shrines

i don't know how to make this stupid main flex box scroll so it's going to be annoyingly long. deal with it.

words cannot encapsulate my love for this ukrainian techno-folk band. like the rest of you normies, i discovered them at esc 2020, when they won vidbir with their song solovey. (ps! the lyrics you see scrolling at the top of this page link to the youtube vid for the song.) at the time, i was a bit baffled, because my music taste hadn't branched out as much yet. kateryna's singing style in particular was foreign to me, and i'd never heard the ukrainian language in song before.

as time passed, the song grew on me. i started listening to it more often, to the point where youtube began to suggest me interviews and media snippets of them. one interview in particular was about an hour long, hosted by suspilne, ukraine's national tv channel. this taught me more about the band's history, and i began to love the music in its unique style.

esc 2021 rolled around, and they entered again, this time with the song shum, based off a ukrainian folk song, and inspired by chernobyl. the music video for shum was also shot in chernobyl! two versions were produced, one close to the original folk song, and another, more original version (esc requires entrants to submit entirely new songs). both versions slap!

go_a did exceptionally well in 2021, propelling their career to new heights. ever since, they've released a single called kalyna, also based off another folk tune. they've been performing live and you can really see how they've grown musically. for instance, back in 2020, kateryna's voice wasn't as strong (in my opinion at least) and the high, sustained notes of solovey were hard to maintain for her, as seen in their 2020 vidbir performance. but because she's been performing live more, her voice has strengthened a lot (see 2021 performance of shum, particularly the final high note!