VIA GRA (ВИА ГРА)

VIA Gra, known outside of Ukraine and other nearby countries as Nu Virgos, was a Ukrainian girl group. The name VIA Gra is a triple wordplay; it is an allusion to the drug Viagra, the first three letters "ВИА" also stand for "vocal-instrumental ensemble" in Ukrainian, and "Гра" means "game" or "play" in Ukrainian. The name also references the surnames of the two first members of the group, VI-nnytsk-A and GR-anovsk-A, the originally used maiden name of Nadia Meiher. Nu Virgos rose to prominence when they hit the charts in the countries of CIS in September 2000, with their debut single "Popytka No. 5". Their first success outside the Russian language area was in May 2004, with the single "Stop! Stop! Stop!", an English version of their 2002 Russian song. The group is known for their frequent lineup changes, with 13 different individuals having at one time been in the group. The group was co-created by Dmytro Kostyuk and Konstantin Meladze. Kostyuk was the manager of the group and the co-producer of the group's albums. Meladze was the writer of the group's songs and the co-producer of the group's albums. In 2025, Meladze announced the final end of the group. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nu_Virgos) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)