UKRAINE 2022 updated

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

UKRAINE 2022

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 & Timur Miroshnichenko. The winner, chosen by a 50/50 split of SMS and jury voting, was Alina Pash with “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors”

Alina Pash first became a big name in Ukraine after become a finalist in the 6th series of X-Factor Ukraine . That said, she had taken part in many singing festivals, competitions and programmes as a child. Since her big break in 2105 she has released a number of songs, collaborations and video clips. he most recent solo project "Norov" saw her take folk sensibilities and intertwine them with R&B beats. Her style of music is more electro/R&B and includes rapping on many of hee tracks.

The song starts with some haunting almost animalistic yelps and shouts by Alina from the darkness of the stage. The flow of the song it rather disjointed. There is a verse then a pre chorus then chorus proper. The second 'verse' is actually a rap and this takes us up to the 2 minute mark. From here the song goes into another chorus and then another but this is mainly sung over by a freeform Alina who ends with more chirruping as done at the start.

This song is extremely stylised - which has its positives and negatives. Its identity and meaning is undeniable and in the current climate a song this authentic (some may every suggest political) is pretty much expected. The videos, and the video screen assembled near the end, are very clever and would definitely work on the Eurovision stage. The use of the map might raise a few eyebrows of course. The Ukrainian language sounds really good in the song and the English lines fit in reasonably well. The part that has received some comment is the rap. Personally I think the rap is very interesting and her voice has an intriguing and interesting quality. That said the words come thick and fast, her accent is rather pronounced at times and the content of the rap is rather highbrow (although fits perfectly with the meaning of the song) . The result being it has taken me a few listens to relax through it and understand how it all fits together within the song. On first listen this might not get the welcome it deserves but its strong identity, twinned with the current political situation in Ukraine, means this will get votes. The staging, including the outfits, hits the mark but in other ways there is a lot going on. A bit like Ukraine itself.

ARTIST - Alina Pash

SONG - Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Taras Bazeev, Alina Pash