Ruslana, Serduchka, Jamala: National Self-Imaging in Ukraine’s Eurovision Entries

Abstract

Rules governing the lyrics and stage appearance of Eurovision Song Contest entries prohibit ‘lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature’. But Eurovision songs are subject to interpretation for the overt or implicit political messages that they carry. Three of the most successful Ukrainian Eurovision entries—Ruslana’s ‘Wild Dances’ (winner, 2004), ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’ by Verka Serdiuchka (runner-up, 2007) and Jamala’s ‘1944’ (winner, 2016)—generated extensive commentary in Ukraine itself and in the international media. This chapter proposes two reasons for this: their status as contributions to a debate within Ukraine over national identity; and the geopolitical context within which such statements became politically provocative: explicitly or in subtext, all three rejected the perpetuation of the colonial cultural hierarchies of the Soviet past.