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Operating out of western Ukraine, lead singer
Oleh Psiuk has traded the stage to run a 20-strong volunteer
group, supplying medicines and helping people flee the war. One
of his band members is serving in the territorial defence unit.
On Monday, betting aggregate site Oddschecker put the group a
firm favourite to win this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, but
Psiuk is not ready to celebrate.
"I cannot enjoy it while I am worried for my loved ones. The war
separated me and my girlfriend. She is 300kms (186 miles)away
from me. We cannot meet because it is very dangerous," he told
Reuters.
"She sits in a bunker while I am here and air raid sirens are
constantly on."
He said his girlfriend has been making Molotov cocktails as part
of defence efforts.
The band members are rehearsing separately, but plan to meet
soon in Lviv to practise their entry "Stefania", which Psiuk
said had become an anthem for Ukrainians during the war.
"No matter under what circumstance we will go to the Eurovision,
I will try to be useful for Ukraine. Even if it (war) is all
over in the nearest future, it won’t be easy anyway because we
will need a lot of time to rebuild. The country is in ruins," he
said.
The Eurovision final, one of the world's largest televised
events, takes place in Turin, Italy on May 14.
If Kalush Orchestra win, Ukraine will earn the right to host the
2023 contest. The country won Eurovision in 2016, when Crimean
Tatar Susana Jamaladinova of Ukraine, known as Jamala, triumphed
with a song about former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's
deportation of hundreds of thousands of people from her Black
Sea homeland, two years after Russia annexed the territory.
The following year, host Ukraine barred Russia from taking part.
Russia has also been banned from the 2022 contest, after Ukraine
and European public broadcasters called for them to be expelled.
Tensions with Russia had cast a shadow over Ukraine’s 2022 entry
even before Moscow launched what it describes as a "special
operation" to demilitarise its neighbour. Kalush Orchestra
replaced Ukraine’s original act, Alina Pash, after a row about
her 2015 visit to Crimea.
For Psiuk, Kalush Orchestra’s Eurovision fame is an opportunity
to spread awareness.
"If you think it will not happen to your country, there are no
guarantees for that. We also thought that it would not happen to
us. That is why let’s stop it as soon as possible," he said.
"We want peace to finally come to Ukraine.”
(Reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko; Additional reporting
by Tara Oakes; Writing by Tara Oakes, editing by Ed Osmond)
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