Поїздка, Вечірка, Розв'язка: A Musical Postcard from Ukraine

Some months ago now, my dear friend Traci made and shared a few playlists with me (check them out here). Back when we were angsty and earnest teenagers we were in the habit of making mix CDs for each other and our friends - a tradition we carried into college. I still remember when I took a summer job as a trail guide in South Dakota, and Traci mailed me a mix CD from California. I had no idea what was on it, but one brilliant blue-sky Sunday I popped it into the CD drive of my ash-gold Volvo XC station wagon, and marveled as each song seemed to perfectly suit whatever was happening at the moment during an at turns leisurely and exhilarating weekend drive through the Black Hills.

Now that I'm living in Ukraine and CDs are all but obsolete, we've changed up the tradition a bit. I can't easily access Pandora or Spotify here, so YouTube is my saving grace - and YouTube playlists our new means of sending music to each other. To Traci and to all my other friends at home and around the world, here is a little musical postcard from Ukraine. So go ahead and open up the playlist, and read along if you want.

Postcard From Ukraine: Поїздка, Вечірка, Розв'язка


Part One: Поїздка

1. Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan
2. Дахабраха - Дівка Марусечка
3. Loituma - Eva's Polka

"Поїздка" means "trip" or "journey" in Ukrainian. This section starts not in Ukraine, but in Cuba. The sultry strains of Chan Chan by the Buena Vista Social Club conjure up not only images of Cuba and warm summer evenings, but also of the little basement-level dance studio in Cherkasy where I take salsa lessons. Chan Chan is how we start our lessons; it transitions us from our warmup to our practice, and mixes with the sound of our voices in English and Spanish and Russian and Ukrainian as we count our steps and the instructor reminds us not to hurry.
The next song in this section is deeply steeped in Ukrainian folk music. DakhaBrakha have recently gained international recognition, performing at festivals around the US and even doing an NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Anyone who knows Ukrainian music can hear the traditional influence, but many listeners will also pick up hints of melodies and beats that sound African or Middle Eastern. It's a beautiful mix.
In keeping with the international theme, the third song is a Finnish piece, Eva's Polka, that has gained a sort of cult following around the world by virtue of its catchy melody and challenging lyrics. My host family in Ukraine introduced me to this song because the father was trying to learn to sing it. Popular among a-cappella groups as an audition and performance piece, it also has a techno version by the original band Loituma, and a huge number of remixes from around the world. Nearly everyone in Ukraine knows it simply as "that Finnish song".

Part Two: Вечірка

4. Океан Ельзи - Життя Починається Знов
5. Pianoбой - На Вершині
6. O. Torvald - Качай
7. O. Torvald - Крик
8. Jamala - It's Me, Jamala

"Вечірка" in Ukrainian is "party" - and it's among the first words that I learned. There is a lot of celebrating in Ukraine, so this section is a place to showcase happy music along with some of Ukraine's best-known artists. Океан Ельзи is something like the U2 of Ukraine - everyone knows them, and their concerts fill stadiums. The next section features another one of their songs, with footage from a stadium I've been to in Kyiv; but in this section is an uplifting song whose title translates to, "Life is Starting Again". The sentiment continues with Піанобой (Pianoboy) in a super-sweet music video he shot with his son, singing "with you I'm on top of the world". O.Torvald, a band from the Ukrainian city of Poltava, brings in a sense of humor and rebelliousness. The first song, Качай, pokes fun at people's social media obsession; the second is some good ol'-fashioned youth rebellion set in a characteristically familiar Ukrainian building. This section is rounded out by a sassy performance from Jamala, a singer of Crimean Tatar heritage whose performance won Ukraine the 2016 EuroVision title and gave Kyiv the chance to host the contest in 2017. A performer who has sung in many styles and languages and expressed various personas, Jamala sings this brazenly self-confident song in which she challenges the tabloids and the media to remember that she is in control of her identity.

Part Three: Розв'язка

9. Океан Ельзи - На Небі
10. Бумбокс - Пєпєл
11. 5'NIZZA - Солдат
12.  Pianoбой і Бумбокс- Єтажи

"Розв'язка" reflects the winding down of something; the dénouement. If you pick the word apart, it means something like the "un-connecting". Our party is beginning to wind down into a warm afterglow tempered with reflection, but we start with flying: Океан Ельзи's song "На Небі", (In The Sky), describes the feeling of being with your true love: "Every moment when you are with me, it feels like flying". We mellow out and reflect a bit with the next two songs: Бумбокс (Boombox - they are from my city, by the way) sets their song to what appears to be a classic Soviet movie and reflect on the marching of time and fate. Пепел - ashes. 5'ницця (their name is a clever take on the word for "Friday") bring in reggae, Latin, and other world influences for their song Солдат (Soldier). If this song reminds you of Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier", it should be no surprise -5'ницця have done covers of several of his songs. Our final song, a collaboration between бумбокс and Піанобой, brings us back to flying: "You see, I'm flying - And from the bottom floors - it's my life, And I want to fly it to the end".

And that is how I'll sign off on this postcard. I hope you enjoy the music, and I hope you keep flying.