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Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Countdown to Eurovision 2017 - Ukraine's entry for 2010 delivers environmentally-charged message

Alyosha represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2010 with her song "Sweet People", which came in 10th.

Alyosha was born Olena Kucher on 14 May 1986 in Zaporizhia) ... two weeks after the Chornobyl disaster. Her song Sweet People reflects concern both for the effects of this disaster and for the world environment. She said at the time that she hoped her song and the music video would reach out to policy and decision makers, and "prompt them to take action on global environment."

The music video was shot in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine from April 19 to April 21, 2010.
The director, Victor Skuratovsky, insisted on having no special effects and no artificial set in the video, in order to better reflect the raw reality of the consequences of this disaster.

Parts of the video were shot in an abandoned high school. Aloysha described it as looking as though the kids had left the classrooms in such a hurry that they turned over their desks as they ran out of the room.

On the week ending June 13, 2010, "Sweet People" debuted at number 73 on the Swiss Singles Chart and stayed there for one week. Earlier, it made number 15 on the Ukrainian–Russian chart on March 28, 2010.

Alyosha started a program called Ecovision, which she hoped would bring the environment to the attention of world leaders and galvanize them into action. Her current website does not indicate that her environmental concerns at the time turned into long-term activism; however, she certainly cannot be faulted for raising public awareness about Chornobyl, nor for bringing in another top-ten win for Ukraine at Eurovision.

Here is Alyosha and her 2010 Eurovision entry, Sweet People.

To hear about all of Ukraine's top ten place finishes in Eurovision, check out the podcast of the April 29th, 2017 Vancouver edition of Nash Holos Ukrainian Roots Radio here.

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