Олег Винник
Shugar (real name — Oleh Vasylovych Shkarpeta; born August 31, 1995, Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian singer, songwriter and blogger. He gained widespread recognition with the songs «Олєг», «Тьотя» and «Токсік», which became popular on TikTok, YouTube and streaming platforms in 2024–2025. His later work is primarily based on pop music with elements of hip-hop, ethnic music and contemporary chanson; his lyrics rely on colloquial language, everyday situations and satire about relationships, social habits and internet culture.
Before achieving mainstream success, Oleh Shkarpeta spent several years releasing original songs, performing covers and experimenting with different genres. His first original track, «Ратата», appeared in 2019. His music later incorporated hip-hop, R&B, pop and Ukrainian ethnic influences before the style that brought Shugar a wider audience fully took shape in the mid-2020s.
Childhood, education and first performances
Oleh Shkarpeta was born on August 31, 1995, in Khmelnytskyi. He did not receive professional musical training. His interest in singing began during his final years at school: at home, Oleh would play instrumental backing tracks and try performing familiar songs.
After finishing school, he enrolled at Khmelnytskyi University of Management and Law, where he studied economics. It was during his university years that he began taking music more seriously. A classmate who played guitar heard Oleh singing and invited him to join a band. Later, Shkarpeta formed an acoustic duo with another guitarist and began regularly performing covers in restaurants and at events.
For a long time, music remained a parallel pursuit. After university, Oleh worked as a graphic designer in IT and financed his recordings and music videos himself. He spent around seven and a half years in the field. When the number of concerts increased and music began providing a stable income, Shkarpeta left IT and focused entirely on his career as an artist. He retained his design skills: Shugar creates some of his own cover art and visual material for his pages.
How the stage name Shugar appeared
The stage name appeared before the release of his first original song. According to Oleh Shkarpeta, he did not want to release his debut under his real name and discussed possible options with a friend. The idea came about by chance in a supermarket, when his friend began listing the names of products. After the words «salt» and «sugar», Oleh settled on the English word Sugar, but decided to write it in Cyrillic as Шугар.
«Ратата» and the first original recordings
One of the impulses that encouraged him to move from cover songs to original material was the success of Jerry Heil with the song «Охрана, отмєна». Shugar later said that the track showed him how humor could work within a fully developed pop song.
The first result was «Ратата». The song was released in September 2019, with both lyrics and music written by Oleh Shkarpeta. It was followed by «Зая» and «Вайбєр». These releases did not yet make him widely known, but they marked the transition from a cover repertoire to his own discography.
The 2020–2023 period
During the 2020 quarantine, Shugar released the humorous songs «Корона» and «Маски», which played on the everyday realities of the pandemic. That same year, he also released «Апероль», «Шоколад» and «Чутки».
The next stage was considerably more diverse. In 2021, he released «Лаванда», «Туман», «Тону у тобі», «Листопад» and the collaboration «Лайм» with ХАС and Carroty. In January 2022, Afterparty appeared, followed in spring by a new version of «Чутки» with Carroty. These recordings showed a stronger influence of hip-hop, R&B and electronic pop music.
After the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Shugar released «Віддаю Притулі». The song appeared on July 20, 2022, and was connected to the large-scale fundraising campaigns organized by Serhiy Prytula. The musician explained that he wanted to write a light-hearted track about Ukrainians’ habit of constantly donating to support the army.
In 2023, Oleh Shkarpeta continued experimenting. Releases from this period include «Електрохарчі», «Дим» with ТОРІЯ, «Мавка» and «Ліхтарі». He submitted «Мавка» to Ukraine’s National Selection for Eurovision, although the song did not advance to later stages of the competition. According to the artist, it was one of his most demanding recordings of that period in terms of vocals and production.
«Олєг» and the beginning of mainstream popularity
2024 became the turning point. On February 1, Shugar released «Олєг». The song is built around a comic story about men trying to impress a woman with money and outward signs of success, even though she already has Oleh.
«Олєг» became the first of his releases to gain genuinely wide traction on TikTok. According to Suspilne Kultura, more than 20,000 videos were created using the song. Covers and mashups also appeared, combining the track with, among others, Radiohead and Charli XCX.
By that point, Oleh Shkarpeta had already been releasing music for around five years. Shugar’s story was therefore not one of instant success after a debut single: viral popularity came only after a long period of searching and experimentation.
«Тьотя»
On April 11, 2024, «Тьотя» was released and became his second major hit in a row. Oleh Shkarpeta is credited as the song’s author.
The protagonist is an adult woman who independently determines her own lifestyle and relationships with men. As in «Олєг», the humor comes primarily from the behavior of the surrounding characters. This structure later became a recurring feature of Shugar’s lyrics: men often appear not as romantic heroes, but as the object of satire.
«Олєг», «Тьотя» and the later «Токсік» became the three defining songs of the artist’s first period of mainstream popularity. Suspilne Kultura noted that the music videos for each of them surpassed ten million views.
«Пані Катерино», BMW and «Токсік»
On June 13, 2024, Shugar released «Пані Катерино», followed by BMW on August 8. Both songs continued his line of ironic dance-pop built around simple everyday situations.
On October 17, «Токсік» appeared. Here, Oleh Shkarpeta turned to the language of contemporary psychology and social media: the song uses concepts associated with toxic relationships, control, manipulation and abuse.
The idea did not come from the artist’s personal experience. Shugar said that he had heard similar stories from female acquaintances and frequently encountered jokes about toxic partners on TikTok. In this way, a serious subject was transformed into a dance-oriented satirical song. Oleh Shkarpeta is credited as the author of «Токсік», while Dmytro Sokolov is listed as producer and arranger.
