The Kalush Orchestra won the Eurovision Song Contest and called on the world to save Mariupol and Azovstal.

Until recently, the musicians did not know whether they would go to Turin for Eurovision at all – the war broke out in Ukraine.

Who are the Kalush Orchestra, and how is it to sing on behalf of a war-torn country?

Kalush appeared in 2019. Named after Kalush – a small town in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, where the band’s frontman Oleg Psyuk.

“Most of all the events of my life were in Kalush. I really like the mentality of these people, plus I really like the way Kalush sounds.” Kalush is something serious, “said 27-year-old Oleg Psyuk of the BBC.

The band’s frontman helped the teenager with construction, digging wells and enjoying music. He graduated from Lviv University of Forestry and dreamed of singing with Eminem. From his room you could always hear him reading rap, recalls Psyuk’s mother Stefania.

In 2019, Oleg wrote on Facebook that he was collecting a hip-hop band. And he gathered it. Two years later, Kalush already had tens of millions of views of his songs on Youtube, collaboration with Alyona Alyona and “Ocean Elsa”, as well as a contract with the big American label Def Jam.

Their song “Home” is sung all over the country. Musicians go to Eurovision and win.

Music commentator Ihor Panasov calls Kalush happy for the Ukrainian music industry when talent is combined with a rational business method.

Starting with the song “Dawn” (released in November 2020), Kalush, according to him, went the smartest way – a combination of hip-hop aesthetics with a clear, transparent melody and lyricism.

This flexibility, according to critics, has allowed them to find common ground with very different artists and create songs with them that have become more or less noticeable – with Christina Solovieva, Jerry Heil, “Ocean of Elsa”, new indie stars Tember Blanche .

Although the most famous track was “Home”, made with rapper Skofka.

In this work, says Panasov, Kalush married hip-hop with the style of a court song, which is still closer to a wide audience in Ukraine.

It can be said that “Home” is a modern Ukrainian chanson, in the European sense of the word “chanson”, not in the Russian context of “blatnyak”. often wins the hearts of listeners, “says Panasov.

Producer Denis Putintsev believes that Kalush did cool things in the Ukrainian language and in many cases interrupted the Russian audience with his content.

“They did great collaborations, combined aventics with hip-hop and rap,” says the producer.

Two years after the creation of Kalush, the musicians launched a parallel project Kalush Orchestra – a hip-hop band that focuses on rap with folk motifs and Ukrainian authenticity.

Singer Alina Pash won the national selection for Eurovision in February 2022, but was disqualified for providing inaccurate information about trips to the annexed Crimea.

And in the final to represent Ukraine sent the band Kalush Orchestra, which took second place. However, its participants claimed an opaque counting process, insisting that more people voted for them.

Oleg Psyuk, Tymofiy Muzychuk, Sasha Tab, Vitaliy Duzhyk, Ihor Didenchuk took part in the Eurovision as part of the Kalush Orchestra.

Tymofiy Muzychuk is a vocalist and bagpiper, originally from a village in Volyn. The folk motif of the song and the solo on the flute of the song “Stephanie” appeared thanks to him. Mother Timothy is a bandura teacher at a music school, her grandmother had a folk ensemble, and he is a musician-folklorist by education.

“Why does the song from Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest have a folk color? I grew up on this music. How could it be otherwise?” – says Timothy.

On the stage of Eurovision Muzychuk performed in the Hutsul costume of the early twentieth century. The graphics of the issue include silhouettes with Ukrainian ornaments and the weeping eyes of the mother.

And on the stage was Kilimmen – a member of the band, who dances breakdance in a carpet costume. It is called the personification of the spirit of Ukrainian carpets. He does not show his face.

Oleg Psyuk at the Eurovision Song Contest – in the Bukovina keptar of the early twentieth century and a pink panama, which he never shoots.

Without gentlemen he may not be recognized. As soon as Oleg puts on a panama, he is immediately surrounded by a crowd of fans. Even in the church, says BBC News Ukraine correspondent Victoria Zhugan, who spent Easter in Kalush filming a documentary about the band Kalush.

“We were standing in the yard of the church in front of the school that Psyuk graduated from. The priest sprinkled baskets, recognized Oleg and blessed him for writing songs, and then also came for a photo.”

