You're reading: City Life with Alexandra Matoshko

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to inform you that the musical tastes of a wide majority of Ukrainians keep on falling lower and lower. What else can explain the fact that a band like Quest Pistols was voted Best Ukrainian Act at MTV Europe Music Awards 2008?

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to inform you that the musical tastes of a wide majority of Ukrainians keep on falling lower and lower. What else can explain the fact that a band like Quest Pistols were selected out of five nominees, which also included Esthetic Education, Druha Rika, Skay and Boombox. The voting, open to all MTV Ukraine viewers, began on Sept. 6 and final results were announced on Oct. 4. Quite honestly, once I heard the news, I was in a state of amazed stupor for a few minutes. I simply couldn’t believe things could be that bad. Sure, MTV is a mainstream channel and is naturally favored by viewers with mainstream tastes. But mainstream doesn’t necessarily imply primitive. There is bad and good pop music. And the truth is, all four other candidates for the award were quite mainstream, with the exception of Esthetic Education, which is a bit on the alternative side. But the four of them were dozens of times better in every sense than this bunch of poseurs who call themselves Quest Pistols. The four others have great vocals, music, good lyrics, while the actual winners have nothing, but a massive promotion campaign and a colorful image.

The three members of Quest Pistols started their career in show biz as a show-ballet called Quest. The ballet became really famous working at Shans talent show, providing dance numbers for all participants. Finally on a show that aired April 1, 2007, they appeared onstage as a band and played a song. The performance was an April Fool’s joke which earned Quest 60,000 votes from the viewers, and, of course, such success couldn’t go ignored. The dancers turned to musicians in one go, and a new band was born.

Quest Pistols define their music as “aggressive pop” and their main hit goes: “I’m tired, I want love forever, and you want sex.” How very insightful and poetic. Surely they are young good-looking fellows with well-rehearsed dance moves, but what does it have to do with music? Initially, the top five nominees for the Ukrainian Act at MTV EMA were selected by an “academy” of 26 representatives from the music industry – composers, music video creators, recording companies, directors and others, as well as 74 MTV Ukraine viewers – the most active users of the official forum of the channel. The candidates then made a tour around the country, and a final show took place on Kontraktova Ploshcha on Oct. 4, with final results being announced after the concert. Quest Pistols turned out to be the ones destined to perform on stage at the MTV EMA 2008 finals in Liverpool on Nov. 6 and to demonstrate to all of Europe what kind of primitive music Ukrainians produce and listen to. Though, after Virka Serdyuchka’s spectacular appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 , no one will be really surprised.