In Ukraine, everyone knows her name.
Ruslana, the country’s best-selling international recording artist of all time, is performing her first concert in Western Canada on Tuesday at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton.
“What is it I said, the Adele of Ukraine? It’s so hard for me to put in on a level here. You say her name in Ukraine and everyone knows who she is,” said Lasia Pohoresky, a Ruslana fan who lives in Sherwood Park.
“There are performers, stage performers, and then there are performers like Ruslana.
“She sings from the heart, she speaks from the heart, and you’re totally drawn in when you’re with her. It Is truly an emotional experience.”
Ruslana rose to international fame after winning the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, and has since toured the world, winning acclaim as a classically trained singer, songwriter and producer.
The first artist from the former Soviet Union to receive a platinum disc, Ruslana’s music is a blend of powerhouse pop vocals and traditional Ukrainian influences.
“I represent my country with music, very original music, we use pop style, with Carpathian mountain music, ethnic music,” Ruslana said. “It comes from a very, very old time, and we represent it around the world.”
[embedded content]
Beyond her musical career, Ruslana’s name has become synonymous with social activism that has brought her from the stage to the street to the houses of parliament.
She has staged numerous benefit concerts for needy Ukrainians, worked as an MP for the Our Ukraine Party, and provided a voice to the country’s Orange Revolution.
In her most notable political protest, she became a key figure in the mass protests known as ‘Euromaidan,’ a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest.
She spent more than 100 days and nights in Kyiv’s Independence Square during the cold winter of 2013, giving speeches and singing the national anthem, often sleeping on the floor of the Trade Union building alongside fellow protesters.
For Ruslana, music is a powerful political tool.
“We use very old ethnic style in the pop music, because it gives energy,” she said. “I love that energy. It doesn’t matter that this music comes from Ukraine, it unites people.
“It gives up power. We really worry about the future of Ukraine. That is why we need this music like this. This is our power. This is our weapons.”
[embedded content]
That musical and political passion was on display Monday at Archbishop Jordan Catholic High School in Sherwood Park, where Ruslana serenaded a small group of students in the Ukrainian bilingual program.
“I was drawn to Ruslana because she took the emotions of folk songs, the words of folk songs, but gave them a contemporary flair,” said Pohoresky, who works as a choir director for the Ukrainian bilingual program.
“How cool to take those songs and have them in a contemporary beat, with the guitars, with the drums, with what kids like. And have them buying into it and not even realizing that’s Ukrainian music.
“Today, Ruslana sang the first verse of some old, old folk songs and the kids, they just bought into it.
“She just drew you in. And to pull that out, from the heart, that’s so cool, so cool.”