SunStroke Project | |
|---|---|
 SunStroke Project at the red carpet ceremony for theEurovision Song Contest 2017 inKyiv,Ukraine. From left to right: Sergey Stepanov, Sergei Yalovitsky and Anton Ragoza | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Chișinău,Moldova |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Labels |
|
| Members |
|
| Past members |
|
TheSunStroke Project is aMoldovan musical group composed of Sergei Yalovitsky (vocals, composer),Sergey Stepanov (saxophonist), and previouslyAnton Ragoza (violinist, composer) until his departure in 2019.[1] They achieved recognition after representingMoldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 alongsideOlia Tira with the song "Run Away", and again in the2017 contest with "Hey Mamma", finishing in third place in the latter. The name of the group was chosen by Ragoza whilst working in the army with Stepanov, after he had an incident in which he was affected byheat stroke whilst on a field exercise.[2]
Anton Ragoza was born on 6 January 1986 inTiraspol,MSSR. He is the violinist and primary musical composer for the band. Previously he has conducted the orchestra ofChișinău and won a series of prestigious awards in the field of classical music. Anton has a wide experience in performing in bands which play in the modern electronic genre. He identifiedJustin Timberlake andMichael Jackson as musical inspirations.[3]
Sergey Stepanov is the saxophonist. He was born on 3 September 1984 in Tiraspol. He currently lives in Chișinău, Moldova. His musical taste took contours on the music of artists such asDavid Sanborn andEric Marienthal; and modern DJs likeDavid Guetta,David Vendetta andTiësto. He loves jazz though he also likes to experiment in vocal house, pop and R&B. He met Ragoza while in theTransnistrian army[citation needed], and decided to create the band SunStroke Project.[4] In an interview at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, he identified Russian saxophonistIgor Butman as his musical inspiration.[3]
Sergei Yalovitsky is the vocalist of the band. He previously worked as a singer on cruise lines. He has won various awards for singing in Moldova and Romania.
Shortly after the band was founded in 2007, their first (and as of 2014, only) official album,Don't Word More.., was released. The album is very rare, and only a few tracks are currently known to have been a part of it. One track, "Scream", is known to be the predecessor toScream released a few years later with Myslicky.
From late 2008 to summer 2009, Moldovan vocalistPasha Parfeni joined the band. Three singles were released during this few-month period. Each were produced by Alex Brashovean of the former Moldovan bandO-Zone.[5] They sang for theEurovision 2009 pre-selection forMoldova, where they took the 3rd place with the hit No Crime.Nelly Ciobanu was elected to represent Moldova at the contest that year.
"Believe" was the first new single to be released by the band with Sergei Yalovitsky as lead vocalist (A reworkedIn Your Eyes was the first single to be released with Yalovitsky). It was also their original entry to Moldova'snational selection for Eurovision 2010 until it was withdrawn (as well as Olia Tira's entry)[6] in favor of "Run Away". SunStroke Project together withOlia Tira representedMoldova in theEurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Run Away". The final of theO melodie pentru Europa 2010 pre-selection took place inChișinău on 6 March 2010, with the song gaining the maximum 12 points from both the jury and SMS-voting.[7] The song reached 22nd place in the contest. Along with DJ Alexei Myslicky, several other singles were produced throughout 2010. He later departed to form Offbeat Orchestra in Russia in late 2010.
Since 2011, SunStroke Project has toured extensively and has worked more closely with their longtime label, Sens Music. An entry was made for SunStroke Project and Olia Tira to represent Moldova in the2012 Eurovision Song Contest with the single "Superman" but it did not make the next stage of selection. SunStroke Project attempted to represent Moldova in the2015 Eurovision Song Contest entering with two songs: "Lonely" and "Day After Day", the latter with Michael Ra. Both entries qualified[8] to the semi-final from the live audition round. However, as only one song could be chosen per artist, Sunstroke Project chose "Day After Day" to ultimately move forward. After qualifying from the semi-final,they finished third in the national final.
SunStroke Project attempted to represent Moldova in the2017 Eurovision Song Contest once again, with the upbeat electro-house song "Hey, Mamma!". The band came in first place after a tight voting procedure, qualifying them to representMoldova in the Song Contest in May. They reached third place with their performance in the 2017 competition, giving Moldova their best result in the contest. On returning to Moldova, SunStroke Project was awarded the Order of Honour by the President of MoldovaIgor Dodon. SunStroke Project were also featured in Season 2 of theNetflix series,Travels with My Father, wherein British comedianJack Whitehall travels to Moldova with his father,Michael Whitehall, in order to meet and perform with the band.