«Діва» and continued success in 2025
On January 13, 2025, Shugar released «Діва», a satirical song about excessive fascination with horoscopes and astrological compatibility. The title also relates to the artist himself: Oleh Shkarpeta was born under the zodiac sign of Virgo.
It was followed by «Френдзона», «Відбита», «Ягода» and the collaboration «Йо-йо» with Nastia Borshch. By this time, Shugar’s songs were regularly appearing in Ukrainian streaming playlists and charts, while his concert audience had grown considerably.
One of the most notable collaborations of the autumn was «Панічка» with IVAN LIULENOV, released on October 9, 2025, through ENKO. In December, Shugar recorded «З понеділка» together with alyona alyona; Oleh Shkarpeta is listed among the song’s lyricists.
Concert at the Palace of Sports
On October 19, 2025, Shugar played a major solo concert at the Palace of Sports in Kyiv. According to the organizers, the event was attended by around 9,000 people. The program included his main hits from recent years, with IVAN LIULENOV among the invited guests.
The concert marked an important point in Oleh Shkarpeta’s career: an artist who until recently had built much of his promotion through short-form videos and online audiences had moved on to large solo venues.
2026
On January 15, 2026, Shugar and Nastia Borshch released the joint single «Онліфанс». It was later followed by «Душ», a remix of «Токсік» and «Зона Комфорту», released on July 9. As of September 2026, «Зона Комфорту» remains the latest solo single in his main Apple Music catalog.
His live activity also continued. On February 14, Shugar performed at Stereo Plaza in Kyiv; Suspilne Kultura published a dedicated report on the concert. At the beginning of the year, the musician also spoke about plans for touring across Ukraine and Europe.
Musical style
Shugar’s early recordings differ noticeably from the songs that later brought him widespread recognition. «Лаванда» and Afterparty lean toward hip-hop and R&B, while «Чутки» and «Мавка» use elements of Ukrainian ethnic music. Oleh Shkarpeta himself has named pop, contemporary American hip-hop and Ukrainian ethnic music among his musical interests.
Beginning with «Олєг», his main direction became straightforward dance-pop with elements of contemporary chanson. The arrangements are intentionally uncluttered: rhythm, a short melodic phrase and a recurring chorus carry most of the song.
The lyrics are just as important. Shugar uses ordinary conversational vocabulary, brand names and terms from TikTok, dating culture, psychology and pop culture. He does not try to turn this material into traditional pop poetry — the comic effect often comes precisely from the fact that the characters speak the language of everyday life.
At the same time, the songs are not limited to jokes. «Токсік» deals with controlling relationships, «Діва» with fascination with astrology, while «Олєг» mocks the idea that a woman’s attention can be won only through money and status. This combination of everyday humor and observations about contemporary relationships became the foundation of the most recognizable part of his repertoire.
Songwriting and visual identity
Oleh Shkarpeta writes or co-writes a significant share of his own material. Official credits list him as the author of «Зая», «Олєг», «Токсік» and other songs. A long-term musical collaborator is producer and sound engineer Dmytro Sokolov, who worked with him even on his early releases.
Shugar continues to use his graphic-design skills after leaving IT. He creates part of the visual design for his own releases and social-media pages. In interviews, Oleh has said that a song idea may begin with a melody, a phrase or a chord progression; some tracks are written in a single night, while others take several months.
Nastia Borshch
Blogger and singer Nastia Borshch, whose real name is Anastasiia Kovalchuk, is also closely associated with Shugar. The couple married in 2025. Nastia regularly appears in Oleh’s music videos and social-media content and also records music with him: «Йо-йо» was released in 2025, followed by «Онліфанс» in 2026.
Charity work
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Shugar has regularly linked his concert activity with fundraising. In February 2025, he said that his team was directing funds toward the rehabilitation of Ukrainian servicemen in Morshyn; by that point, around 150,000 hryvnias had been transferred.
In January 2026, the musician told Suspilne that fundraising was taking place at practically every concert. Areas of support include units of Ukraine’s Defense Forces and rehabilitation centers for servicemen.
Selected discography
- «Ратата» — 2019
- «Зая» — 2019
- «Корона» — 2020
- «Лаванда» — 2021
- Afterparty — 2022
- «Чутки» — with Carroty, 2022
- «Віддаю Притулі» — 2022
- «Парфуми» — 2022
- «Мавка» — 2023
- «Ліхтарі» — 2023
- «Олєг» — 2024
- «Тьотя» — 2024
- «Пані Катерино» — 2024
- BMW — 2024
- «Токсік» — 2024
- «Діва» — 2025
- «Френдзона» — 2025
- «Відбита» — 2025
- «Йо-йо» — with Nastia Borshch, 2025
- «Ягода» — 2025
- «Панічка» — with IVAN LIULENOV, 2025
- «З понеділка» — with alyona alyona, 2025
- «Онліфанс» — with Nastia Borshch, 2026
- «Душ» — 2026
- «Зона Комфорту» — 2026
Shugar did not achieve widespread recognition with his first release: several years passed between his early cover performances, his work in IT and the success of «Олєг», «Тьотя» and «Токсік». The formula he eventually found was simple but distinctive — conversational Ukrainian, everyday characters, self-irony and dance-oriented pop music. By the mid-2020s, Oleh Shkarpeta had turned viral popularity into a full-scale concert career while continuing to release solo songs and collaborations with artists from the Ukrainian music scene.
