Ruslana was born on 24 May 1973 in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) to Ukrainian parents Nina and Stepan Lyzhichko. She was raised in Lviv Oblast (province). Encouraged by her mother Ruslana studied from the age of four at an experimental musical school and sang in different bands, including in the vocal-instrumental band Horizon, the band Orion and the children’s ensemble Smile. After a ten-year secondary school with mathematical bias, Ruslana entered the Lviv State Musical Academy where she graduated as pianist and orchestra conductor in 1995.

Ruslana started her career as a winner of Slavyanskiy Bazar song competition in Vitebsk, Belarus in 1996. In the same year she was amongst the nomination for "The Singer of the year 1996" of the First All-Ukrainian National Show The Person of the Year and the video for "Dzvinkyi Viter" (Wind Bells) was awarded "Best video of the year" at the television festival The Golden Era.

In 1997, Ruslana began working on Christmas with Ruslana - the first Lviv Christmas television project of an All-Ukrainian scale including the video clip Ballad of a Princess which was the first animated music video in Ukraine.

Her first album Myt' Vesny - Dzvinkyj Viter ("A Moment of Spring – Wind Bells"), released in 1998, received high praise from the critics. Still, wider recognition didn't come until 1998 with the song Svitanok (Sunrise) and the album Myt' Vesny - Dzvinkyj Viter Live. Svitanok was the first big video clip in Ukraine. The song "Svitanok" was nominated "Song of the Year", and the music video "Svitanok" became "Best Music Video of the Year".

In 1999 she worked on the Christmas musical Ostanne rizdvo 90th (The Last Christmas of the 90's), which won the Ukrainian Movie of the Year award. With the video clip to the song Znaju Ja (I Know) which is about the ancient people of the Hutsuls living in the Ukrainian Carpathians, Ruslana set new standards for modern video clip filming.

Ruslana's father is from the West-Ukrainian area of the Hutsuls, the dwellers of the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains. They have a unique culture with an ancient and rich history which inspired Ruslana to create her song and album Wild Dances. The Wild Dances style combines powerful and permeating ethnic drums, trumpet sounds of the trembita, an ancient Hutsul music instrument with modern dance beats.

The album Dyki Tantsi (Wild Dances) was released in June 2003 in Ukraine. It was the first album ever to get triple platinum in Ukraine, selling over 300,000 copies. The English version of the album Dyki Tantsi was released in Europe in autumn 2004: Wild Dances - Welcome to my wild world. The song Wild Dances brought Ruslana the victory at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and entered dozens of European music charts.

Ruslana was chosen by NTU, using an internal selection, to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. Before the contest she was a hot favorite for victory by the bookmakers. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 she performed her self-composed song, Wild Dances and won the contest receiving 280 points (the highest amount of points received by a winner of the Eurovision Song Contest from the first 50 editions of the contest). Also, she received points from every country in the semi final and from every country except Switzerland in the final. Wild Dances was number one in Belgium for 10 consecutive weeks, Greece and Ukraine.

Ruslana opened the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song Hearton Fire. At the interval act she performed The Same Star which became a hit as soon as it was released, entering most of the music charts all around Europe.

Ruslana's song Wild Dances was named the Best of Eurovision by the Germans. On the television program Grand Prix Hitliste, Wild Dances was presented as the winner, ahead of famous songs, such as Waterloo and Germany's only winner, Ein Bißchen Frieden, which finished sixth and twelfth, respectively.

Ruslana was appointed Good Will Ambassador of Ukraine by the UNICEF and combats trafficking in human beings. She released two video clips which aim to make potential victims aware of the dangers of human trafficking.