ISTANBUL, March 18 (Reuters) – Six years in the past Ukrainian singer Jamala conquered Europe with a tune about Soviet chief Joseph Stalin’s deportation of a whole lot of hundreds of individuals from her Black Sea homeland of Crimea in World Struggle Two.
“When strangers are coming, they arrive to your home. They kill you all and say ‘We’re not responsible’,” she sang in a sombre anthem that was the shock 2016 winner of the Eurovision Tune Contest, normally a feast of light-hearted camp.
Now Jamala is a refugee herself after fleeing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, which drove her and her youngsters to hunt shelter outdoors Ukraine.
“On February 24 my husband woke me up and advised me that the conflict had began and that Russia had attacked us. At that second, I used to be shocked. It felt like a nightmare,” she advised Reuters in an interview in Istanbul.
The 38-year-old, whose actual identify is Susana Jamaladinova, sheltered in a Kyiv bomb shelter earlier than escaping to Turkey along with her two youngsters – leaving her husband to combat the approaching Russian military.
The journey to security was not straightforward, and he or she sang to her youngsters to distract them from the hazard.
Ukrainian singer Jamala, winner of the Eurovision Tune Contest in 2016 who fled the conflict in her nation, poses after an interview with Reuters in Istanbul, Turkey March 16, 2022. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
“We had been within the automobile and we heard this bzzzz noise. We noticed (a rocket) in entrance of us,” she mentioned, describing her confusion about whether or not to press on or flip again. “I used to be misplaced, however I needed to go ahead. It was scary.”
Jamala, a Crimean Tatar whose relations had been victims of the 1944 deportations, urged Europeans to unite behind her nation.
“It isn’t solely a Ukrainian conflict, it’s conflict in opposition to European values,” she mentioned. “I believe we’re all in the identical boat.”
She took that message earlier this month to Berlin, the place she carried out her 2016 tune once more at a preliminary spherical of this 12 months’s Eurovision – this time to advertise help for Ukraine’s military. Russia, which describes its offensive in Ukraine as a “particular army operation” is barred this 12 months. learn extra
One of many favourites for the Eurovision closing, which has an enormous international tv viewers, is Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra. Although it operates out of the west of the nation, which is much less affected by the three-week battle, band members have needed to rehearse individually whereas they tackle wartime duties.
Lead singer Oleh Psiuk is operating a 20-strong volunteer group, supplying medicines and serving to individuals flee the conflict. His girlfriend has been making Molotov cocktails, and one other band member is serving within the territorial defence unit. learn extra
For Jamala, initially hesitant about performing whereas her nation was below fireplace, doubts vanished when she began to sing: “It appears to me that now that is what I can do. If I can sing and lift cash to assist Ukraine, I’ll proceed to do it.”
Reporting by Yesim Dikmen; Extra reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko; Modifying by Dominic Evans and Tom Hogue
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