Ukrainian Music for Charity

Just over a year ago I was introduced to a fellow from Vienna Austria who is involved in an interesting project called East-Beat. At that time he asked me if I could help him contact various music labels and musicians here in Ukraine in order to do everything in a legal manner.

After a number of meetings with him we were able to get a number of agreements signed and things started moving forward and agreements to date have been signed to include the music of Vopli Vidopliassova, Iryna Bilyk,Haydamaky, Okean Elzy, Mandry, Marija Burmaka, Skrjabin, Nedilya and Ocheretyany Kit on the CD.

After a number of visits to Ukraine Fritz managed to get some great support of Oleh Skrypka.


Last week Fritz, was in Kyiv and we got together for some brainstorming on his project. Fritz also has an alter ego known as DJ Prutsky, working out of the Ost-Klub in Vienna, spinning Ukrainian artists and promoting Ukrainian music and artists.

The thing that pleases me the most is that Fritz is doing all this for charity, a Children's Hospital in Khersonska oblast near Odessa., and at the same time promoting Ukraine.

“I want to work for a substantial change in the way Westerners look at Ukraine. This includes also Western media. People in countries like Austria, Germany, France, UK should become much more aware of the fact that there is a country in Europe which can contribute a lot to the positive development of this continent in many ways. Lets get away from the simple, old-fashioned, biased view on the East, which goes back to Soviet times. Soviet Union is gone, Ukraine is here. This country is neither Soviet, nor is it Russia. Lets take a look on the many innovations Ukraine has to offer."

Friedrich Zindler, aka Fritz

I think that Fritz is doing a great job in what he is doing, and I hope that anyone who reads my blog will find a way to contribute to the project. Either in kind, by linking to the site, by sending a donation, or by purchasing the CD when it is available.

Okean Elzy's New CD Mira goes Platinum?

According to some Internet reports OE's new album had 170,000 advance orders as of the CD's release date on April 25. While this may or may not be the case, the problem of accurate numbers when it comes to CD sales in Ukraine has always been difficult and will continue to be.

An number of years ago when Ruslana held a press conference announcing that her CD had gone platinum there was a lot of anti-PR regarding this announcement from other groups in Ukraine, including OE. I guess Sviatoslav Vakarchuk has learned that if you want the press to write about how many CD's you've sold you have to put the numbers out their yourself.

Many musicians I have spoken to who have deals different labels in Ukraine or work with distributors can never get the clear figures of the number of CDs they have sold, let alone whether if their CD is selling at all.

Word in the industry today is that in order to get a new talent known you have to spend a minimum of 200K, however, unfortunately there are people who put their money behind non-talents.

While watching CITI TV's Hit Parade the other day no other than Sting broke into the top 20 of the local chart.

Now for a little Parody, imagine this scene:

Sting gets up at an industry event and says. Will I have been awarded so many different awards in the music industry, but the one that accomplishment that I cherish the most is breaking into CITI TV's Top 20 chart. As usual, I would like to thank my publishers, my management, and all the people who assisted to ensure I would make it on to the charts of such a prestigious chart at CITI TV's Top 20... Thanks go out to all the viewers of CITI TV for having at least a clear conscious and a little bit of taste when voting for me and helping me break into the ever so competitive Ukrainian music market.

Some more thoughts on the problems of contemporary Ukrainian culture

Earlier on I posted two different posts dealing with the problems both abroad and internally within Ukrainian contemporary culture. Most recently with the selection of Verka Serduchka to represent Ukraine in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest is another example of what ails the system.

One of the elements which has created problems in the formation of contemporary Ukrainian culture was the awarding of people with titles such as Merited Artist of Ukraine and other such titles. This carry over from Soviet times has created a group of haves and have nots in the Ukrainian cultural scene, and as a result has ghettoized Ukrainian culture, while promoting the tastes of those who are truly dinosaurs and who should have long ago become extinct. Another problem which this has promoted is the favourtism and benefits that these artists receive. This contributes to a disbalanced playing field for those who are truly talented and deserve government support and those who either purchased their titles, or simply were able to lobby to obtain it.

Shortly after Yushchenko's ascent to power as President of Ukraine there were a few healthy signs that were witnessed in the Ukrainian music industry, with the most mentionable was the refusal of Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, lead man of Okean Elzy, of receiving the title of Merited Artist of Ukraine. At that time there was still a glimmer of hope in the industry. But that glimmer of hope in the industry also faded as President Yushchenko failed to carry out the sweeping changes he had promised on Maydan. The process of cleaning out all that was rotten in the system not only did not take place politically, it didn't take place culturally. Nor was a strategy developed to develop Ukraine's cultural industry. Well a strategy was developed, but unfortunately there has no political will to push the strategy forth. It was developed by a friend of mine and the grandson of composer Kyrylo Stetsenko who carries his grandfather's name, and even though Kyrylo sits on the Advisory Council on Culture to the President, little has been done, in my opinion to carry this strategy forward. I have seen the document, nearly 200 pages, which outlines the steps for developing a cultural strategy for Ukraine. It is based on international experience, but as the old saying goes in Ukrainian:”Who are you to tell me what to do and how to do it!”

As a result we have a situation which is beginning to put Ukrainian contemporary culture in a ghetto. Music TV station M1 and event channels like 1+1 seem to be headed by individuals who have no, or little understanding of the promotion of national interests of an industry continue to minimize and mock Ukrainian culture in the following ways, but those who are being used as pawns seem to have little understanding of what is going on. For example, M1 will play some Ukrainian music as a token gesture, while 1+1 has been running one of the most retrograde shows called Dancing with Stars, where it has even invited individuals like Oleh Skrypka to participate. What to hell was Oleh thinking about by participating in such a piece of trash.

So needless to say, there is a long battle to be fought in the cultural arena in Ukraine. I hope that the diaspora understands that Ukraine has to not only undergo mass reforms politically but also culturally – Ukraine has to understand how to protect its interests in this sphere and start to doing so based on international experience and by putting forth its best foot. How it will do so will seriously involved a revolution, and the death of the dinosaurs who have been growing their pocketbooks while ignoring developments on the world stage.