Katya Ocean

Katya Ocean, the stage name of Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Ivlieva, is a Belarusian singer, songwriter, lyricist and producer. Born in Minsk into a family of artists, she graduated from a specialized music high school and the Belarusian State University of Culture. Her career began very early with her first track, Syomae Neba, recorded in 2001 to a poem by Kazimir Kameishi.

She achieved early success in Belarus with songs such as I Will Not Return and Don't Go Away. Her repertoire later expanded to French with tracks like C'est la vie, Comme tous le reste and Rien à faire, the latter two appearing on the soundtrack of the police series « Le Baiser de Socrate ». She also took part in projects such as «Semi-Acoustics» on MTV-Minsk, performing her French songs in acoustic versions.

A major turning point came in December 2007 when she formed a creative partnership with producer, DJ and composer Sergei Evseenko (Evsey), founder of the BY DeeJays project. This collaboration steered her toward dance-pop: the track Postoy and the remix of Voyage, Voyage brought broad recognition, and All My Love became a club hit in Belarus.

In May 2009 she won the Grand Prix of the international contest « Slavic Star » in Moscow and performed the same year at the « Slavianski Bazaar » festival. Her work with Evseenko continued with songs like I Am Yours and Don't Let Me Go, while she explored other styles, from drum and bass on Pain of the Soul (2010) to a blend of indie pop, soft rock and synthpop on Nothing, Nothing (2011).

In 2012 she revisited 7th Heaven (originally created in 2001) in a new version produced by Sergei Evseenko, which reached number one on the Bulba-Hit chart. She continued releasing singles in French (Je Les Oubliais, 2015), in English (Still Into You, 2015) and in Russian, often accompanied by dance remixes.

The single I Know was launched worldwide in 2019, followed by a video and a DJ Evsey remix in 2020. That year she also released the retro dance track Po Viskam, for which she directed the clip, and the ballad Above the Stars. In 2021 the singles ISWY (I Stay With You) and Our Summer were released, both written by her.

She collaborated with British rapper and producer Daz Sampson on the duet Give You Love for the Belarusian national Eurovision selection in 2021. In 2023 she signed with the British label Sporting Riff Raff Records, becoming the first Belarusian artist to do so, and released her debut album Never to Late. Her song Coming Home was named Song of the Year in Belarus in 2023.

Regarded as the number one electronic music artist in Belarus, twelve of her songs became radio hits. She writes and produces her own material and has composed for other artists, notably Singing About Belarus for Angelina Volkova. In 2024 she again won Song of the Year with Hero. Her second album, Moving On, was released in June 2025.

Alongside her music career, Katya Ocean has worked as a radio host and made her acting debut in 2012 in the Russian series « Détective de famille ».