The Ukrainian Final was held on February 12th at the Centre of Culture and Arts of the National Aviation University in Kiev, hosted by Masha Efrosinina and Timur Miroshnichenko. The winner was selected by a 50/50 split of SMS and jury voting, However the winner on the night, Alina Pash, was then under scrutiny for entering Crimea in 2015. The delegation then suspended her pending an investigation but then Alina withdrew herself from the Eurovision candidacy. Several days later it was reported that the broadcaster had offered the place to the runners up from Vidbir - Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania".
Kalush was formed in 2019 and named after founder member Oleh Psiuk's hometown. The band's first videos were uploaded onto youtube in 2019 and from here they signed an agreement with Def Jam Recordings. February 2021, the band's debut album Hotin was released and July of the same year saw the release of their second. The group then launched a parallel project, Kalush Orchestra. While Kalush is mainly a rap/hip-hop outlet, Kalush Orchestra focuses on rap with folk and Ukrainian traditional music.
After a few bars of atmospheric intro the song starts with the chorus. The singer's voice is very haunting and strong and tune is very simplistic and earwormy. From here the pace picks up straight away into verse one - and almost breathless explosion of rap between the other two members of the band. The verse ends suddenly with a lullaby refrain before going back into the chorus but unlike the intro the hip hop beat continues. After this comes the flute refrain, again with the beats underneath. There comes another verse, refrain and 2 versions of the chorus: one sang as before and the second as a kind of chanted clap along getting the audience fully involved. This is then followed by a long instrumental outro with the band doing their very best b-boy dance moves.
Visually this performance is very eye catching: from the nature inspired kaleidoscope of a backdrop to the eye-catching folky outfits to the unusual array of instruments being played. In a weird kind of way their incongruence made the whole thing more encompassing of a wider feeling. The song is a homage to mothers and the Stefania is the song is Oleh Psiuk's own mother and there is even a shot of her during the performance. The song, albeit entirely in Ukrainian, is full of earworms and pulsating rhythms and the repetition of the name gets into your head straight away. The dancing is also stand out especially the kind of "Buffalo Stance" groove the guys get in during the first half of the song. That all said and done, Eurovision is the least of their worries. However, after the recent EBU debacle and recent country embargo I honestly hope Ukraine and Kalush get to go to Eurovision as the support, love and camaraderie will be warm and plentiful.
ARTIST - Kalush Orchestra
SONG - Stefania
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Ihor Didenchuk, Vitalii Duzhyk, Ivan Klimenko, Tymofii Muzychuk, Oleh Psiuk
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