The life of some Ukrainian bands and singers is not what it used to be half a year ago.
They traded comfortable make-up rooms for military tents and professional stage platforms for hand-made dusty stands when they went on a very special tour. They give free shows at the military bases to raise the spirits of the Ukrainian soldiers as the army is fighting Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.
Over the last three months, more than 50 performers joined the initiative and gave free shows for the soldiers.
Ukrainian folk singer Ruslana Lotsman was one of them.
“Starting from April, we gave 73 concerts in 22 oblasts. We performed for different types of militaries – sailors, pilots, tank crew members, soldiers of internal troops and National Guard of Ukraine,” says Lotsman.
Lotsman is one of the founders of “Narodna Filarmoniya” (People’s Philharmonic Society), an informal artists’ union aimed to help Ukrainian army.
Even though the performers don’t get paid for the shows, the number of musicians willing to cheer up the soldiers has been growing, according to Vitaliy Pastukh, producer of Ukrainian record label company Euromedia and organizer of all-Ukrainian charity concert tour “Pidtrymay Svoikh” (Support Our Guys).
“Our soldiers have been standing at the checkpoints for two months, they are hungry for normal human communication. We try to visit them as often as we can. That’s why we give live concerts twice a day,” Pastukh says.
The singers go on tour in groups of up to 10 people, who rotate weekly. Each concert is around two hours long.
“We don’t have a standard program. Artists perform in different musical genres. Even bards and dancers join us,” says Lotsman. “Yet the program always starts with a prayer for Ukraine and its slain heroes.”
Ruslana, a popular singer and a Eurovision 2004 song contest winner, joined the movement and performed at a military base in Mariupol on July 28.
“I feel that the guys from this base will not let the enemy pass. The only thing they need is not to be abandoned. These people are extremely brave,” she wrote on her Facebook page after the show.
The company of the touring singers is large and includes many famous names. Mariya Burmaka, Anastasiya Prykhodko, Tonya Matviyenko, Arsen Mirzoyan, Lesya Horova, actress Raisa Nedashkivska, bands TNMK, Sky, MadHeads and KozakSystem are among the regular participants of the tours.
Ukraine’s folk rock bands Vpershe Chuyu and TaRuta are planning to give several concerts next week in the east of the country. They are the first Ukrainian musicians to travel with free concerts to the dangerous locations where fighting between Ukrainian army and separatists take place daily.
Before going into the war zone, the musicians took a three-day basic military training near Kyiv and are packing bags to go to Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.
“Of course I am scared,” says Taras Kozak, TaRuta’s drummer. “But us singing songs or playing melodies is a big help for the soldiers. We have to go to the soldiers in hot spots and show them our support.”
Marharita Seraya, a manager of Vpershe Chuyu band, believes that nowadays everybody must help Ukrainian army.
“When the tanks of the enemies are trampling our land no one has a right to stay indifferent. We can cheer up the soldiers. We help with what we can,” she said.
And it helps. Pastukh from Euromedia says that soldiers are always moved with the shows.
“They come up to us with eyes full of tears and thank the performers,” Pastukh said.
Narodna Filarmoniya also gives free concerts in the cities to collect donations for the army.
“Ordinary Ukrainians are very generous when they hear that we collect money for soldiers,” says Lotsman. “Recently we gave a 3.5 hour concert in Chernivtsi (in Western Ukraine). People donated more than Hr 36,000 for the army then.”
All the money was passed to the Chernivtsi hospital for treatment of wounded soldiers that fought in Donbas.
The concerts for military units are not expected to stop until the war is over. Pastukh promises that the last city on their concert tour was Sevastopol, when it becomes Ukrainian once again.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected]
