Pop, rock, hip-hop - Ukraine's music scene has it all - and it's thriving
CONCLUSION
KYIV - Although not as expansive as in Moscow, which remains the center of post-Soviet "show business," Kyiv today has a vibrant popular music scene, including all kinds of clubs, bars and discothéques and ever more state-of-the art production studios and producers. Ukrainian artists are increasingly recording their soundtracks and their video clips in Kyiv rather than running to Moscow for "the best," as the new talent decides to stay home rather than travel abroad to attain stardom.
The music played in Ukraine today encompasses all the various types popular around the globe today.
You're a traditionalist and want classic rock? Or something with a heavier beat, maybe metal? Perhaps your taste runs to the post-modern and you need a hip-hop beat to get you moving? Or maybe you like to feel the rhythm inside and go for soul and rhythm and blues? In Kyiv you will find all that and more.
While use of the Russian language in songs remains popular in Kyiv, it is no longer prevalent. The most popular acts - and just as important - the ones that have shown staying power, sing mostly in Ukrainian. In the realm of hard rock they are Vopli Vodopliasova (V.V.) and Okean Elzy; in hip-hop it is the group with the amazing name of Tanok Na Maydani Kongo and another one at the fringe of the hip-hop movement called Dymna Sumish; in the pop category you can choose from Iryna Bilyk, Oleksander Ponomariov or Taisa Povalii; and in the rhythm and blues and soul grouping it is Yevhenia Vlasova or the queen of the genre, Ani Lorak.
In the final installment of a three-part series, The Weekly's Kyiv Press Bureau presents more of Ukraine's contemporary music stars. This week we profile two recently popular acts: Tanok Na Maydani Kongo, a hip-hop group that calls its music "Ukra-hop;" and Dymna Sumish, considered by its peers the most talented of the young breed.
- Roman Woronowycz
Hip-hop takes hold in Ukraine;
"Ukra-hop" leads the way
TANOK NA MAYDANI KONGO
Ukraine's hot new musical talent
is alternative, plus a mix of much else
DYMNA SUMISH
CONCLUSION
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 3, 2002, No. 5, Vol. LXX
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