Ukrainian bands have rocked out their support for the Belarusian protesters from the highest building in Ukraine.
Rock bands Bez Obmezhen, Kozak System, Skai and singer Artur Daniielian have released a music video in support of Belarusians protesting against alleged electoral fraud by Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
“This track is (our) support for Ukrainian Warriors and also all the people protesting now in Belarus — for all the unbreakable and strong in spirit,” the bands said in a joint statement.
The song, titled “To the Heroes” and released on Aug. 19, is in two languages — Ukrainian and Belarusian. A line that appears in the video’s intro and both versions of the chorus is: “Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.” It’s a quote by Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera that echoes a similar phrase by Victor Hugo, a French writer.
A chorus in Ukrainian also references the patriotic salute “Heroiam Slava” (Glory to the Heroes!), while the Belorusian one has the words “Zhive Belarus” (Long Live Belarus!), a patriotic motto widely used today by the protesters and the Belarusian opposition.
The music video was shot in Kyiv on the roof of the tallest residential building in Ukraine, the Carnegie Tower. It features cameos by many Ukrainian celebrities and activists, including filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, TV presenter Serhiy Prytula, power athlete Vasyl Virastyuk and entrepreneur Leonid Ostaltsev.
People in the video hold placards with the Ukrainian flag and the white-and-red flag of the Belarusian People’s Republic of 1918, which has become one of the symbols of the protests. Some people featured in the video paint their faces in the colors of the two flags.
The song was originally written by Serhiy Tanchynets, the frontman of Bez Obmezhen, about six months ago. But after the start of protests in Belarus, the band decided to translate half of the song into Belarusian.
“Most of the people who took to the streets in Minsk and other cities of Belarus support the same principles as Ukrainians during the Revolution of Dignity,” the bands said in their Aug. 18 statement, referring to the EuroMaidan Revolution, which overthrew autocratic Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
