Andrii Hutsuliak and Jimoh Augustus Kenny, the Ukrainians at the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, spoke with NPR in Ternopil, Ukraine
Musicians from more than two dozen countries will compete on Saturday for the right to represent their nation in the grand final of the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which will be broadcasted around the world.
In Ukraine, which has won top honors three times since making its Eurovision debut in 2003, the contest has long been hugely popular and valued as a way for the nation to align itself culturally with Europe. Europe wants to keep focused on the war and it is possible to do that with it.
While Ukraine had hoped to host this year’s competition, Hutsuliak and Kenny say they are grateful to the U.K. for stepping in for safety purposes and are optimistic they will do a good job in “making it feel like Ukraine.”
This year the country will be represented by the electronic music duo Tvorchi, which consists of Ukrainian producer Andrii Hutsuliak and Nigerian-born vocalist and songwriter Jimoh Augustus Kehinde, who goes by Jeffrey Kenny.
The two met as university students in 2016 and have so far released four studio albums, in addition to headlining multiple Ukrainian music festivals, cinching a record-breaking number of Yuna Award nominations (Ukrainian national music awards) and even advancing to the finals of Ukraine’s Eurovision national selection process in 2020.
They have spent most of the war performing in Europe to raise money for Ukrainian soldiers. They decided to enter Eurovision again with their song “Heart of Steel,” which they had written about the Ukrainian fighters defending the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in the spring of 2022.
“We’re trying to say that the Ukrainians will fight until peace is restored, which is peace,” he says. “So we just want to show they have hearts of steel. They don’t have spirits that are brittle. No, they’re very strong and capable of doing a lot.
Hutsuliak and Kenny spoke with NPR over Zoom from Ternopil, a city in western Ukraine, in February — the week of the first anniversary of the war’s outbreak — about their journey from late-night kitchen jam sessions to bomb shelter rehearsals to the global stage, and what they want to show the world.
Hutsuliak, 27, and Kenny, 25, had been studying at the same medical university and were both passionate about music. They only met through chance, according to Hutsuliak.
Hutsuliak offered to help Kenny — who had been in the country for some three years at that point — with his Ukrainian as well. He doesn’t think he was in the habit of randomly approaching strangers.
I did it once in my life. I will not do it [again], because I don’t know what was in my head [at] the time,” Hutsuliak says. I think that was a telltale sign of things to come. Something pushed me forward, that’s how our friendship started.
“I thought I was impressed so much,” Hutsuliak says. “After some time we were in my kitchen, I [cooked] some pasta and I took my laptop, played some music that I made, and Jeffrey just started writing lyrics, and that’s how our first song was made.”
The name Tvorchi was suggested by a friend which means “creative” in Ukrainian. Their first album was The Parts, followed by Disco Lights and 13 Waves in 2020.
“We had a lot of performances all around the country and other areas, going on different ceremonies, releasing new music and shooting music videos.” It was like a life of artists.
The “Heart of Steel” competition: A way to raise money for Ukraine’s military, doctors, refugees, and their parents (Tvorchi) and their children
He and Kenny spent the first few weeks buying things like medicine, food and camouflage nets for soldiers and people in the hardest-hit regions. But soon they focused their efforts further away.
Kenny says that they wanted to help how best they could with what they knew. “And we know how to make music best. We decided to make charity performances to raise money.
Tvorchi has been performing around the world — in cities including London, Lisbon, Hamburg, Berlin and Budapest — to raise money for Ukraine’s military and children affected by the war. They call it a big honor and responsibility to perform for Ukrainian soldiers, doctors and refugees.
They’ve performed on truck beds and at military camps, swapping hats and trinkets with the soldiers there. Hutsuliak says they recently bought a car for some of them.
They didn’t have a specific written song for the competition, but instead put their hearts into “Heart of Steel.” The message of the song they wanted the world to hear is what prompted them to choose it.
“We couldn’t imagine how hard it was over there, so we were inspired by those videos,” he says. “But when we saw those videos, we only felt strength, confidence, and we saw those unbreakable … people.”
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/1175184982/eurovision-2023-ukraine-tvorchi
Performance of “Eurovision-2023” with Kenny Singapore during a Metro Station “Showin'” at a Bomb Shelter
The duo shifted into rehearsal mode ahead of the national selection competition in December, practicing and refining the song, figuring out their outfits and choreography and working with a team on the technical aspects — all between near-daily air raid alarms.
“It was hard because you don’t know if you’ll get hit in the head by a missile,” Hutsuliak says. We had to walk from shelter to shelter in order to make our schedule work.
10 acts performing on a small platform between train tracks underground was part of the selection show held at a bomb shelter.
Kenny wore a gold hazmat suit and sunglasses while singing onstage with dancers wearing gas masks in front of a screen playing nuclear symbols. The duo describe the production as an acoustic and logistical challenge and credit their team with making it all work.
“It was crazy,” Kenny recalls. The trains were moving. A lot of us were sick because of the cold. I wouldn’t know that it was a metro station without the trains, everybody did a great job and everything went well.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/11/1175184982/eurovision-2023-ukraine-tvorchi
The Voice of Ukraine: A Voice of Unity, Diversity & Invasion Before Russia Becomes America’s Next-to-Leading Order
The jury and the Ukrainian public chose Tvorchi to represent them at Eurovision. As the previous year’s winner, Ukraine automatically qualified for the grand final (alongside the so-called “Big Five” countries of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.).
He says thatUkraine has a lot of different people who make different music. Kenny cites Afro beats and mainstream pop among his musical influences.
“We want to say to the world that we do not want to be used by anyone,” Hutsuliak says. “We want you to look at us, get inspired from us, be united like we are, and help us in this fight.”
They hope viewers around the world will continue to support Ukraine financially, by donating to the foundations that raise money for its military and civilians and to United24, a government-run fundraising platform.
Ukraine is widely expected to launch a counteroffensive this spring with help from Western allies, in order to drive Russian forces out of occupied land. The artists whose families are not inUkraine have said things are still tense after 14 months.
Kenny says everybody has been able to put their feet on the ground, where they feel most comfortable or where they can best operate. The tension is still there. [Russia] still can send missiles at any time.”
Kenny wasn’t intending to stay in Ukraine when he moved there to study in 2013, but as the duo’s partnership and career took off he decided to “continue the good thing we had going.” He doesn’t regret not moving, and he doesn’t plan to move anywhere else.
He calls Ukraine a place of unity and diversity — before the war people would come from different countries to study and work, now others are showing up to join the fight.
When Russia launched its invasion in February last year, martial law stopped Hutsuliak from leaving and allowed a Nigerian citizen to stay. His mother, panicked, called him on the morning Russia started bombing Ukrainian cities and urged him to get out.
He said he saw people with strength in the videos. Soon afterward, the pair wrote the track with lyrics seemingly aimed at invading Russians.
The Hutsuliak-Kehinde Moment of an Interview in Kyiv: Exiting the UK without a Day
As Hutsuliak and Kehinde sat down for an interview at a hip restaurant in central Kyiv called Honey, they apologized for having had to delay the meeting by a day, explaining that they had some urgent business: securing the paperwork that men of fighting age need to exit the country so they could travel to Liverpool.