Ukraine
Ukrainian electro-folk duo ONUKA spent last summer touring European concert halls and headlining festivals. Now, due to a recent wartime directive, they must remain inside their home country — so the band boards trains and buses to gigs at underground shelters, as well as buildings near metro stations, in case Russian missile attacks interrupt the music.
“These shelters can accommodate up to 1,000 people. It’s a big concrete room with some seats,” says Eugene Filatov, 41, ONUKA’s producer, who performs with his wife, frontwoman Nata Zhyzhchenko, 39, and five bandmates. “People still need this cultural life.”
The group recently downsized its 2025 touring ambitions due to a late-February announcement by Ukraine’s culture ministry: As of March 3, male Ukrainian “journalists and culture professionals” of draft age will no longer receive recommendation letters for traveling abroad. So ONUKA is performing closer to its Kyiv home, readying a new album, the long-delayed Ukrainian Constructivism, for release next month, and spending more time with the couple’s children, 4-year-old Alex and 1-year-old Lina.
Trending on Billboard
By Telegram call from Kyiv, three days after U.S. President Donald Trump‘s chaotic and disturbing Oval Office news conference with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Filatov and Zhyzhchenko discuss the long-term impact of Russia’s February 2022 invasion on their family and music. (Filatov, who has an “education sector” deferral from military enlistment because he is a lecturer at Ukraine’s Chernihiv Music College, also responded to follow-up email questions.)
When we previously spoke in 2023, ONUKA was still touring the world. Nata said, “When you are outside, especially when your child or parents or family is here, it’s very hard to accept.” How is your family? Is everybody OK?
Zhyzhchenko: Our kids are safe. They’re all right. The first night, in maternity hospital, [Lina] spent the night inside. That was the worst night for us. I think she’s a war kid. She decided to come to our family in a country that is at war, in a city at war, in the night.
“War kid.”
Zhyzhchenko: This generation of children are totally war kids. They have another mentality, and this is their route, this is their life, this is their routine. We don’t have to compare our childhood with their childhood, because they are another generation. They are a war generation.
In our past interviews, you’ve spoken of Russian missiles disturbing your lives. Are explosions still happening where you live in Kyiv?
Zhyzhchenko: It’s still going on. We have another kind of weapons. It’s like flying scooters.
Filatov: It’s like big drones. Every night, there are a couple hundred of them. We sometimes hear it.
Zhyzhchenko: It sounds like a scooter, and they are flying at nighttime. That’s why the sound spreads very brightly, and physically that is why we can define them from a few kilometers. When we are lying in our beds, it’s some kind of big noise scooter sound in the sirens of night.
How terrifying.
Filatov: Thanks for the American people who are supporting Ukraine. We feel much more safe, because American systems are really, really huge and really helpful. It saves our lives. The explosions happen mostly every day, somewhere, in some cities of Ukraine.
Zhyzhchenko: It doesn’t stop.
Filatov: It’s kind of a lottery.
Zhyzhchenko: A few weeks ago, some piece of this drone collapsed near our house, and it injured the post office. This is the post office —
Filatov: — where we take our packages mostly every day.
Zhyzhchenko: Even a few times a day. It’s close here to us, less than a kilometer. We have this acceptance. It’s our reality.
Filatov: Life goes on, anyway.
How are you able to play shows under these conditions?
Filatov: Performing in shelters is a relatively new practice for Ukrainian artists. In Kharkiv, all cultural events take place exclusively in venues that have shelters — no theaters or concert halls operate unless they provide a safe space.
Zhyzhchenko: Everything happens under rockets. We have to take that fact.
What do the shelter performances feel like?
Zhyzhchenko: It’s a very pleasant feeling, because you know your performance won’t be interrupted. You have to evacuate people if you hear the siren. In a shelter, you have to not interrupt your performance. It’s some kind of comfort and very confident feeling.
How do you get to the shows?
Filatov: We usually travel either by train or by bus with the whole team. Trains can sometimes be the fastest option, especially when border queues are long, but traveling by road gives us more flexibility. So, we just trust our luck and hope for a smooth crossing. Sometimes, though, it turns into quite an adventure — like [summer 2024], when we had to travel non-stop for two days from a festival in Poland just to make it in time for Atlas Weekend in Kyiv.
Who takes care of your kids when you are performing outside of Kyiv?
Filatov: We have a support system that includes nannies, grandparents and kindergarten. They take turns depending on the circumstances.
Do your kids get to see any of the performances? What do they think?
Filatov: They are really small. Our small girl doesn’t even understand, for now, what’s going on. Our boy, Alex — it’s sad to notice that in the kindergarten, for example, they have some games, and they [name] the games after the weapons, or the missiles, or the drones.
Zhyzhchenko: When they are in kindergarten, they go to a shelter, and it is some kind of ritual. They call this shelter “the cave.” He says, “We were in the cave today, and we draw in there,” or singing some song in this cave. It’s not so terrifying for him, because it’s his reality. No one is panicking, because we have adjusted to it. The main safety is the behavior of elder people and adults around this situation.
How are the rest of your family — parents, grandparents, siblings?
Zhyzhchenko: Everyone is safe. Everyone is working with the nation and charity causes and everyone volunteers. But inside our musical team, some people are on the front line. … Everyone has some relatives or friends who [have] died and these deaths are closer and closer.
Who are you referring to, “inside our musical team”?
