Ukrainian up-and-coming hip hop singer Alyona Savranenko, known by her stage name Alyona Alyona, said on Jan. 29 she had attended President Petro Poroshenko’s campaign kickoff event by mistake and had not intended to support his bid for a second term.
Poroshenko announced his plans to seek re-election on Jan. 29 at a forum called “From Kruty to Brussels. We Are Going Our Own Way,” which was full of historical symbols and references to patriotism.
The title linked the nationalistic movements of the early 20th century to Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union. It took place on the day of remembrance of the killing of some 400 soldiers, mostly students, who fought to defend Kyiv from the much larger Bolshevik army near the railway station of Kruty in 1918.
Savranenko was spotted in the audience at the forum. Later that day she said she didn’t know she was coming to a political event.
“The head of (Kyiv Oblast’s) Baryshivka District Administration (Oleg Levchenko) called me and proposed that I take part in a conference involving teachers, charity workers, activists and philanthropists in order to help get donations for my kindergarten,” Savranenko, who until recently worked as a kindergarten teacher, said in a Facebook post. “I agreed but didn’t expect that I would bump into Petro Poroshenko’s election campaign. That’s why I left the event as soon as I could because I don’t want to have anything to do with any political organizations.”
In response to Savranenko’s statement, Poroshenko Bloc published a statement by Levchenko saying that he had given her an invitation to the forum, making it clear it was a political event.
Savranenko, 27, became famous when she released her first hip hop video, Rybky (Fish), in October. Since then she left her job at a kindergarten in Baryshivka and moved to Kyiv.
In December Rybky was nominated for Ukraine’s YUNA-2019 award as the best hip hop video.
Savranenko isn’t the first celebrity or influencer to be tricked into showing support for Ukrainian politicians.
Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho found himself in a similar situation when a video where he speaks highly of another presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko was shown at Tymoshenko’s event on Jan. 22.
Coelho had to clarify the next day in a tweet that it had not been an endorsement.
And in July 2018, Ukrainian singer Anastasia Prykhodko sued Poroshenko’s administration for using her in Poroshenko’s promo video. She recorded a message in what she was told was social advertising, but it turned out to be a political promo.
