Valentina Keys - The Ultimate Interview on The Andrew Eborn Show

Born on the Black Sea in Odessa, USSR, Valentina Keys was a child prodigy. At age six, she was accepted to study the arts of singing, piano, music theory, ballet, painting and composition. Classes would take place twice a week after normal school and on Saturdays. Add to this her private tuition in English and French, along with tennis lessons and the young Ukranian had little time for play.

Growing up in the shadow of the Chernobyl disaster informed Valentina’s other passion – the environment and the law. She was aware from a young age that the catastrophe could have been prevented if the right checks and risk assessments had been in place. She saw first hand the irreversible damage that environmental and health and safety incidents can cause when laws are either not enforced or observed.


With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, a 13-year old Valentina moved to St Andrews, Scotland with her parents who gained employment at the University teaching Russian. It was a huge culture shock and she was terribly homesick, struggling to make new friends: -


“I remember that I struggled to make friends at school at first because I could not understand the Scottish accent. Other kids at school would try to talk to me but I could not answer as I didn't understand them and would ask them to repeat. But they had no patience to repeat so it was frustrating for both sides.”


Valentina poured her emotion into music and writing songs. Her first was in Russian and titled Odessa after her home, but she soon began writing in English and performing her material. It was these songs and performances that broke down the cultural and language barriers and built bridges. She became popular with the other children and known as the talented and musical one, even picking up a Scottish accent!





Coming from a family of academics, musicians and artists, Valentina had seen how they had struggled and was determined to find her own independence. She studied Spanish, Russian and Catalan at Cambridge University and then opted for a career in Law in order to pay off her student debts and gain the financial security she realised she would need in making her musical dreams and aspirations a reality.

Given her experiences growing up in the USSR, Environmental Law was a clear and obvious path for her passions: -


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