Zhyzhchenko: Our graphic designer was on the front line and now we have no answer [from] him. This is a hard situation, how to understand that nothing is OK. You just have to see when this person was online the last time, and you see that this date is not changing. It’s hard to realize that maybe he’s captured, maybe he’s in hospital. But I think the reality is much worse. We are trying to go through with his command, and get information about what happened to him.
What did you make of the Feb. 28 press conference with President Zelensky and President Trump?
Zhyzhchenko: All people are very upset about what’s going on. But I think all this is temporary. Everything changes so much. It’s like a roller coaster. Some days we are best friends, the next day we are enemies, the next day we are supporters, the next day it’s very chaotic.
I do hope all people in the world understand that Russia invaded Ukraine, and we are the victim and we are standing. … We defend all Europe, because everything will be changing, very fast and terrible, if Ukraine falls. I really believe we will stand and we will not fall and we will survive.
If I wanted to leave, I would leave Ukraine. But I’m here with my little kids. I actually truly and sincerely believe in this roller coaster life.
One night during the last week in February, a crowd of fans wrapped in Ukrainian flags gathered in front of the 4,200-capacity Tempodrom in Berlin to shop for keyrings and souvenirs with Ukrainian emblems and pose for pictures with a person dressed up as a dog that has become a symbol of the country’s war effort. Inside, before the band Okean Elzy took the stage, fans spontaneously sang part of the Ukrainian national anthem, which at least three-quarters of the people there seemed to recognize.
Okean Elzy (pronounced so it sounds like a duo of “Okee and Elzee”) has been one of the most popular acts in Ukraine for more than two decades, and in the three years since Russia invaded the country, both it and frontman Sviatoslav Vakarchuk have become symbols of its cause. As that cause becomes more urgent — and as the number of Ukrainian refugees who live elsewhere grows — the band’s music is also starting to resonate more outside its home market.
Trending on Billboard
Last year, the band released its first English-language album — the obvious but inexact musical comparison is Coldplay — and signed a global deal with Warner Music Group to expand its audience internationally. Now Vakarchuk, who goes by Slava, is using his stature as a popular musician to raise awareness of his country’s plight, without getting trapped in a morass of specific politics. In pop music terms, he is more akin to the Bono of 1983 — the white-flag-waving moral crusader for peace — than the Bono of 2003 who took meetings with lawmakers.
One of his goals is to show the West another side of the country they are supporting. “I don’t want Ukraine only to be associated with news from the frontline,” Vakarchuk says over a cup of coffee in a hotel lobby the next day. “We love sympathy, we love compassion, we love support, but we want people in the West to also to fall in love with something, and Ukrainian culture is a perfect thing.”
This raises an obvious question: What did he think of President Donald Trump’s car wreck of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky? “Russia is the aggressor,” Vakarchuk says in an email, days after an interview in Berlin the day after the concert. “Ukraine is defending itself. We are sincerely grateful to the American people for all the help Ukrainians have received and are receiving.”
Vakarchuk needs to walk a tightrope of sorts — he was involved in politics years ago as a member of Ukrainian parliament and he founded the political party Holos (it translates as “voice” or “vote”), but he has retired from that. His politics were pro-Europe, which can be contentious in a country that has only been independent in its modern incarnation since 1991 and has been struggling with Russian interference or invasions almost ever since. “I treated politics as a public duty,” he says, noting he retired from it a half-decade ago. “I hate it as an operational thing. I have no taste for fighting for power.”
Vakarchuk seems to see music as the continuation of politics by other means — not only as an art form but also a way to influence the world. To him, “Music is the most influential thing that changes the world.” If rock bands and pop culture played at least some role in bringing down the Iron Curtain — and Bruce Springsteen’s 1988 concert in East Berlin might have played a significant one — why can’t Okean Elzy have some influence? Vakarchuk takes care to point out that he’s retired from politics — he wants the war to end, but he doesn’t want to go back to that. But at a time when rock barely tops sales charts, let alone topples walls, simply thinking that way sets the band apart from most of its peers.
That’s part of the reason the band started recording in English. Back in 2022, when Okean Elzy played Prague, Vakarchuk was recognized on the street by people who knew him less from his music than from his appearances on television news, where he sometimes commented on the Russian invasion. “Many of them said, ‘We love you and we support you, but we can’t understand what you’re singing,’” Vakarchuk remembers. The next day, the band decided to make an album in English. That required a global promotional push, which in turn required a big label that could match Vakarchuk’s ambitions. “I don’t only want to break the band in the West,” he says. “I want to break Ukraine culturally in the West.
This could be more important than it might seem. Americans and Europeans tend to see foreign military conflicts as remote — which, in geographic terms, the war in Ukraine is. But the conflict is essentially about whether the country can break out of Russia’s geopolitical orbit to move toward Europe politically. Having Ukrainian artists to admire might matter — especially since Trump seems to admire the raw power politics of Russian president Vladimir Putin. It could make a difference if Americans feel that Ukraine deserves not only sympathy but also support to achieve a peace deal that secures its independence.
“We Ukrainians most of all want an end to the war and a sustainable and just peace with security guarantees for Ukraine,” Vakarchuk says. “We are fighting to achieve this goal and we are grateful to everyone who supports us.”
For now, the band’s show comes with a good deal of patriotic flair, but much of that comes from the audience. “It’s an inevitable reaction to use your political tokens, like flags, to shout at the world — ‘We’re here! And we’re big and we’re strong,’” Vakarchuk says. But Vakarchuk hopes that both his band and his country will move beyond this. “When we are finally done with the war and we secure our independence and develop as a normal European nation, like Denmark or Sweden,” he says, “then the politicizing of events will go.”
