Legendary English rock band Pink Floyd devoted its first single song since 1994 to Ukraine and the unprovoked war it is withstanding against invading Russian forces.
Available on YouTube, the song called “Hey Hey Rise Up” is performed together with Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the co-founder of Boombox, a hip-hop and funky groove musical band that was established in 2004.
Pink Floyd said it collaborated with the Cherkassy region native “to support his message of resistance” against the savagery of Russian aggression. Khlyvnyuk was on tour abroad when Kremlin despot Vladimir Putin ordered a renewed invasion of the country on Feb. 24 and returned to join a territorial defense unit subordinated to the Armed Forces.
The nearly 4-minute music video released on April 7 features Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow national colors, acapella tones, and then is introduced with the beginning of the Chervonya Kalyna (red viburnum) Ukrainian folk song to drum beats and bass guitar playing in the background.
Images in the video show Khlyvnyuk singing in a dark setting and a dichotomy of other videos showing pro-Ukrainian protests around the world and refugees fleeing the war as Pink Floyd provides background acoustics, electric guitar tunes and drumbeats.
The English band’s lead guitarist, David Gilmour, performs a solo riff mid-way through the song. Interim shots of the video show family members saying goodbye to each other and humanitarian aid being delivered to civilians of the war-torn nation.
Certain frame shots in the video also show war footage and images of Ukrainian civilians confronting occupying Russian troops.
Aerial footage of Kyiv’s famed Independence Square is also shown.
Toward the end, Boombox’s Khlyvnyuk’s penetrating voice completes the popular Ukrainian folk song amid Pink Floyd’s background music.
