Authors

Anna Glew¹;  ¹ University of Liverpool, UK

Discussion

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the topic of war has been extensively covered by Ukrainian popular music across a range of genres including hip-hop, rock, pop, and electronic. While the issue of language (Ukrainian vs Russian) in song writing was a topic of heated debates in Ukraine even before February 2022, the invasion has taken them to a new level. It has been observed that after February 2022 some musicians switched to using the Ukrainian language in their song writing, while also providing comments on why they saw it as an important move. Some musicians have produced Ukrainian-language versions of their own popular songs that were originally written in Russian (this can be seen in the case of Monatik, who describes his newly released Ukrainian-language versions of his own songs as ‘repaired’). Language-related topics (such as switching to Ukrainian, the pre-invasion listening habits of Ukrainians, and the language of the enemy) are covered by some musicians in their lyrics (for example, Letter to Mother by BARABANDA; Ty B Ne Poviryla by Dity Inzheneriv; Obiymy by Volodymyr Dantes). While the language issue in wartime Ukraine is being discussed by scholars in terms of public attitudes and state policies, it is important to consider how it is narrated and actualised by popular culture.

The proposed paper will examine the following key questions: What narratives of language and its role in times of war do popular Ukrainian songs offer to the audiences? What do these narratives tell us about the role of popular music in framing the Russia-Ukraine war and meaning making in general?
The paper will examine the lyrics of Ukrainian popular songs that were created after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and have more than a million views on Youtube. For analysis, I will utilise my database of war-themed Ukrainian popular songs created or popularised from 24 February 2022 (Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine) until the present. The database currently has 640 songs, including 450 with more than a million views on YouTube, indicating their popularity in Ukraine. While Ukrainians use a range of platforms to listen to popular music (such as Apple Music and Spotify), YouTube is used here as the main platform for analysis, in view of its accessibility to all strata of the population, and its additional value as a source of music videos and audience’s comments accompanying the songs.