Sub-freezing temperatures didn’t cool the enthusiasm of the 3,700 music lovers who bundled up and braved the weather to attend YUNA — the Yearly Ukrainian National Awards — on Feb. 26.
Ukraine’s Palace of Arts was full, with crowds waiting outside hoping to buy a last-minute extra ticket. Scalpers were asking twice the official price. YUNA was sold out: The crowd wanted to see the performances of the most popular Ukrainian bands and singers.
YUNA was founded in 2012 by Kyiv Post publisher Mohammad Zahoor and producer and radio host Pavlo Shylko, with the aim of promoting Ukraine’s best music. The winners are traditionally selected by an extensive team of judges, all connected to the Ukrainian music industry. Every year, Deloitte auditing firm monitors the entire process. This year the ceremony was hosted by former TV host Anatoly Anatolych.
Old, new winners
But this year, the awards evolved: The Best Soloist nomination has been split into the Best Male Performer and Best Female Performer. The organizers also created a new category — the Best Song in Ukrainian — to encourage artists to produce Ukrainian-language content.
Pop singer Dmytro Monatyk, known as Monatik, was a favorite among the judges this year, and won three awards: Best Performer, Best Music Video and Best Concert Show. The Hardkiss rock band won two awards — Best Rock Band and Best Song in Ukrainian for their song “Zhuravli” (“Cranes”).
Receiving the award for the best Ukrainian song, the band’s vocalist Yulia Sanina said it took her about 10 minutes to write lyrics for the winning song, and she believes it was no less than higher forces that inspired her.
“It was very unexpected for me,” she said. “The competition is very tough, with so many talented artists and beautiful songs in the category. Thank you, God, for dictating this song to me.”
Over the years, the band has won eight YUNA awards, receiving its first one in 2013.
“As a band, we weren’t taken seriously for a very long time, but we came to the conclusion that everything changed after we received our first YUNA award,” Sanina said. “Many doors opened for us after we won, and we’re grateful to YUNA for that.”
Ukrainian rock band Braty Hadiukiny performs at YUNA music awards ceremony in Ukraine Palace of Arts in Kyiv on Feb. 26. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
Pop singer Melovin, or Kostyantyn Bocharov, who will represent Ukraine at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, did not win in his category — Fresh Sound. But the fact that he was nominated at all was a surprise for him.
“I had no idea I had been nominated,” he says. “My fans told me on Instagram, and it was very pleasant to know.”
The award in this category went to the electro-rock, pop band Kazka, which was formed only a year ago. Oleksandra Zarytska, the band’s vocalist, had a hard time believing they had won.
“We’re practically virgins, we’ve had no music awards up until this day,” Zarytska said. “My hands are shaking, I’m so shocked and grateful for the award.”
Two major Ukrainian performers were missing from this year’s show, however.
Until this year, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk from Okean Elzy rock band held the record for the number of YUNA wins — he had six YUNA statuettes. But he wasn’t nominated in the 2018 YUNA music awards because he has taken a pause in his musical career: He’s currently studying at Stanford University in California.
Jamala, the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 winner, who was nominated in the category of Best Female Performer, could not make it to the ceremony: She has started to appear less in public since announcing her pregnancy.
Yearly performer
Singer-actress Kamaliya, the wife of Zahoor, also performed at the show. As the wife of the award’s founder, she is the only Ukrainian performer who can never be nominated for a YUNA award, but she gets to perform every year.
This year, her performance featured an aerial acrobatic stunt.
“When I did (the stunt) at the very first rehearsals, I was very scared,” Kamaliya said after the show. She added that she had forced herself to overcome her fear in order to make the performance stand out.
And this year Kamaliya sang on YUNA stage in Ukrainian for the first time. Her previous performances were in English, as is her new album “Timeless,” released in 2017.
She thanked everyone who was involved in preparing the ceremony, and promised to continue singing in Ukrainian.
