Meeting a rock star singing world hits right on the street may sound like a dream but that’s exactly what happened to some pedestrians in Kyiv when Jared Leto, the leader of the U.S. band Thirty Seconds to Mars, performed several songs on one of the city bridges on July 18.
That was a day after the rock band gave a live show at the UPark Festival in Kyiv.
On July 18 many local users of social media posted videos of meeting Leto late night on Parkovyi Pedestrian Bridge.
“We were shocked when we realized that the world star was just standing with the guitar with no aggressive bodyguards, which kept people away, sings and communicate with passers-by,” one user, Daryna Rogachuk, who was at the scene, wrote in her post.
Apparently, Leto had a walk with a company when they stopped to listen to a street musician playing the guitar and singing on the bridge. Leto asked the musician to pass the guitar, stood behind the microphone and performed some of his band’s hits including “Alibi”, “Rescue Me” and “The Kill.”
“I stole his guitar,” Leto joked in between the songs.
A crowd soon surrounded Leto singing along and shooting videos.
At some point, a song from some distant place reached the ears of the crowd and the singer. It was a hit “Plakala” (Cried) by local pop band Kazka.
“Is that Ukrainian pop?” Leto asked as he started dancing to the rhythms.
After Leto’s impromptu performance, the singer gave the guitar back to the owner and asked him to sing something too.
Leto joined the crowd to listen to the street musician, who introduced himself as Stanislav, and played and sang his own song in Ukrainian.
Before leaving, Leto talked to the crowd for a little bit.
“We’re gonna miss you, your love, your passion, your food, but most of all, your bridges,” Leto said.
According to Rogachuk, after Leto headed in the direction of Trukhaniv Island, the street musician looked shocked. She says that he joked that he now must hang that guitar on the wall.
Earlier that day, Leto had a walk around Kyiv’s artsy district Podil and left the band’s merchandise shirt for someone who finds it first and posted an Instagram story about it.
At the band’s show at the UPark Festival on July 17, Leto performed one of the last songs holding the Ukrainian flag.
Earlier in April, Leto visited Kyiv to give a solo show with Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Back then he posted a picture of him riding a regular bus at night.
Apart from frequent shows in Ukraine, Leto has been a long-time fan and supporter of the country.
During the 86th Academy Awards ceremony, Leto, who won an Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role in U.S. drama “Dallas Buyers Club,” expressed support for two embattled nations, Ukraine and Venezuela, in his acceptance speech.
The ceremony took place on March 2, 2014. At the time, Ukraine has just started to recover after the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, which ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine’s Crimea has been already occupied by Russia only to later be annexed.
Venezuela, meanwhile, had anti-government protests demanding the resignation of President Nicolas Maduro because of inflation issues and product shortages.
In 2014, many foreign bands and singers canceled their shows in Kyiv because of the unstable political situation and the danger of Russia aggression.
But it wasn’t the case for Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band came to Kyiv in March 2014 to perform. Leto also paid tribute to the victims of the revolutionary events by visiting Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), where the protests took place and more than 100 people were killed by police snipers.
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