In 2023, the band participated once again in theMoldovan national final with the song "Yummy Mommy" and placed second behind the winner, their former one-time lead singer Pasha Parfeny.[9]
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Don't Word More.. |
|
| Title | Details |
|---|---|
| Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 1 |
|
| Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 2 |
|
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MDA Air. [10] | AUT [11] | BEL (Fl) [12] | FRA [13] | GER [14] | NLD [15] | NOR [16] | SPA [17] | SWE [18] | SWI [19] | |||
| "No Crime" | 2009 | * | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single |
| "In Your Eyes" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 1 | ||
| "Summer" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 2 | ||
| "Run Away" (withOlia Tira) | 2010 | — | — | — | — | — | 7 | — | 31 | — | Non-album single | |
| "Play with Me" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 2 | ||
| "Walking in the Rain" | 2011 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album singles | |
| "Superman" (feat. Olia Tira) | 2012 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Amor" | 2014 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Sunshine" (feat.Deepcentral) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Not Giving It Up" | 2015 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Lonely" | 2016 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Home" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Maria Juana" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Dam Dam Dam" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Hey, Mamma!" | 2017 | 149 | 27 | 49 | 56 | 52 | 70 | — | 89 | 18 | 55 | |
| "Sun Gets Down" | * | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "I Want You" (feat. Broono) | 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Amor" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Boomerang" | 2019 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Mango" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "D.F.M.M." | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Рosomakha" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Pepperoni" | 2020 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Rasstrelyay Lyubovyu" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Shake It" (featuring Fox Banger) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Beloe" | 2021 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Cosa Nostra" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Netflix & Chill" (featuring Fox Banger) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| "Champagne" | 2022 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Yummy Mommy" | 36 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Ghostbusters"[20] | 2024 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "—" denotes a single that did not chart or was not released. "*" denotes that the chart did not exist at that time. | ||||||||||||
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Bad Girls" (Olia Tira feat. Sunstroke Project) | 2011 | Non-album singles |
| "Go On" (Jucătoru feat. Sunstroke Project) | 2013 | |
| "Razorvu mechty"[21] (Mila Kulikova feat. Sunstroke Project) | 2014 | |
| "Tocame" (Timebelle feat. Sunstroke Project) | 2018 |
| Title | Year | Album | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Spit" | 2007 | Non-album singles | |||||||||||||||||||
| "Rain" | |||||||||||||||||||||
| "Skream" | |||||||||||||||||||||
| "Believe" | 2010 | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| "Sax U Up" | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| "Epic Sax" | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| "Scream" | |||||||||||||||||||||
| "Listen" | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| "Sunshine Day" | 2011 | Non-album single | |||||||||||||||||||
| "Set My Soul On" | 2012 | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| "Party" | 2013 | Don't Touch the Classics, Vol. 2 | |||||||||||||||||||
| "Ce bine imi pare"[22] (feat. Alex Calancea Band) | Non-album single | ||||||||||||||||||||
| "Look At Me" (feat.Olia Tira) | 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes a single that did not chart or was not released. | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Title | Year |
|---|---|
| "Rise Up"[23](Yves Larock cover) | 2010 |
| "Desire"(Michael Canitrot cover) |
Sergey Stepanov's saxophone solo in "Run Away" became famous across the Internet as ameme known as "Epic Sax Guy" or "Saxroll".[24] Remixes of his saxophone solo have millions of hits onYouTube. Run Away also became a popular choice of background music in "Best Moments" compilations invideo games likeHearthstone andRainbow Six Siege.[citation needed]
In December 2010, SunStroke Project appeared on the Moldovan TV programmeSare şi piper and sang a song titled "Epic Sax", named after the meme.[25]
The phrase "Epic Sax Guys" forms part of the lyrics of the SunStroke Project's single "Superman", when they unsuccessfully attempted to represent Moldova in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
Stepanov himself acknowledged his viral fame playing the "Run Away" saxophone riff when the group was interviewed during thefirst semi-finals of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest.[26] During the performance of "Hey Mamma" in the 2017 contest, Stepanov again became a minor internet meme in the form of "Ultra Sax Guy".
In 2020, the video game characterJax got a so-called "friendship"-ending move in theAftermath expansion of the video gameMortal Kombat 11, in which Jax was playing the sax in a similar fashion to Stepanov. The scene, titled "Epic Jax Guy", went viral with over half a million views onYouTube.
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest (withOlia Tira) 2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| Artists | |
