Sasha Norova has spoken about her nearly 18-year relationship with her late husband, ADAM frontman Mykhailo Klymenko, ahead of a special television tribute broadcasting in Ukraine. The Ukrainian dancer revealed that she still lives with Klymenko in her thoughts following his death in December 2025 from tuberculous meningitis, a severe bacterial infection affecting the brain membranes.
Her comments come ahead of the premiere of a new television segment titled Closer to Love on Ukraine's TET television network. The broadcast, scheduled to air as part of the regular entertainment project Closer to the Stars on Sunday at 10:00 a.m., focuses on romantic relationships that continue to endure even after profound loss.
A few months after Klymenko passed away, Norova organized a massive open-air memorial concert in Kyiv that drew six thousand attendees and more than two dozen Ukrainian musical artists. Rather than hosting an event focused entirely on sorrow, she chose to create a vibrant celebration of her husband's creative legacy, explaining that it was the exact kind of gathering Klymenko would have wanted to see.
Spontaneous romance and college beginnings
The couple first met as young students sharing a dormitory at the Variety and Circus College in Kyiv, a renowned Ukrainian performing arts institution now known as the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Arts. Klymenko studied vocal performance while Norova trained in choreography, beginning a lifelong partnership that lasted nearly eighteen years and produced two children, their son Mark and daughter Nila.
Norova recalled how the couple enjoyed simple shared experiences throughout their years together, including long walks and spontaneous trips to attend music concerts. She described how they would frequently decide on impulse to remain in a town overnight, quickly purchasing basic items such as toothbrushes, socks, and underwear on the spot. She noted that Klymenko possessed a lighthearted and spontaneous nature that she continues to miss deeply.
Friends of the couple also remembered the lighthearted nature of their love, recalling how they frequently rode electric scooters across Kyiv while holding hands, laughing, and seeking out each other's gaze during ordinary conversation.
Musical legacy and artistic tributes
Norova served as the principal muse for Klymenko throughout his career leading ADAM, a Ukrainian indie pop group whose songs became romantic soundtracks for thousands of lovers across the nation. One of the band's notable tracks, titled Sylyno, sylyno, originated during a night train journey following a concert in the Black Sea port city of Odesa. Klymenko embraced Norova on the train and told her that he loved her in Odesa, an expression that was later adapted into a song that Norova released independently after his death.
Prominent figures in the Ukrainian music industry also reflected on the couple's relationship. Singer Oleksandr Ponomaryov stated that Klymenko effectively shielded Norova from the entire world throughout their marriage. Bandura player and musician Marina Krut admitted that Klymenko's devotion set a personal standard for her own future relationships, stating she would never marry unless her partner loved her as deeply as Klymenko loved Norova.
Norova expressed that Klymenko's memory lives on through the songs that now carry new emotional meaning for her, through their two children who embody their father, and through the shared memories of close friends who stood beside them. The television profile documenting their story airs on Sunday morning on TET.
