Global Spin: Ukraine’s Eurovision selection marred by right-wing racism
In the opening bars of “Be My Guest” — Ukraine’s entry for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest — the Ukrainian surma horn suggests something highly traditional is about to unfold. Within 15 seconds, however, strains of folk music and visions of stiff-jacketed, strutting Cossacks giving way to decidedly modern pop. There’s an electronic synthesizer. There’s a distinctly European house beat. And, more than anything else, there are the powerful R&B vocals of Gaitana — the only Afro-Ukrainian celebrity in her country. Born to a Congolese father and Ukrainian mother, Gaitana has pioneered R&B music in Ukraine. The genre didn’t exactly flourish in the Soviet Union while the 32-year-old was growing up. “I found out about R&B thanks to my foreign friends, who brought me high-quality music from abroad,” she tells TIME. “I’ve been visiting closed R&B parties since I was 15 … I was lucky, because in the USSR such style of music wasn’t available to everyone.”
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