On the night of March 15, everybody who is anybody in Ukrainian show business gathered together in Palats Ukraina for the second annual YUNA awards, honoring the nation’s top musicians.
The Yearly Ukrainian National Awards, Ukraine’s own alternative to the Grammies, is organized by ISTIL Group owner and Kyiv Post publisher Mohammad Zahoor and produced by Pavlo Shylko, better known as “DJ Pasha.”
It celebrates the best figures in Ukrainian music chosen by a jury of 100 experts. Last year, the first-ever YUNA awarded the best artists in Ukraine’s 20 years as an independent nation. This time, the awards went to those whose achievements were notable in 2012.
Ivan Dorn was triumphant with awards as best male performer and for best album. Pop performer Yolka got the best song award for her “Okolo Tebya” (“Near You”) hit. She was giving a concert in her hometown of Chernivtsi and couldn’t accept the award personally.
“Now you have to take train to Chernivtsi and give the award to Yolka,” joked TV host Yuri Gorbunkov, addressing his colleague Masha Yefrosinina, who was presenting the award with him.
Boombox was awarded as the best band of 2012. Its frontman Andriy Khlyvnyuk was also named the best lyrics writer, while Kostyantyn Meladze, best known as creator and producer of the evergreen Viagra girls band, was awarded the best composer.
The ceremony was hosted by witty and cynical Potap (Alexey Potapenko), pop performer and producer, known for his duets with Nastya Kamenskih. He played on that when taking out on stage 10-year-old singer Nastya Petrik, announcing that “Potap and Nastya” are coming. A winner of the children’s Eurovision, Petrik was to sing together with Zlata Ohnevych, who will present Ukraine at the Eurovision contest in May of 2013.
“Some of you are surprised that I’m the host. In my turn, I’m surprised that some of you are musicians,” Potap said in introductory remarks. He also joked that he isn’t nervous in hosting anything after he once hosted the ruling Party of Regions corporate party.
When presenting the best male performer award, Oleh Skrypka, frontman of Voply Vydoplyasova band reacted to the auditorium crowd shouting the names of their hoped-for winners by saying: “Let’s vote then!”.
When the turn came to the best music video director award, Potap started teasing Alan Badoyev, one of the nominees, for having extremely expensive pricelist. “Not everyone knows that Ukraine’s state budget equals eight music videos directed by Badoyev,” said Potap.
However, Badoyev didn’t win. The award went to Valery Bebko for directing “Make Up,” a video by The Hardkiss. Bebko himself is a member of The Hardkiss.
As Potap noted, referring to recent November 2012 parliamentary elections, voting isn’t much trusted in Ukraine, even when it comes to show business. International auditing firm Deloitte was hired to certify the honesty of the vote at YUNA. The same company handles voting at the Grammy awards.
The two-hour show included appearances by Ukrainian top performers, including Svitlana Loboda, Kamaliya, Ivan Dorn, Boombox, Skryabin, The Hardkiss and others.
Andriy Danylko, better known as Verka Serduchka, the pop star drag queen, received the special achievements award. Danylko came up the stage sans ladies’ makeup and wearing jeans and shirt instead of the usual shiny dress and fake breasts. He also performed the finale of the show, back in his Verka Serduchka costume and makeup, singing his very last hit that rhymes “twitter” and “pink sweater.”
“YUNA is very hard to win. Perhaps you know that Elton John and Paul McCartney still don’t have it,” said Potap.
Zahoor, who started the event, thinks that this year’s version was better than the first one last year.
“Besides the show, which was produced very professionally and by that I mean light, sound, decoration, selection of songs, choreography, script, etc., it was also the artists who brilliantly performed,” Zahoor said. He called Potap “marvelous” as emcee.
“The dynamism of the show was another quality – two hours were gone like 60 seconds. Everybody wanted more and I sincerely hope that this sense of a little hunger will bring them back next year and we will do our best to do even better next year,” Zahoor said. “Last but not the least, the artists are now getting the message loud and clear that this is not yet another Ukrainian award which they could just buy with money, connections or influence.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post chief editor Brian Bonner also contributed to this report.
Photos courtesy of press office of YUNA
