Michelle Gurevich - My Familiar Unfamiliar

Michelle Gurevich was born in Toronto, Ontario, to Russian immigrants and was raised with Russian as her first language.Her father was an engineer in Soviet Leningrad and her mother a Kirov ballerina (the subject of Chinawoman's "Russian Ballerina"). Gurevich originally wanted to become a filmmaker and worked ten years in the industry before turning to music. "I eventually tried to write a song and found it was not only cheaper, but much easier to get a good result." Gurevich began her career recording in her bedroom. The stage name "Chinawoman" was chosen as a spur-of-the-moment joke when Garageband prompted her for a band name. Chinawoman has cited Alla Pugacheva, Adriano Celentano, Charles Aznavour, Yoko Ono, Francis Lai, Nino Rota, Xavier Dolan, Todor Kobakov, Jennifer Castle, and filmmaker Federico Fellini as influences on her music.