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty / Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Donald Trump
Today was an embarrassing moment for the United States after Felon 47 aka Donald Trump and his Vice President tried to come at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a televised meeting in the Oval Office.
Volodmyr Zelenskyy was sent home for checking Donald Trump in his house. Things went completely wrong during the meeting after Vice President JD Vance. Remember him? He had the gall to suggest that Trump’s Ukrainian counterpart did not express enough gratitude for the help he received from the United States in his country’s continued effort to fight back against Russian invaders and is standing in the way of peace.
JD Vance Does His Best Please & Protect Orange Mussolini
Zelenskyy gave Vance a much-needed history lesson on Russia/Ukraine relations which didn’t sit well with Trump’s VP.
“What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?” Zelenskyy asked Vance.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance replied, pointing his finger repeatedly at Zelenskyy.
“Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media … You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict,” Vance said.
With some “bass” in his voice, Vance continued, “Do you think it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
https://x.com/kaitlancollins/status/1895529604338892805
After Zelenskyy warned that problems could reach US shores, Trump jumped in with Vance doing his best to please Orange Mussolini.
“Have you said ‘thank you’ once in the entire meeting? In the entire meeting, have you said ‘thank you?’… Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America — and the president who’s trying to save your country,” Vance continued.
https://x.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1895554992259711398
Donald Trump Had Something To Say
During the shouting match, Trump managed to get some words, telling Zelenskyy, “You’re not really in a good position right now,” while raising his voice.
“You’re gambling the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump continued.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1895528700894195971
Trump Allegedly Gave Zelenskyy The Boot
According to TMZ, Trump asked Zelenskyy to leave the White House, canceling a planned lunch between the two leaders, news conference and not even signing the natural resources agreement.
Trump hopped on his crappy social media platform, Truth Social, to talk about the disgraceful meeting.
“We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE,” Trump said.
He continued, “He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Zelenskyy also had something to say on X, formerly Twitter, writing in a post, “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people.”
Speaking of X, the consensus on the platform is President Zelenskyy clowned both Trump and Vance, and the rest of the world has also let Ukraine know they are not alone even though the US seems to be on the wrong side of history now.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
HipHopWired Featured Video
Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Marjorie Taylor Greene was swiftly rebuked by congressional colleague Maxwell Frost for complaining about “Nazis in Ukraine” in a hearing.
On Wednesday (April 17) at a congressional hearing by the House Oversight Committee which was entitled “Defending America from the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare,” Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene decided to devote her time to talk about another subject. “It’s amazing to me that just in a few years time, it’s now considered misinformation to talk about the Nazis in Ukraine,” Greene remarked.
[embedded content]
“According to Christopher Wray, the FBI director, he said that [the Azov Brigade] has been recruiting and radicalizing and training American citizens for years. He also finished saying in his testimony to the U.S. Senate that American white supremacists are actually traveling overseas to train,” she added. “I don’t think anyone in the United States government — Americans do not support actual Nazis or white supremacists,” Greene concluded. “I know I certainly do not.” Those words wouldn’t go unchallenged, and Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Alejandro Frost made sure of it. “It’s interesting to hear my colleague just now talk about disavowing white supremacists when in 2022 you — she spoke at an event hosted by white supremacists and white nationalist Nick Fuentes,” Frost began. “And when asked about it, doubled down on it and said we’re gonna focus on people, not labels. So get out of here with that damn hypocrisy,” he added.
Frost’s words would be followed up by similarly strong comments by his fellow Floridian congressman, Jared Moskowitz. “Stop bringing up Nazis and Hitler. The only people who know about Nazis and Hitler are the 10 million people and their families who lost their loved ones — generations of people who were wiped out,” Moskowitz began. “It is enough of this disgusting behavior, using Nazis as propaganda. You want to talk about Nazis? Get yourself over to the Holocaust Museum. You go see what Nazis did. It’s despicable that we use that, and we allow it, and we sit here like somehow it’s regular,” he stated.
Greene’s referral to “Nazis in Ukraine” is related to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repeated false claims, which he’s used to justify his nation’s invasion of Ukraine which began in February 2022. The Georgia congresswoman is also no stranger to domestic white supremacists like Milo Yiannnopoulos, who was embroiled in a scandal while running Kanye West’s political campaign.
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE
Source: Prince Williams / Getty / Cardi B
If you’re a political hopeful or veteran hoping for a Cardi B endorsement, it’s not coming. The Bronx rapper is washing her hands of politics.
The “Bodak Yellow” rapper is fed up with the current political system and expressed her frustrations during an Instagram Live session.
Cardi B, who has always been quite vocal about politics and what is happening in the country and globally, was BIG MAD about NYC Mayor Eric Adam’s proposed budget cuts.
Mayor Mixxy’s 5% budget cuts will affect a bunch of NYC departments to help compensate for the billions of dollars that the city has to spend to take care of asylum seekers who have come to the city.
The New York Post reports that Adams plans to cut $32 million from the sanitation department, $74 million from the FDNY, and $547 million from the Department of Education.
Adams will also be getting rid of a bunch of street garbage cans in the outer boroughs, and 34 popular cultural institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Natural History will see their budgets cut by $6 million, according to the New York Post.
Mayor Adams Reasoning For The Severe Cuts
Regardless of there being a legitimate reason for the severe cuts, the Grammy Award-winning artist is not here for them, claiming things like the city will be “drowning in rats” (that’s been a problem forever) due to cuts to sanitation and crime will “go through the roof” because of the cuts coming to the NYPD.
