111 Cultural Post 4

[Taylor Johnson]

The more I explore Ukrainian music, the more aware I become of the complexities of political relations in Ukraine. The 2016 Eurovision winning song was called 1944, and  performed by Ukrainian-Crimean Tatar Jamala. The song talks about the mass deportations under Stalin of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, which was a brutal time. The choice to send a song about mass human rights violations and deportations in Crimea was no accident, and it was clearly a political message referring to Putin's illegal annexation of Crimea. The song is sung partially in English and partially Crimean Tatar, which is certainly a minority language in the world, but it is listed as the second language of Russia, and the fourth in Ukraine. The political nature of the song, combined with its strong emotional appeal likely lead to the song being named the winner of the competition.