Yana Alexandrovna Shimaeva (Jerry Heil) is a Ukrainian singer and songwriter.
Place of Birth, Education
She was born on October 21, 1995 in the city of Vasylkiv, Kyiv region.
From 3 to 15 years old, she studied at a music school, after which she entered the Reinhold Glier Kyiv Institute of Music at the department of choral conducting.
Subsequently, she continued her education at the National Music Academy of Ukraine named after Pyotr Tchaikovsky, but left her studies in the second year.
Career
2010 – 2015
The pseudonym Jerry Heil appeared by accident. At the age of 15, registering on VKontakte, the future singer entered the fictitious name Jerry Mouse, inspired by the cartoon character Jerry. Later, she replaced the word “mouse” with the first American surname that she came across on the Internet.
Since 2012, Shemaeva began shooting and posting videos – from blogs and conversation videos to music covers. She performed compositions by popular Ukrainian and world artists, including Okean Elzy, The Hardkiss, Twenty One Pilots, Kodaline and others.
2015 – 2020
In early December 2016, the rock band “Arlett” presented the single “Electric Winter”, which was recorded by Jerry Heil.
In 2017, Shimaeva, together with the musician with whom she performed in a restaurant, decided to create a group. They were also joined by two acquaintances. Rehearsals took place in a Kyiv garage. The project did not exist for long and quickly fell apart.
At the same time, the singer began to give solo performances. During the event, organized by the radio “JamFM”, she performed a potpourri, which the organizers liked, and they promised to take her author’s composition into rotation. This is how the song “Where is my home” appeared.
After that, she began to collaborate with the label “Vidlik Records”. In 2017, Jerry Heil’s debut mini-album “Where is My Home” was released, which included four compositions: “Where is My Home”, “Bedding”, “Sky” and “Hope”.
On November 3, 2018, Jerry Heil appeared at the casting of the ninth season of the show “X-Factor”, where she performed a cappella potpourri of songs by Oleg Vinnik. She received four “yeses” and went to training camp, but dropped out after the first stage.
In the same month, she presented the track “Coffee”. And on November 12, 2018, the premiere of her first video for the song “Postil”, which was directed by Yuri Dvizhon, took place.
At the end of the year, sound producer Yuri Vodolazhsky contacted her and offered to record one of her compositions. The collaboration did not continue, but it was he who introduced her to musician and producer Roman Cherenov (Morphom). On New Year’s Eve, Jerry Heil and Morphom recorded the joint track “Eternity”.
In early March 2019, Jerry Heil posted on Instagram a fragment of the track “Guard, Canceled”, which she recorded with Morphom. The song quickly became popular: on April 4, 2019, the singer presented a lyric video and a full version of the composition.
In the same month, the song of singer Vera Brezhneva “I am not a saint”, created in collaboration with Jerry Heil and composer Konstantin Meladze, was released. In June, she took part in the recording of the track “We are one” by the Kyiv band “Cloudless” for their album “Mayak”.
On September 24, 2019, Jerry Heil presented the third single “Free Box Office” from her debut album and released a video for it. Four days later, her first album “#Я_ЯНА” appeared on YouTube, which contained eight tracks. On streaming, the release took place on October 4, on the same day she gave her first solo concert in the Kyiv hall “Bel Etage”.
On December 13, 2019, the singer released three singles at once, along with video works: “Nevesta Salad Recipe”, “Eternity” and “My Childhood Dream”.
2020 – present
On January 20, 2020, it became known that Jerry Heil was participating in the National Selection for Eurovision 2020. On February 8, she performed in the first semi-final with the English-language composition “Vegan” and reached the final, but in the end without success.
On February 10, Shimaeva presented the song “Not Baby”, which became the soundtrack to the fourth season of the reality show “From Boy to Young Lady”.
During the quarantine imposed due to COVID-19, the singer created the track “Nina, don’t stress”. It premiered on April 7, 2020.
Since June 2022, Mykola Kucheryavyi, who at that time worked as the director of the Kalush Orchestra, became the manager of Jerry Heil.
On July 6, the song “Kupala” (#KUPALA), recorded together with alyona alyona and the German singer of Ukrainian-Polish origin Ela, appeared on her YouTube channel.
On August 26, Jerry Heil and alyona alyona presented a joint mini-album “Dai Boh”. It includes four collaborations with European artists: “The Wind Blows” with Polish rapper Gedz, “God Forbid” with Lithuanian singer Monica Liu, “Kupala” with ela. and “Cuckoo” with Latvian rapper Ginger Mane.
In November, Jerry Heil presented a video for the song “To the Cossack Family”. The following month, she took part in the National Selection for Eurovision 2023 for the second time with the song “When God Shut The Door” and took third place.
In July 2023, she announced the creation of her own label Nova Music and the start of production work. The label’s first artist was Vitaliia.
In November, it became known that the singer, together with alyona alyona, made it to the final of the National Selection for Eurovision 2024. On the selection stage, they presented the song “Teresa & Maria”. According to the results of the voting, the duo won.
On January 30, 2024, during the draw, it was announced that Ukraine would perform with the song “Teresa & Maria” in the first half of the first semi-final of Eurovision 2024. On May 7, the duo took the stage at number 5 and made it to the final. According to the results of the final voting, they took 3rd place, scoring 453 points.
On May 21, Jerry Heil visited the Cannes Film Festival.
On September 26, she , together with singer Yulia Sanina, presented the joint track “WABI-SABI” and the video for it.
In February 2025, her song “All Eyes On Kids” received a nomination for the 2025 Grammy Awards in the Best Song For Social Change category.
On May 13, 2025, she performed in the interval act of the first semi-final of Eurovision 2025 in Basel together with the participants of the 2024 contest – Marina Satti, Silvester Belt and Iolanda. Shimaeva performed the composition “Ne partez pas sans moi”, with which Celine Dion won in 1988.
On May 16, Jerry Heil, together with the band Within Temptation, presented the joint track “Sing Like A Siren”.
Marital Status
In 2025, she ended her relationship with a guy with whom she had been together for more than a year.
