Diana Dmitrievna Ankudinova (Russian: Диана Дмитриевна Анкудинова, born May 31, 2003)[is a Russian singer. Much of her initial fame resulted from her winning two consecutive seasons of You Are Super!, a talent competition show on the Russian NTV network for children who have spent some significant part of their childhood without parental care. Diana Ankudinova's performances were posted on the NTV web site and the NTV YouTube channel, where they soon gained hundreds of millions of views around the world. Diana Ankudinova sings mostly in Russian, English and French. She has also sung in other languages including Spanish, German and Arabic.

Early life

Diana Ankudinova was born on May 31, 2003, in the far eastern Primorsky Territory of Russia in an area north of the city of Vladivostok. Diana's biological mother physically abused her.

At the age of three, Diana was left at a bus stop in the winter with a broken collarbone. Diana was rescued from the street, but Diana's rescuers were unable to care for the traumatized child. They made a statement about the abuse of Diana to the local prosecutor, and it was agreed that the young Diana should be turned over to the care of an orphanage in Primorsky Territory which provided for the care of abandoned young children in the general area.

Children from the orphanage were periodically sent to a sanatorium in Arsenyev to help them regain and maintain their physical and mental health. A massage therapist, Irina Anatolyevna Ponik, who worked at the sanatorium developed a special affection for Diana. The daughter of Irina Ponik, who sometimes visited her mother at work, was the one who first began to insist that her mother adopt Diana.

In 2008, Irina Ponik filed the necessary paperwork to assume formal legal guardianship of Diana Ankudinova with the territorial department of guardianship and trusteeship. The new family lived in Arsenyev. In 2012, the family moved far away to the city of Tolyatti in the Samara Oblast of southwestern Russia.

The move to Tolyatti was mostly due to Diana's fears that her biological mother might try to find and abuse Diana or even attempt to regain custody of Diana. These fears were so intense that they had been significantly affecting young Diana's mental health. Irina Ponik, Diana's adoptive mother, had previously lived in Tolyatti. Tolyatti was also much closer to Moscow, which was the city where Diana and her family believed she would find the greatest opportunities for her future musical education and career.