A wave of personal stories about working with and meeting celebrities has spread across the Ukrainian segment of social media. The trigger was a thread on Threads, where a user under the handle bukhgolts.v asked who had ever worked with stars and what that experience had been like. In response, dozens of memories poured in — from touching to outright negative. Among the stars featured in the stories were Tina Karol, Nastya Kamenskikh, Kuzma Skryabin, Oleg Mykhailiuta (Fagot) of TNMK, Svietlana Tarabarova, Toto Cutugno, Vova Dantes, and LELÈKA. Below are the main storylines the users shared publicly.
Where the Wave of Confessions Came From
According to the outlet Styler, the discussion was kicked off precisely by that question on Threads about personal experience working with celebrities. The open-survey format triggered a chain reaction: people working in show business in all kinds of roles — from engineers and waitresses to photographers and administrators — recalled specific episodes. Most of the stories are subjective and reflect the individual experience of the tellers rather than an objective assessment of the artists, which is important to keep in mind when reading.
Kamenskikh’s “Toxic” Entourage
One user shared her experience working with Nastya Kamenskikh. She called the singer’s management “toxicos” she had never encountered before, and initially described Kamenskikh herself as “fine.” According to her, the impression changed after the artist’s remark: “Why are you so sad? Everyone around me should radiate positive energy.” The commenter emphasized that by that point she had already been on her feet for 12 hours, carrying the singer’s and her dancers’ costumes, and had hurt her back — even though, as she claims, she was not supposed to be doing that work at all, since she had been interviewing for a position related to ironing clothes.
Karol in Heels in the Camera Room
A very different, more surprised story was told by a user who had been working at a corporate event in Odesa where Tina Karol was performing. He was in the camera room — a round room under the ceiling, reachable only by a nearly vertical ladder — together with an engineer. At some point the men heard a question about who to hand the “minus” to, and then saw Tina pop out of a hatch in the floor. According to the teller, the singer was already fully ready for her performance and climbed up to them on the ladder in her stage outfit and in heels.
Fagot and a Pregnant Fan in Ulm
A warm story was left by a user who attended a TNMK charity concert in Ulm in the final weeks of her pregnancy. After the performance she joined the photo queue and, as she put it, did not ask anyone to let her skip the line. However, Fagot noticed her himself: “Please let the pregnant girl go, look, it’s hard for her to stand anymore.” The musician hugged her, asked who she was expecting, and upon hearing the answer “a Cossack, Sviatoslav,” told her that TNMK also has a colleague named Sviatoslav, wished her an easy delivery, signed posters, and asked whether someone would pick her up so she wouldn’t have to walk alone down a dark road to the trolleybus.
Skryabin: “the Sun in Concentrated Form”
Several users recalled meetings with Kuzma Skryabin. One of them was singing at a friend’s wedding, where he was the host, and was very upset to learn about it. According to her memories, the musician immediately surrounded her with care: “Little one, are you doing a soundcheck? Come on through! What are those name tags? You’re going to read them yourself? Nah, I’ll do it! Grab someone to dance with! I’m talented.” The author called him “the sun in concentrated form,” noting his depth and lack of “star quality,” as well as the fact that his love for Ukraine was felt in every word he said. Another user, who had worked as a waitress and served Skryabin and his team twice, and then met him again as a wedding host, described him as “the simplest and coolest guy” and called that wedding the funniest she had ever seen.
Cutugno, Tarabarova, Dantes, and LELÈKA
Another user admitted that she had not previously liked Svietlana Tarabarova’s songs, and some of them even irritated her, but after meeting her at a children’s party her opinion changed: she called the singer sincere, positive, and someone who came to delight the children “from the very heart.” A company providing VIP services at Dubai airport spoke about the Italian singer Toto Cutugno: because of the overcrowded airport and a road closure, the car could not reach the right exit, but the artist took the situation calmly, reassured the workers, and upon learning that the woman he was talking to was from Ukraine, began singing “Chervona Ruta.” A brief positive review was left about Vova Dantes, who had been hosting a corporate event — a “maximally simple and easygoing” person. A photographer who had worked with many artists singled out LELÈKA: according to her, the singer was almost the only one to immediately offer payment for the work and stood out for her open and kind communication with the team.
Contradictory Accounts
It is important to honestly note that the versions gathered in the thread differ sharply in tone. The overwhelming majority of stories (Fagot, Skryabin, Tarabarova, Cutugno, Dantes, LELÈKA, Karol) describe the artists as caring, simple, and attentive. At the same time, the story about Kamenskikh and her management is sharply negative: a “toxic” entourage and a demand to “radiate positivity” at a moment when the worker had hurt her back and was performing work outside her duties. These episodes are subjective personal impressions of individual people, not verified facts, and they are not supported by independent confirmation. Therefore, they should be taken as individual points of view rather than as a definitive characterization of any given star; different tellers may describe the same type of interaction differently depending on the context and their role on site.