“In New York, there is a $120m budget cut that’s going to affect schools, public libraries, and the police department. And a $5m budget cut in sanitation … We are gonna be drowning in … rats,” Cardi B said during the live session.
Mayor Adams might be on the side of Cardi B, who warned that more cuts would be necessary without additional federal funding to help manage the influx of migrants in NYC.
Per The Guardian:
Migrant costs are going up, tax revenue growth is slowing, and [Covid-19] stimulus funding is drying up,” Adams said in a statement.
“No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, today’s budget will be only the beginning.
Cardi B Is No Longer Endorsing Presidents
The Biden Administration has not agreed to Mayor Adam’s pleas for funding amid the growing criticism for the continued funding to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion and Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas, something Bardi touched on in her passionate IG Live along with announcing she is no longer endorsing presidents.
“I’m endorsing no presidents no more,” Cardi B said. “Joe Biden is talking about, ‘Yeah, we can fund two wars,’… talking about, ‘Yeah, we got it, we’re the greatest nation.’ No … we’re not. We don’t got it, and we’re going through some shit right now. So say it!”
She continued, “We are really, really, really f**ked right now. No, we cannot fund these … wars.”
Someone asked if the country is going “broke,” she replied, “Yes, it is. We ain’t got McDonald’s money.” Despite her claims, the country has seen some solid economic numbers. You can read about that here.
Further condemning Biden’s alleged terrible handling of the economy and foreign policy, she said, “Feed that … to somebody else, twinkle, but don’t feed it to me.” She then promised to ” get to the bottom of it.”
We will await those findings.
X Users React
Elon Musk’s sorry platform X has been a hotbed for discourse since Israel began bombing Gaza in retaliation to Hamas’ brutal attack on October 7.
Many have called on political leaders, mainly Democrats, including President Joe Biden, to call for a ceasefire in protests across the globe.
Recently, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has been the target of many protests, and other Democrats. Still, some are pointing out the fact that the House of Representatives is currently under Republican control and are wondering why that energy isn’t being applied to the GOP and its batsh*t crazy members.
Many responded to Cardi B’s video by pointing out that she was aiming her valid criticisms in the wrong direction and that the Biden/Harris administration has nothing to do with New York City’s budget.
One thing is for sure: the upcoming presidential election will be a hot mess. We hope Cardi B and others understand that there is a lot on the line with a GOP hell-bent on “Making America White oops Great Again.”
Until then, you can see more reactions in the gallery below.
—
Photo: Prince Williams / Getty
2. Political Cardi is a hit with fans
6. Of course, you should not be shocked the MAGA folks will use this to their advantage.
Katy Perry took to social media on Monday (March 27) to highlight Orlando Bloom’s partnership with UNICEF to help bring humanitarian aid to the children of Ukraine.
“So proud of the work you are doing with @unicef, my love,” she wrote alongside her fiancé’s video of his in-person meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “You are a hero in real life too.”
In his own caption, which Perry also reposted, the Carnival Row actor explained the work he’s helping with in the embattled country. “Thousands of schools in Ukraine have been damaged or completely destroyed. Thousands of schools in Ukraine have been damaged or completely destroyed. Almost 2.7 million Ukrainian schoolchildren are forced to study online or in a mixed format. About 1.5 million Ukrainian boys and girls are at risk of developing depression, anxiety and other psychological problems.
“During the meeting, we discussed humanitarian aid projects, issues of reconstruction focused specifically on the interests of children,” he continued. “@unicef and our teams will work in several directions, bring victory closer and return a happy childhood to Ukrainian children.
Meanwhile, Perry is currently busy with the latest season of ABC’s American Idol, where she’s once again on the judging panel with Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. And though the trio’s sixth go-round together has already found potential stars in the likes of Platinum ticket winner Cam Amen, Kya Monée and Mariah Faith, Perry’s critiques for hopeful Sara Beth Liebe have sparked a backlash accusing her of “mom shaming.”
Read Perry’s tribute to Bloom below.
Kalush Orchestra, the Ukrainian act that captured the world’s attention last year when it won the Eurovision Song Contest as its country was being torn apart by war, wraps up a second North American tour on March 16 with a performance at SXSW in Austin.
The seven-member group’s song “Stefania” won Eurovision in Turin, Italy, with a record-setting 438 points from the public, reflecting the widespread pro-Ukraine sentiment at least year’s event three months after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion.
After the competition, Kalush Orchestra did an 18-show promotional tour, with performances in Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and at Glastonbury Festival in the U.K., before embarking on a 13-city North American tour. The shows helped raise funds for the Ukrainian armed forces. The group also sold its Eurovision trophy for $900,000, with the proceeds earmarked for the purchase of combat drones for Ukraine’s military. (The band raised $1.6 million overall.)
The current five-city U.S. jog cements the group as one of the few Eurovision winners to turn a victory at the pan-European competition into global success, following in the footsteps of ABBA, which won with “Waterloo” in 1974, and Måneskin, which triumphed with “Zitti e Buoni” in 2021. Billboard talked to the Kalush Orchestra’s founder and leader, rapper Oleh Psiuk, via Zoom about returning to the U.S., the impact of Eurovision on the band’s career and the ongoing war with Russia, which is now in its second year.
BB: Who came up with the idea for this new tour?
First, we were invited to the big showcase festival SXSW in Austin. We considered it to be a very cool opportunity, so we decided we should show our creativity, our works and of course we decided that then we could visit several cities which we’ve never been to in the U.S. before. That’s how our new tour was born, even though the previous one was just five months ago.
