To celebrate the release of Okean Elzy’s tenth studio album, Ukraine’s most successful group will embark on its biggest world tour to date – nearly 30 years after the group’s first concert.
There are three constants in modern Ukraine – death, taxes, and sold out Okean Elzy stadium tours.
Ukraine’s most successful group returns in 2022 with the first new album since 2016’s ‘Without Limits’ (‘Bez Mezh’). The worldwide stadium tour will be the group’s first since 2018.
The still untitled tenth studio album from the iconic group is expected to drop in Spring, with the group setting off on a two-year world tour in support of the disc shortly thereafter.
As usual, the Lviv-based group will begin its tour at home in Ukraine, with nine stadium dates already announced.
OE fans in Ternopil will have the first chance to see the band’s new tour on May 21, followed by Ivano-Frankivsk (May 28), Chernivtsi (June 1), Vinnytsia (June 4), Kropyvnytskyi (June 7), Dnipro (June 11), Kharkiv (June 18), Kyiv (June 25), and Odesa (July 2).
The only international date confirmed so far is in Warsaw on May 27.
Other dates – both in Ukraine and abroad – will be announced later.
Okean Elzy has been dominating Ukrainian airwaves since the release of its first album ‘There, Where We Aren’t’ (‘Tam, De Nas Nema’) in 1998. Still led by legendary frontman Svyatoslav Vakurchuk, OE songs have become modern folk sensations, with millions singing along to the lyrics of hits like 2001’s ‘Let Go’ (‘Vydpusti’), 2004’s ‘Thank You!’ (‘Dyakuyu!’), 2013’s ‘In Heaven’ (‘Na Nebi’), and 2021’s ‘Without You There Is No Me’ (‘#Bez Tebe Mene Nema’), among many other hits.
“There is no doubt: the [new] album will be a reflection of your dreams, bright feelings, [and] aspirations for victory”, the promotional release said.
“The soundtrack to the lives of millions of Ukrainians for the last 20 years is back.”
Vakarchuk, the son of a former Education Minister, has spent the years between OE’s stadium tours founding the political party ‘Voice’. Twice elected to Ukraine’s parliament – in 2007 following the Orange Revolution and again in 2019 after the Revolution of Dignity – he stepped down last summer to focus on extra-parliamentary activities for Voice and on his music.
