have to understand that his woman is the woman you can tolerate when she blows your mind.

Nowadays, social media has a strong influence on people. How not to get depressed by the constant condemnation of the haters?

90% of the time people spend on social networks  – There they draw information, get knowledge, learn what is good and what is bad. Probably now in the time of uncontrolled social networks, when parents need to be attentive, give children more time to tell them how the world works, what is decent behavior, compassion, love. And I recommend adults to address with such a problem to specialists – competent psychologists who can tell you how to love yourself, learn to accept yourself and not pay attention to others who are used to judging others and not see the log in your own eye.

How do you yourself feel about criticism?

I very often take everything to heart. I have the good girl syndrome, which I suffer from very often. If I am told that I am falling short somewhere, then I urgently need to correct and work in that direction.But in reality we do not have to be perfect – we have to accept not only our virtues, but also our shortcomings. And, of course, to correct flaws if they hurt other people. I’m learning not to take criticism to heart, I take it so painfully sometimes, but I listen to constructive criticism. My first reaction to comments is that I may get upset or offended, but when I calm down a bit, I sit down, think, reflect and ponder.

I myself am aware that I have a complicated character – I can be sloppy with people. Because of the specific delivery of the speech, many people may consider me to be rude. Well, and my emotionalism sometimes “contributes” to mood swings.

You can see that girls are now more and more often showing themselves in leadership positions. Do you think women have achieved equality or have men “weakened”?

If we talk about the band On I Ona, we have complete equality. When it comes to personal relationships, I don’t understand women who seek equality with men. I have one question: “Why?” I’ll be honest, I used to suffer from this disease too: “I can do it all by myself, I can do it all by myself, I’m so strong.

As practice has shown, it did not bring any positive results in my life. I only hurt myself and the man around me. I am categorically against equal rights. Nature arranged everything this way for a reason – a man is given more strength, constructive, etc., and a woman – multitasking, for example. Well what man will be able to drive a car, drink coffee, talk on the phone, build a route on the navigator, and also talk to the passenger.

And every girl will understand how wonderful it is when your man is stronger than you! Even if you’re successful, but when you come home you have someone to lean on – that’s happiness!

What do you think feminism is fighting for now, and could it happen that the need for it would disappear?

By engaging in a fight for something, girls deprive themselves of the privileges that nature has bestowed upon them.

I guess I dream of a perfect world where there would be no need for feminism. And in order to do that, men need to be men and women need to be women, and men need to be able to be men and women need to be able to be women.

Have you encountered in your work that you have failed to achieve something just because you are a girl?

I have not encountered such situations. Although… Recently I wanted to try myself as a radio host, and I saw an ad for a radio host (laughs).

On stage you give energy to the audience, but how do you restore it?

For me a successful concert is a mutual exchange of energy. Of course, there are concerts when you give more, but nothing comes in return.Listeners are afraid to show their emotions. At such performances it’s difficult, you feel like a squeezed lemon. As for every artist the applause and joyful emotions of the audience are the best way to recover your batteries. I’m more exhausted by communicating with people and work, not by the concerts. What helps me to recover is the usual seal rest, just lying on the couch, watching movies or soap operas.

Alena, you always look stylish. Do you have any favorite Ukrainian designers?

Thank you for the compliment. I think that now in fashion, as well as in music, there is great progress and many new interesting names.I do not have a designer with whom we go hand in hand. So far it is spot work with many designers, for shoots, photo shoots, going out.

I like the collection of Katya Silchenko, Katimo. A year ago I was the main model at Dima Domanov’s show. I like his clothes because of their practicality in the first place, because, as you know, not all things from the catwalk get along in real life. I like GUDU very much, though we have not managed to cooperate yet. Lesya brought a lot of tricks-secrets to my image and thanks to her I formed my taste.

Now many girls at an early age begin to correct their bodies. How do you feel about plastic surgery and Botox?

I’m an advocate of progress in cosmetology, too.  If there is an opportunity – just a sin not to use it. But these benefits should be used only when a certain age and need comes. Some girls begin to correct their appearance early. I think it’s a question of complexes and imposed stereotypes. Everyone is now becoming the same and starting to cut themselves to fit the standards of beauty. I’m against it. Girls need to think about how to present their zest, their beauty…

Nowadays, cosmetology has reached such a peak that it is not necessary to use plastic surgery to correct something. I am a singer, I have active facial expressions, so a few years ago I used the “blocking” function on the muscles in the forehead area.Nowadays, by Botox we mean everything that is related to cosmetology. I had Botox for my lips, Botox for my cheeks, and Botox for my boobs (laughs). No one understands that Botox – botulinum toxin – blocks the muscles and makes them less active, and now there is an analogue, Xeomin, which also makes the muscles less active, I’m all for anything that makes sense and emphasizes natural beauty, not exaggerates, so making your breasts bigger or your lips puffier because your man likes it is not healthy.

How to choose the right cosmetics for yourself? What is worth emphasizing?

In the world of modern innovations, I would recommend finding your own beautician. It is my beautician who sobered me up from buying from advertising – new cream, new procedure, etc.

I advise everyone to listen to experts and not to experiment on my beloved.

Tell us about your nearest plans: tracks, music videos, concerts?

On I Ona plans for 2019  big, even a little bit Napoleonic. We are already recording new tracks that will be on our debut album in 2019. We are already 2 years old and only now we are mature enough to release our first record. All this time we have been looking for our way, our style and we found it. In support of the album there will be a tour in Ukrainian cities and a big concert in Kiev, where we will show who On and Ona are and how they perform live. We also want to try ourselves at the Eurovision Song Contest and we even write a song for it.

Journalist: Maria Holotiy