What was that first tour like and what would you like to see this time?
We had 18 concerts during the previous tour, and they were daily, so unfortunately, we saw only airports and the venues where we had those concerts. But still, we had a little bit of time to see sunny Los Angeles. L.A. is my favorite because I’ve always been listening to the music and to the performers from that area. And this time I do hope we’ll have more time to see and enjoy your country.
What performers from the West Coast are your favorites?
I love the performers from the so-called Golden Era. Like N.W.A, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. I listen to lots of music from the West Coast.
Last time you met Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he appeared in your video for ‘Generous Evening’ and spoke in Ukrainian. Are there any plans this time to meet any celebrities or government figures?
We don’t have any plans now, but honestly speaking we didn’t have any plans then as well. We wrote to Arnold that very day when we met and that was a lucky coincidence. So we do hope that this time we’ll also have such a day when we write to someone famous and we’ll have an opportunity to meet.
In the U.S., Eurovision is not that well known, though the Will Ferrell film (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga) has helped increase awareness. How did American audiences find you on your first tour?
The bigger part of our audience was still Ukrainians who are living in the U.S. But there were other people who were coming to our concerts. The people who knew Eurovision, what it is, or people who just saw some announcement or billboard in the city and they decided to see us. They were just curious to get to know who we are, but after the concert, all kinds of people came up to us because they really loved it.
What are the main goals you want to accomplish for both the band and Ukraine?
First, we would like to show our music, for it to be known both in the U.S. and in Europe. Whatever city we visit, we’d like to perform and disseminate Ukrainian culture, for it to be well known anywhere. And, of course, we are raising money using the QR codes and the auctions. Last year, we raised 60 million hryvnia ($1.6 million) and we do hope to raise even more this time.
What does the money you raise support?
We send this money to some of the well-known foundations like United24 and the Sergey Prytula Foundation. And we buy armored vests and helmets and other important things for our war servicemen and military.
Kalush Orchestra
Katrin Oleynik
How do you feel when you’re out of your country? Does the trauma of the war continue?
Honestly speaking, it does not affect me. It does not influence me whether I’m in Ukraine or not, because there are lots of relatives and my parents and close friends, my good acquaintances who are now in Ukraine and I would say that I worry for them more than for myself. Because I don’t worry about myself that much. Obviously, I carry this burden with me everywhere and this kind of anxiety for them.
Let’s talk about what American audiences can expect on this current tour. Will you play new songs?
Yes. We have prepared a program which includes some of the new songs and some of the ones which have just been issued. For instance, we just issued a very new song which has the title “Changes.” It’s a very cool song with a cool video, which reflects all the changes which we are waiting for. We have a program which unites something authentic with some new styles.
Will an album be coming out soon?
So far, we plan to release singles. If we speak about the album coming out, it is planned closer to the end of the current year or maybe in the beginning of the next year. So far, we are issuing singles with cool videos in English.
It’s been not quite a year since you won Eurovision. How has your life changed, and the career trajectory of the band changed since?
We can now play a bigger role. We can have more impact on the bigger and vaster audience. We can disseminate our concert abroad and we can cover a broader audience with that. We can tell more about Ukrainian culture abroad.
That must have been an important reason for participating in Eurovision in the first place.
Yes, there were many reasons. Not only this one, but it was so important for us to win at this Eurovision, because victory is so important for Ukraine in every aspect. We made lots of people happy with this victory and we do hope it will go on like this.
Ukraine first won Eurovision in 2004 when Ruslana triumphed with “Wild Dances.” Where were you that year when she won? What did her victory mean to you and Ukraine?
I was only 10 years old then, so I don’t remember that much. But I do remember that it was a big noise, a big event in Ukraine. It had a huge resonance as an event. It was because Eurovision for Ukraine was always a very important competition.
What is next for the band after the American tour? Will there be any more touring in other countries?
Sure. We would like to get to as many of various festivals as possible to show our music and culture to the maximum. We would like to have as productive a year as the previous one was, to raise as much money and to disseminate information about us, about Ukraine.
The Kalush Orchestra’s 2023 U.S. tour dates:
March 9 — Cleveland, OH @ Cleveland Masonic
March 10 — Orlando, FL @ The Beacham
March 11 — Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick
March 12 — Atlanta, GA @ District Atlanta
March 16 — Austin, TX @ SXSW
At the Eurovision 2023 Song Contest in May, 37 countries will participate, but only one nation is sending their act to the competition in Liverpool while their country is fighting a war. Tvorchi, the electronic music duo from Ukraine, has been recording and rehearsing while their homeland is under attack by forces commanded by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the weeks of early preparation and national competitions, the duo – producer Andrii (Andrew) Hutsuliak and vocalist Jimoh Augustus Kehinde (a.k.a. Jeffery Kenny) – ran from shelter to shelter to avoid unpredictable drone and missile strikes and weathered intermittent electricity outages. And while most countries vying for the Eurovision crown hold their national finals in theaters or arenas, Ukraine’s live broadcast for the 2023 contest took place in December at an underground metro station that has been used as a bomb shelter, with trains passing on both sides of the stage.
“We didn’t imagine this might happen, that any minute you could be killed by missiles,” co-founder Hutsuliak tells Billboard via Zoom. “In the first week of war, we had a lot of emotions, and we transferred all those emotions into how we can help our country and how to be more productive.”
