It’s been more than 4 months since the full-scale russian invasion to Ukraine. But we haven’t given up for any second on our cultural battlefield! Ukrainian music is flourishing with impressive international appearances and juicy releases. Let’s find out what interesting happened on Ukrainian musical front during last month.
Well-experienced and respected at Glastonbury DakhaBrakha called out to the world to arm Ukraine now by showing footage of the devastation caused by Russia's war during their set on the Pyramid Stage.
Kalush Orchestra played an early-morning set on Shangri-La's Truth Stage, attracting an audience of about 3,000 people with their intoxicating mix of Ukrainian folk and hip-hop. Due to a popular demand, they performed their Eurovision-winning song 'Stephania' twice and even engaged the audience in a call-and-response singalong, despite the language barrier.
Jamala, another Eurovision-winning act from Ukraine, had a powerful performance at the Toad Hall night stage. In the meantime, electro-folk band
Go_A helped to spread information about unique Ukrainian culture by leading the audience in a traditional religious ritual called a Horovod, where the faithful join hands and dance around a fire in a circle.
In a very flattering addition to this, the legendary Paul McCartney showed his solidarity by waving Ukrainian flag during the encore of his set, which is such a valuable gesture of reassurance that civilized world stands strong with Ukraine.
In the beginning of June, Daniil Otuonie has published a TikTok video for his own song “Tasteless Honey” which immediately drown attention of users: it has reached around 2 million views and was used more than 60000 times. His parents moved from Nigeria to Kyiv a long time ago, so Daniil was born in raised in Ukraine. He has already released his viral track on streaming platforms and now working on his debut LP. Many believe, Daniil is a newborn star of a zoomer generation, but what we’re sure about is that he’s a great example of how TikTok can give a massive push to the music career starters nowadays.
Traditionally, we want to share with you a quick catch-up of Ukrainian artists playing internationally in July, so you wouldn’t miss a chance to hear them live. Festival summer is on fire, and Pohoda Festival (07.07-09.07) seems to be a marvelous equator of it. It’s the biggest music event in Slovakia, and this year Ukrainians have a special presence on it. DakhaBrakha, alyona alyona, Go-A, DJ MIKLEI, STASIK and the Luhansk Symphony Orchestra will present Ukrainian music on festival stages. At the same time, Atlas Festival and Music Export Ukraine teams have prepared something interesting for you in the Expo area at Music Saves UA tent. Hope we’ll see you there in a bit!
In the meantime, Mad Cool Festival (06.07-10.07) in Spain will host our hip-hop divas alyona alyona and Alina Pash. They will also play at multi-genre Valkhof Festival (16.07-22.07) in Netherlands, alongside with electronic Zbaraski vibes, who will be at Westernpop in Delft as well. On July 23, the Kalush Orchestra will perform at the Polish Festival Edison. On the same day, fiery hip-hop trio FO SHO band will rock at the German ABOUT POP. Stoner flagships Stoned Jesus will join the line-up of the Romanian ARTmania rock festival (22.07-24.07). In the meantime, cosmic indie-rockers Love’n’Joy and one of the festival’s favorites Go-A band keep touring. So be on the alert not to catch FOMO, as it’s just a fraction of Ukrainian voices abroad this summer!
