Ivan Dorn, a Ukrainian musician, had largely completed his first album in 5 years by February.
“Dorndom” was recorded in a village in northern Ukraine, and is a extra conceptual venture than his trademark genre-crossing pop. On the LP, Dorn, 33, who was born in Russia, sings in Russian, as he does on many of the hits which have propelled him to stardom in each Ukraine and Russia.
He settled on a launch date on the finish of May, and his group labored to put collectively a world tour that included dates throughout each nations. Then Russia invaded Ukraine.
Against the backdrop of missiles raining down on Ukrainian cities, devastating hospitals, theaters and residence buildings, releasing Russian-language music that didn’t mirror on these occasions felt unsuitable.
“People are just too sensitive about language at the moment,” Dorn mentioned in a latest interview after a sold-out live performance in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Instead of performing and selling “Dorndom” — which Dorn nonetheless hopes to launch at some point; its title is a mix of his personal and the Russian phrase for home — the musician is now enjoying older hits throughout Europe and the United States to elevate cash to assist Ukrainians in peril.
“I am trying to understand the extent to which this album would work today,” Dorn mentioned.
For Ukrainian artists like Dorn, whose nation’s tradition in addition to its politics have lengthy been intertwined with Russia’s, such issues have develop into acquainted: Is it proper to carry out in a rustic whose chief claims your nation as a part of his personal? Should artists change to writing and singing in Ukrainian, which may imply doubtlessly dropping entry to a a lot bigger viewers, and market, in Russia?
After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, many Ukrainian artists, together with Okean Elzy, the nation’s hottest rock band, and Monatik, a widely celebrated pop singer, stopped performing in Russia.
Dorn — who was born in Russia, however grew up in Ukraine — took a unique method: He continued touring in Russia in an effort to construct “a cultural bridge” between the neighboring nations, he mentioned.
“My idea was this: I capture as many people as possible with my music so that they would never attack my own country,” he mentioned. “I was confident that people who came to my concerts would not fight in a war against Ukraine.”
At a 2016 live performance in Moscow, Dorn mentioned from stage, “There is nothing between us, nothing but friendship,” and asked the crowd to exclaim, “Hello, Kyiv!” People raised their palms and screamed ecstatically.
Although he sings in Russian, Dorn says he has all the time tried to emphasize his Ukrainian id. Over the years, his catchy tunes encompassing hip-hop, home and experimental music have earned him a popularity that’s comparable to Pharrell Williams; not too long ago, Russian critics voted his debut album from 2012 the very best report of the previous three a long time.
But Dorn’s efforts to preach friendship between the 2 nations had provoked anger amongst some Ukrainians, together with repeated criticism from nationalists, in accordance to Ukrainian information experiences.
Today — with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, saying final month that Russia occupied a fifth of his nation, and was edging to seize extra — Dorn mentioned his mission of friendship may be seen as a failure. But he doesn’t remorse it.
“The Russian propaganda machine was just too powerful,” he mentioned. “I am sure that if we would spend a week in front of Russian television, we would ourselves start to believe that we are Nazis and fascists,” he mentioned, referring to false expenses that the Kremlin makes use of to justify the invasion.
Dorn has now lower ties with Russia and is specializing in supporting Ukraine within the struggle, turning his label’s headquarters right into a volunteer heart and eradicating his music from Russian streaming companies. He has additionally canceled contracts with Russian manufacturers and artists.
In the a long time after the autumn of the Soviet Union, dozens of Ukrainian pop stars carried out and appeared on tv in Russia. Many of them relocated to Moscow completely, making a cultural scene mixing influences from each nations.
Svetlana Loboda, a popular Ukrainian singer, moved to Moscow in 2017, the place she may discover a a lot larger and established pop trade than in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
In the early days of the struggle in Ukraine, Loboda mentioned her hometown was largely turned to rubble. She posted a video to her 13 million followers on Instagram, most of them from Russia, saying in tears that the struggle had “been the worst thing that has happened in my life.” She then launched a track in Ukrainian and introduced that she had moved elsewhere in Europe.
As struggle erupted between the 2 nations, Russian artists have confronted a stark selection, too: keep in Russia and help President Vladimir V. Putin’s struggle, or protest, cease performing and flee.
Even in Ukraine, the music trade has not been united within the face of Russia’s invasion.
This month, Yuri Bardash — one in all Ukraine’s most profitable producers — called for Ukraine to capitulate and accused Ukrainian artists like Dorn of “advertising the war by touring in Europe” so as to “legitimize it.”
However a lot Dorn could hope for peace between the 2 nations, when Russia invaded, his help for Ukraine was by no means in query. He was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia, however moved to Slavutych, Ukraine, two years later when his father, a physicist, was despatched to work on the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
How the Ukraine War Is Affecting the Cultural World
Dorn has cousins within the Russian city of Birsk, whom he visited when he was a toddler, and who helped form his sense of Ukrainian id.
“They would tell me: ‘You are strange, you are interesting,’” he mentioned. Dorn taught them the language and launched them to Ukrainian hip-hop. “Whenever you are among Russians, you want to underline that you are Ukrainian,” he mentioned, to assert your id.
Only one in all his Russian members of the family has been in contact for the reason that struggle began, he mentioned. One cousin had known as, saying that he had left Russia for Turkey, however that the remainder of the household supported the struggle and couldn’t be persuaded in any other case.
In the a long time instantly after the Soviet collapse, such divisions amongst households would have been virtually unimaginable.
Mikhail Kozyrev, a number one Russian producer, recalled how in these years he had organized festivals and launched Ukrainian artists to radio stations in Moscow, in what felt like a unified cultural area.
“I deliberately tried to fill Russian airwaves with Ukrainian music, as well as with bands from Moldova, the Baltic States,” Kozyrev mentioned. “Up until 2014, where an artist came from did not matter,” he mentioned. “For me, it was one, united post-Soviet soundtrack.”
Like many liberal-minded Russians, Kozyrev — who has now left his nation — says that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the cultural break up between the nations everlasting, and irrevocable. Dorn, nevertheless, sees issues extra philosophically.
“We forgot history and now it came back,” Dorn mentioned. “I am sure time will pass, and we will forget about what happened now,” he added, referring to a long-term future spanning generations. “And then we will argue again — there will be peace and war again.”