The war affected the participation of Tvorchi (“creative” in Ukrainian) in Ukraine’s national final to determine which song would go to Eurovision, forcing the duo to do some recordings in shelters “There are the times we just grab the equipment and to go to the shelter and wait for the air (sirens) to turn off,” he says. During Tvorchi’s preparations in Kyiv, one day they were shooting video when an alarm sounded signaling a drone strike and missile attack, recalls Hutsuliak. “We ran to the shelter and were sitting there for four hours.”
With many power plants destroyed by Russian attacks, Ukrainian officials have conserved electricity by periodically shutting it off. “When you hear the alarm and the missiles strike, the electricity can go off,” says Hutsuliak. “We look for generators and big power banks where you can plug your laptop in there and charge your devices and go on.”
Since winning Ukraine’s national final, Tvorchi has focused on preparing its music and trying to tune out the dangerous conditions that threaten their lives. “We’re not physically participating in rehearsals yet,” says Hutsuliak. “We’re trying to get the music done as quickly as possible then we can move on to the choreography and trying out costumes and rehearsing for the show on stage.”
U.K. Steps Up To Host Despite Ukraine’s 2022 Eurovision Win
By tradition, the country that wins Eurovision hosts the competition the following year. In 2022, Ukraine won with The Kalush Orchestra’s “Stefania.” While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted his country to host the 2023 contest, the European Broadcasting Union selected the U.K. as substitute host, deeming it too dangerous to have the annual event in Ukraine.
“We are thankful that Britain is going to organize this and make it happen,” says Hutsuliak. The promos for the 2023 Eurovision will feature the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag inside the traditional heart-shaped logo, even though the competition is being held in the U.K.
Tvorchi and the delegation from Ukraine will have to travel from their besieged country to Liverpool, where the Eurovision final will be held on May 13 at the M&S Bank Arena. The duo has already been to London for a performance at the O2 Arena last fall, held to raise funds to buy military equipment for Ukraine.
While the country is under attack by air, there are no flights coming in or out of Ukrainian airports. “We can only travel by car or train,” says Hutsuliak. “Before Putin’s invasion, it took four or five hours to fly to London. [For the O2 performance] it took us 24 hours to get there. We traveled by car to the airport in Krakow, Poland and then we flew to Warsaw. Then we caught another plane to London.”
Even in London, the electronic duo struggled to avoid the feeling of trauma. “You hear a plane flying overhead and you get scared or anxious for no reason,” says Hutsuliak. “But it was nice to meet Ukrainians who lived in our country before the invasion, and it is nice to interact with them. There are Ukrainian people who live in Berlin, in London, in Portugal and in Spain and we appreciated sharing emotions and being in the moment.”
Both members of Tvorchi say it is important to continue making music and appearing on a global platform such as Eurovision. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to spread our message as well as represent the country,” Kenny tells Billboard. “Ukrainians don’t want to be pitied,” adds Hutsuliak. “You need to look at us and get inspired, be united and help so we can help you tomorrow.”
The duo has raised money for the Ukranian army and urges others to donate money and equipment, and to stream music from Ukrainian artists. (Among the platforms receiving donations is one organized by President Zelensky, United24.)
Tvorchi’s song for Eurovision, “Heart of Steel,” was inspired by the siege of Azovstal in Mariupol when the Ukrainian army defended the steel and iron works there, holding out for 82 days under brutal conditions before finally surrendering in May. The lyrics are also a warning about nuclear warfare. Tvorchi is keenly aware that Eurovision was originally created to peacefully unite the nations of Europe several years after the end of World War II.
“Heart Of Steel” is not Tvorchi’s first song inspired by the conflict with Russia. In the first months after the invasion began, they wrote a song called “Boremosia” whose lyrics include:
We fight and will win over everyone
the bullets are flying but we are strong
we fight, the worlds are divided
the voices for freedom have become as one
Last June, Tvorchi performed “Boremosia” for army soldiers in a camp, on a stage atop a big truck. “They opened the place where they usually store some ammunition,” says Hutsuliak “It was very valuable for us to be there to talk with the [soldiers] and support each other, to share the emotions and just be in the moment.”
One year ago, singers, songwriters, producers, guitarists, drummers and bandura players from Ukraine were making the transition from being musicians to soldiers, refugees and volunteers.
In interviews with Billboard, they complained of headaches and stress as they navigated their new daily routines of sheltering from bombing attacks. Today, the entire group of 14, from veteran rock star Oleg Skrypka to emerging rapper alyona alyona, are safe and healthy, though weary from navigating the pressures of balancing recording and touring careers with drawing attention to the Ukrainian cause. They are providing help and resources to the soldiers protecting them from Russian forces while working to ensure their families are out of danger.
As the country prepares to mark the one-year anniversary of the invasion on Feb. 24, Billboard followed up with the Ukrainians featured in last year’s story. War has changed their lives in dramatically different ways. Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the singer-songwriter behind Boombox, is a soldier. The electro-folk duo ONUKA fled the country and relocated to Switzerland to preserve their mental health. Through a translator, Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko of folk group Kurbasy tells how her brother returned home briefly to Lviv before going back to his military post. “He said the sausage at the petrol station is something unbelievable that he enjoys,” she says. “The shower, the washing machine, the heating system. We take it for granted. The art of small things brings you happiness.” For these musicians, those small things include making new songs, playing gigs and marketing their music on social media.