The song “Stephanie”, which the Kalush Orchestra sang at Eurovision, is dedicated to Oleg Psyuk’s mother – Stephanie.

She lives in Kalush, works as a shop assistant and was very happy that her son came home for Easter this year. Oleg Psyuk missed two Easter days due to work in a band.

Stefania Psyuk learned about the song in her honor only when the Kalush Orchestra took part in the Ukrainian national selection for Eurovision.

“When they started asking me where to find Stefania, I didn’t think it was a song for me. I decided that someone had confused the name of his girlfriend Sasha with Stefania. for me. I heard an interview with Oleg saying that the song was for my mother. Of course, I cried… My Oleg loves surprises, “said Stefania Psyuk in an interview with the BBC.

“The song was written before the war and it was just a song about my mother. But now it has gained many new meanings. Many people miss their mothers or see it as a symbol of ‘Ukraine is my mother.’ Oleg Psyuk.

When the war broke out, the musicians were returning from a concert in Dnipro. The news caught them on the road. Each of them was faced with a choice of what to do next.

One of the musicians, Svyatoslav Gnatenko, went to war. Tymofiy Muzychuk’s father and brother are at war. The rest began to volunteer.

“I thought a lot about what I could be most useful for the country. I never served in the army, I never shot and I thought that maybe I could be more useful in something else. Then I opened my own volunteer organization. We help with shelter, with medicines, with transport “, – says Psyuk.

During the day, the band received dozens of requests for help – from the military and migrants. About housing, food and evacuation of people. And during the rehearsals, the guys were constantly volunteering.

In March, it became known that participants from Ukraine will still go to Turin for the final.

The Kalush Orchestra gathered for a street concert in Lviv and began their long journey to Eurovision.

Oleg Psyuk says that even during the war, Eurovision is important: “They want to destroy our culture, and we are here to show that it is alive. Our music is alive and beautiful.”

And, according to him, he understands that this is a very big responsibility.

“The boys were worried, they were just insane. It felt like Ukraine’s help depended on their every note. They understand how great their mission is to represent Ukraine during the war. They understand how important their words are and how they will hear them. the world, “said BBC News correspondent Victoria Zhugan after weeks of filming with the Kalush Orchestra.

Due to the war, Ukraine could easily refuse Eurovision or send a performance on record – the rules of the competition provide for such an opportunity, says music commentator Phil Pukharev on Facebook.

“But she did not refuse. And this decision perfectly characterizes our mood and position in the war with Russia. We will fight to the last, but we will not retreat. And we will do it without breaking hands and tears, with enthusiasm and good mood. We must win honestly.” – writes a critic.

Before traveling to Turin, the Kalush Orchestra toured Europe. They performed in Israel, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, where they raised money to help Ukraine.

In Turin, the Kalush Orchestra gave hundreds of interviews, sang “Stephanie” with many contestants, cooked buckwheat in a multicooker hotel and recorded a song in gratitude with Jerry Heil in the room thanking Angelina Jolie for her visit to Ukraine.

This year is called a turning point for Eurovision. After all, the organizers, who have always emphasized that the contest is out of politics, have excluded Russia and Belarus from Eurovision. In the beginning, Russians were even banned from voting for other participants in this year’s competition.

In the last days before the final, thousands of comments have been written on social media under the Kalush Orchestra urging musicians from the Eurovision stage to declare the situation at Azovstal, where Ukrainian fighters are surrounded.

And they did.

After performing in the finals, the Kalush Orchestra called on the stage to help Ukraine, Mariupol and Azovstal. The rules of the contest forbid political slogans, but Oleg Psyuk said he did not care whether he was disqualified after these words.

At a press conference, foreign journalists asked the musicians what the call meant.

“If you don’t know, we are in big trouble. This is the grief of our country. War. More than a thousand people are surrounded on all sides (in Mariupol – Ed.). They can not get out of Azovstal. What can we do? Disseminate information. If everyone appeals to the governments of their countries, it can help, “Oleg Psyuk said.

The next day after his victory, the Kalush Orchestra released a new music video for the song “Stephanie”, which was shot in the war-torn Irpen, Borodyanka, Bucha.

“If Stephanie is now the anthem of our war, I would like it to be the anthem of our victory,” the group said.

The BBC visited the shooting of this video.

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