The Role of Popular Culture in Ukraine’s War Effort

Popular culture is a field to which everyone has access. Those who are active in this field engage with consumers to experience collective emotions, and the content disseminated is widely understood and easy to communicate. In Ukraine, popular culture has become a battlefield against Russian aggression and a decisive element of cultural resistance. Indeed, the beginning of Russia’s full-scale military invasion on 24 February 2022 was a turning point for many Ukrainian celebrities; until then, despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea and occupation of parts of Ukraine in 2014, many of them had not been interested in politics at all.

Since February 2022, I have been tracking the mediatisation of war in the discourse of popular culture and monitoring the discourse of war in online media. In the past two years, many global stars have become voices of support for Ukraine. Queen was the first music band to raise money for the country through music. After Kharkiv was attacked by Russian military forces in 2022, the rock band posted a video of a concert they had given in the city in 2008. Words of support followed from U2, Pink Floyd, Imagine Dragons, Måneskin, Scorpions, Madonna, and many others. The United24 fundraising platform, launched by the Ukrainian government, has raised more than $630 million since 2022 thanks to the support of celebrities.

Two decades of Ukraine at Eurovision

An illustration of the role of popular culture in Ukraine is the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held since 1956 to unite post-war Europe through the enjoyment of musical creativity. Ukraine has participated in the contest since 2003, and for Ukrainians, Eurovision has become a place of memory. Ukraine’s first victory was in 2004, when singer Ruslana’s song ‘Wild Dances’ opened a window of opportunity to create a new Ukrainian myth. In 2007, Ukraine competed with drag singer Verka Serdyuchka’s entry ‘Lasha Tumbai’, whose title was interpreted by fans as sounding similar to the phrase ‘Russia, goodbye’, making the song undesirable in Russia.

Ukraine’s second Eurovision victory came in 2016, when Jamala sang ‘1944’, a song about the deportation of Crimean Tatars. In the song, the singer addressed the topic of war victims, but it was not meant to evoke pity. Performed by a representative of an ethnic minority that had suffered under the totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union, the song became a manifesto for fighting injustice. It allowed the audience to draw an analogy with the present day, as in 2014 Russia had occupied part of Ukraine, annexed Crimea, and begun persecuting Crimean Tatars on the peninsula. When Ukraine hosted Eurovision in 2017, sociologist Roch Dunin-Wąsowicz noted that the competition successfully tested the soft power of cultural policy.

In 20 years of participation in Eurovision, Ukraine has presented a parade of female archetypes: an energetic dancing Amazonian, a trickster, a daughter, a shaman, and, when Ukraine won again in 2022 with the song ‘Stefania’ by Kalush Orchestra, a mother. The latter archetype was represented in a song performed by her son. The 2023 contest, hosted by Liverpool on behalf of Ukraine, reached 162 million viewers, with record-breaking online engagement and musical impact.

Connections with political events in 2024

At this year’s Eurovision, some of the most recognisable contestants are from countries that are in the news because of political events. At least three of the participants – Azerbaijan, Israel, and Ukraine – are involved in current conflicts, some of which are military. The images presented by Ukraine’s entrants, Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil, are expressive and have provoked heated discussion on social media because of stereotypical ideas about female beauty and the controversial nature of the characters portrayed by the singers: the Virgin Mary and Mother Teresa. There has also been impassioned discussion about the cost to Ukraine of participating in Eurovision while the country is at war – 11 million hryvnia ($277,000).

Meanwhile, Ukrainians are united in their need to reach an audience of millions. Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil understand both the opportunities and the responsibility that come with Eurovision. The two have been active in supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression since the beginning of the full-scale attack. At the first Eurovision rehearsal, they presented their song in new costumes and a stage design by the famous Ukrainian music video director Tanu Muiño, who has produced videos for world-famous stars such as Dua Lipa, Katy Perry, Jennifer Lopez, Lenny Kravitz and others. They portray a new image of Ukraine that will be understandable to many people: two female pilgrims walking through fire.

While Eurovision is a non-political competition, Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil nevertheless want to use it as a platform for raising awareness about the ongoing war against their country, especially since public attention has been waning. But first and foremost, they wish to unite people with their song. After all, the logic of Eurovision’s performative nature revolves around the contest’s central narrative of unity through musical creativity.

Olena Zinenko is a fellow at the Ukraine Research Network@ZOiS, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.