Andriy Khlyvnyuk
On the February day when Khlyvnyuk, 43, connects with Billboard from Kyiv, he is crashing at his sparsely furnished apartment. At one point, he pulls back his phone camera to show baggage and equipment strewn about the floor. The following day, he is to return to the front line, where he operates drones to identify and kill Russians. “It flies 400 meters high and it can fly 20 miles,” he says. “I’m more or less secure.” In two weeks, Khlyvnyuk will take a break from war to temporarily resume his lifelong occupation as the singer-songwriter for Boombox, which collaborated last year with Pink Floyd on the Ukrainian war song “Stand Up.” The group will soon tour North America for three weeks. Khlyvnyuk is a musician. He writes songs. How does he mentally process the killing of enemy soldiers? “I think all of us will have to go to the doctor when this s— ends,” Khlyvnyuk says.
Andriy Khlyvnyuk, front man of Boombox photographed March 24, 2022 in Kyiv.
Sasha Maslov
alyona alyona
Following delays due to the war and the pandemic, alyona alyona, the 31-year-old schoolteacher-turned-rapper best known for her 2018 viral hit, “Rybky,” was finally able to tour Europe and the United States last year. It was just part of her punishing travel schedule. Between gigs, she lives with her parents 40 minutes from Kyiv for roughly a week out of every month, then resides in Poland for another week for easy access to planes and airports. When she has extra time, she volunteers to visit Ukrainians in cities throughout Europe to give information about supporting the cause and helping refugees. “I live everywhere but nowhere,” she says. “It was gypsy life.” Early this year, her body demanded she take a break from the intensity and anxiety; her constant tooth-grinding had necessitated an operation. For a month, she shut out music and the war and spent time with her boyfriend and visited her grandfather. She returns to Europe for a tour later this month. “You have to think about yourself or you get sick,” she says, from a studio in Gdansk, Poland, where she is working on new tracks. “I know many Ukrainians feel the same.”
Alyona Alyona, Ukrainian rapper photographed March 23, 2022 in Kyiv.
Sasha Maslov
Kurbasy
No longer operating a shelter in Lviv’s Les Kurbas Theatre, Rybka-Parkhomenko and Mariia Oneshchak of folk group Kurbasy have pivoted to staging musical productions for 60 people nightly from Thursday to Sunday. Two young actors in their troupe left for the front line of the war, including one in a “very hot spot,” as Oneshchak calls it, speaking via Telegram with a translator. The student-soldier regularly texts photos and messages from the front. Like all Ukrainians, they’ve recalibrated their lives according to the whims of Russian bombing runs, which wake them up at 3 a.m. Oneshchak mentions a new military cemetery near her home. “She doesn’t look at it very often,” the translator says, “but still she notices how fast it grows. That is something she can’t get used to.” Adds Rybka-Parkhomenko: “When the victory will come, we won’t celebrate very loudly. We probably will just cry and sing about those heroes that we lost.”
From left: Mariia Oneshchak and Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko of band Kurbasy photographed March 25, 2022 in Lviv.
Sasha Maslov
Yulia Yurina and Yana Polupanova
Kyiv studio-turned-shelter Masterskaya, where singer Yulia Yurina was living with another two dozen musicians after the Russian invasion, has closed. Yurina, who became regionally famous when her band YUKO competed in Ukraine’s national final for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest, and Yana Polupanova, Masterskaya’s marketing director, are back to living in apartments. “All the recent Russian attacks, we have seen by our own eyes,” Yurina says during a Telegram call with a translator. “It creates a lot of problems, but life is precious.” Yurina, 28, has spent the past year organizing charity concerts, many of which are located in underground shelters, as well as teaching folk music and folklore as part of a program called Muzykuvannya. “Every day we are scared less and less, but it is not normal to wait for some kind of explosion,” says Polupanova, 27. “It is still putting us in a stress all the time.”
Astronata
Since electronic artists Nata Smirina and Ilya Misyura fled Lviv last April to live in Aarau, Switzerland, Smirina’s debilitating migraines have mostly subsided. “I’m not sure when the joy of living came back to me, specifically,” says Smirina, 31, who runs a clothing brand called hochusobitake and donates some proceeds to the war effort. “You don’t have these air alarms five times a day, really loud. People do not know. They’re 500 kilometers from the border and they do not even have this idea of what war is, and it’s happening not too far from here.” After crossing the border — an immigration officer interviewed Misyura, a Russian citizen who opposes the Ukrainian invasion, for two hours — they soon realized they had to compensate for the higher cost of living in Switzerland. So Misyura partially paused his longtime career as a producer and took a job as a scientific researcher at a university. They’ve since regained the emotional strength to make music again, putting out tracks by their electronic bands Astronata and purpurpeople. “It was like an opening to me,” says Smirina, who still hopes to marry Misyura someday, possibly in Portugal. “It’s crazy important for a person to have this feeling of safety ground under your feet. It gives you so much strength.”
Volodymyr Voyt
Halfway through a brief WhatsApp call, Volodymyr Voyt picks up one of his 15 banduras, a traditional Ukrainian instrument that combines elements of a zither and a lute, and begins strumming. This one was made in 1929, he says, and he has recovered all of them since fleeing from Kyiv to Lviv last year. “We are somewhat used to living in these conditions,” says Voyt, 43, who lives with his wife, Ruslana, also a bandurist, and his 3-year-old daughter, Tereza. Earlier that day, his family had to flee to a shelter in their apartment for seven minutes, although air-raid sirens can last as long as five hours. Tereza attends kindergarten and occasionally retreats to a basement shelter with no light. “This is very hard, I think,” Voyt says. Voyt toured Europe last year with the 100-plus-member Hryhory Verjovka Ukrainian National Folkloric Ensemble, then returned to Kyiv in June. Ruslana has been playing with the local NAONI Orchestra at local concert halls, and Voyt says, “Sometimes we have [an] alarm, and the concert [stops] and people must go in the basement.”
