Artists kick off campaigns in support of political parties
Election campaigns, which seem to happen way too often in Ukraine nowadays, still cause certain turmoil in various spheres of life, and affect the culture and entertainment scene as well. Concerts and various events that involve famous artists rallying for a certain candidate or party are a significant element of every campaign, and though musicians often claim to be merely fulfilling the terms of a contract – like with any other show – they often do it so full-heartedly that the reasons hardly matter.
The most extravagant artist on the Ukrainian stage, Verka Serdyuchka (female alter ego of Andriy Danylko), claimed to be planning to take part in the election with her own block “Proty Vsikh” (“Against All”), which was later renamed to “Za Svoyikh!” (“For My People!”) but neither of the two projects were realized. Instead of taking part in the elections herself, Serdyuchka decided to do a bit of campaigning for the Party of Regions. Recently performing in Donetsk at a concert dedicated to Coalminer Day and Donetsk Day, she took a break during her performance to summon her Mom (Danylko’s show partner) onstage and together they said a few warm words for Viktor Fyodorovych and Rinat Leonidovych.
The artists campaigning for Yuliya Tymochenko and her block BYUT do it in a more intricate way. R’n’b stars Potap and Nastya Kamenskih, known for their hit “Ne Para,” have recently shot a video for a song dedicated to a certain Yuliya, and half way through the video it becomes clear which Yuliya they mean. The music video often shows red heart – the well-known BYUT symbol – and a little girl wearing Tymoshenko’s famous hairdo. The video is to appear on Ukrainian TV in September. BYUT’s press service claims it doesn’t know anything about the video or the song, suggesting it was the artist’s own idea to show their support. Still, many will remember the video that was in rotation during the 2006 parliamentary elections campaign for the song “Yulya Wears a Braid” by girl band XS, who also appear in the new release of Potap and Nastya Kamenskih.
