Valery Mikhailovich Didula (Belarusian: Валерій Міхайловіч Дзідзюля — Romanized: Valeriy Mikhaylovich Dzidzyulya), better known by his stage name, DiDuLa, is a Soviet-Belarusian guitarist, bouzoukist, composer and producer. He is known as the founder of the Belarusian-Russian instrumental folk band, DiDuLa.
Didula grew up in Grodno, Belarus, and was fascinated by music from a young age. He learned how to play the guitar at the age of five, and wrote his first compositions at 16 years old. In 1989, Didula was recruited into a dance ensemble known as the Scarlet Dawns. He learned a lot about music production from his mentor Nikolai Khitrik, composer of the Scarlet Dawns.
After the Scarlet Dawns' disbandment in 1991, Didula was recruited into the White Dews, another dance ensemble with influences from mostly Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Gypsy folk music and dance. As part of this ensemble, Didula first went on tour in Europe, visiting countries such as Spain, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, France, Germany. In Spain, he became acquainted with the flamenco genre.
After the disbandment of the White Dews, DiDuLa went on to work on his solo career. Having created instrumental hits such as "Flamenco," "Isadora," "Arabica," "Leila," and "Flight to Mercury," he gained a huge fanbase.