Vera Logdanidi
Splitting time between Kyiv and Budapest, Hungary, the DJ spent much of last year performing at electronic-music festivals and concerts. “Kyiv is my home and I have a lot of friends, I have a flat, I have some tasks to do,” says Logdnanidi, 34, who lives with her husband in Budapest while her mother lives in Kyiv. “It’s not like I finished my story with Ukraine and decided to leave.” She played a club gig last December in her hometown, although the curfews made it more difficult, as events must be completed before the streets close at 10 p.m. “It was super-cool to see people drinking, having fun,” she recalls. “But, you know, you have a shadow.”
Oleg Skrypka
Weary and red-faced in his Kyiv apartment building, with flickering power and a spotty internet connection, Skrypka, the frontman for popular Ukrainian rock band Vopli Vidopliasova, flashes a charismatic smile as he showcases his wartime resilience. “My generator works for hours,” he explains. “There is no petrol. So I went to put petrol in the generator. So now it works.” Skrypka has been touring Europe for much of the past year, obtaining permission from the Ukrainian government on each trip to take a train to Poland and access international airports. “Yeah, I am very tired. But it’s like that,” he says. “I understand it’s much more difficult to be here, on the front. My friends, or friends of my friends, they’re in very, very hard situations.” The band’s guitarist, who is in the army, was “lightly traumatized” and had to go to a military hospital, then back to Kyiv for two weeks. He reunited with Skrypka for a few concerts before returning to the army, Skrypa says.
1914
Now and then, Dmytro Kumar, frontman for the Ukrainian death-metal band 1914, messages Basil Lagenndorf to ask how things are going. “Fine, guys,” responds the band’s guitarist, who is serving in the military: He operates a grenade launcher at the front. “Tell my wife I’m OK. Keep on going.” Minus Lagenndorf, the band spent much of 2022 playing festivals and clubs in Europe, trying to draw attention to and raise support for the Ukrainian cause. But the experience isn’t the same as it used to be — and not just because fans sometimes upbraid Kumar for talking too much about war while on stage. “You’re checking your phones, you’re seeing this bombing and you call and say, ‘We will be home.’ You’re stressed every time,” says Kumar, 40, speaking by phone from his home in Lviv one evening when the electricity is more reliable. “You’re playing music because you must, not because it’s your dream and you [have] a lot of fun.”
ONUKA
After briefly moving to Warsaw to obtain travel documents for a U.S. tour last year, electronic musicians Nata Zhyzhchenko, 37, and Eugene Filatov, 39, of electro-folk band ONUKA, were forced to leave their two-year-old son, Alex, with a nanny at their Kyiv home. “It was the first day rockets were shelling Kyiv, just at night,” Zhyzhchenko recalls on a messaging app from the couple’s apartment on the sixth floor, as the sun sets through a large window. “When you are outside, especially when your child or parents or family is here, it’s very hard to accept.” (Alex’s first words were a Ukrainian phrase meaning “the light was gone.”) Determined to stay in Kyiv despite the “lizard-brain” realities of “run, hide, eat, sleep,” as Filatov describes them, the couple has made a single and video drawing connections between the current war and the 1932 Soviet-induced Holodomor, or Great Famine, in Ukraine. “When you have the work, it’s a great pleasure, because you have to do something and not concentrate just on power, light and alarm-siren issues,” Zhyzhchenko says.
Ukraine has become one of the first countries to select which musical act will represent it in next year’s Eurovision contest, but even that joyous moment is marked by the impact of ongoing war with Russia. After a nearly four-hour showdown during which a handful of finalists performed songs for consideration, electronic music duo TVORCHI was chosen as the Eastern nation’s official competitors — all of which took place from a bomb shelter in Kyiv.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The selection showcase, known as Vidbir, was livestreamed online from an underground metro station, which has been used as a bomb shelter since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, according to BBC and Eurovision. It was converted into a performance space for the show, which aired Saturday (Dec. 17).
“We did everything possible to hold this Vidbir in full swing, and once again unite Ukrainians around this important choice for the biggest music stage in Europe,” Ukraine’s head of delegation at Eurovision Oksana Skybinska told BBC. “The decision to go underground was the first one taken. It made us feel sure that the show itself could go on uninterrupted because no matter if we have air raid alerts the work could continue.”
TVORCHI’s Andrii Hutsuliak and Jimoh Augustus Kehinde performed their song “Heart of Steel” for their Vidbir entry, backed by dancers wearing gold gas masks and a visual effects screen divided into four quadrants. “Don’t care what you say, don’t care how you feel,” sang Kehinde, dressed in a gold jumpsuit. “Get out of my way ’cause I got a heart of steel.”
Near the end of the show, the pair stood alongside their fellow competitors onstage and listened as host Timur Miroshnychenko announced that they would be the ones to move on to the international Eurovision song contest, where they’ll battle against acts from 36 other countries.
Now that the duo is officially headed to Eurovision — scheduled to take place in May 2023 in Liverpool — TVORCHI has some big shoes to fill. At last year’s contest, Ukrainian’s Kalush Orchestra was victorious, winning for its hip-hop song “Stefania.”
Watch TVORCHI’s winning performance of “Heart of Steel” below: