EXCLUSIVE. Oleg Skrypka: “We come to sing in Toulouse to say thank you! »
The Ukraine Libre association, with the assistance of the City of Toulouse, is organizing a concert this Thursday May 5 at the Metronum for the benefit of Ukraine with the national star Oleg Skrypka as well as Krystyna Soloviy, the group Patsyki Z Franeka, Joan de Nadau and surprise guests.
For you, singing in Europe in the coming days (1), is a way of thanking the French, the Europeans?
Yes that’s the idea because the support movement that this war triggered is quite unique I think. Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America have come together to support us, this is an event that is happening for the first time in a long time. And our concerts with Krystyna Soloviy, the Patsyki Z Franeka group are organized to say thank you, to say that we are together and that we are strong.
What would you do next with this series of concerts?
That people come with their friends to the concert, that they come as many as possible to feel the same vibrations! I think that today the idea of resistance is understandable by the greatest number. In this war, with our compatriots who are under the bombs, I think that everyone, all human beings can feel Ukrainian at heart.
In addition to your own, what repertoire will you perform on this tour?
We play our repertoire which is based on international rock culture, so includes all over the world, and we will add traditional Ukrainian melodies, but also patriotic songs because we felt for a while the need to play on this register too. Russia invaded Ukraine for three centuries but we managed to keep our identity thanks to the song, thanks to the Ukrainian culture. It is culture that is the most important choice because it allows us to bear witness today.
How do you translate this on stage, you who have toured our country many times?
In the 1990s, we started touring in France, we had fans who liked our music but who complained that they didn’t understand the lyrics, and therefore our ideas. Culturally, Ukrainians aren’t very vocal, so I understood that you had to express yourself on stage in the French way to explain the lyrics. It’s important and it works, it promotes bonds between people.
For once, we can say that your Vopli Vidopliassova group was a pioneer in this field…
We founded it in 1986 so it’s a Soviet group and at the time the cultural rapprochement between Europe and the Soviet Union was beginning. We were part of a caravan of Soviet rock bands called “La Vague Rouge” which was a project supported by the French government and French television. They had released a vinyl called “From Lenin to Lennon” which had a lot of Russian band titles and there was only one Ukrainian band, that was us!
Was the experience profitable?
We had our first tour in Europe and then we came back in the 1990s because we were very representative of the mixture of the time, of this modern rock of the 1990s and traditional Ukrainian music because I play the accordion . We shot in France in the biggest festivals like the Eurockéennes de Belfort and the Printemps de Bourges, on a lot of articles in “Le Monde” and, personally, I married a French woman.
Your proximity to French culture was built then?
We stayed for 7 years in France and, at the beginning of the 1990s, we also toured Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany… During this decade which brought us independence, Ukraine experienced major economic and cultural problems, the music scene, in particular, has disappeared. Our group Vopli Vidopliassova was the only one to keep its repertoire and its team because we stayed in France. Then, in 1997, we returned to Ukraine where we had great success. In fact, our group is the founder of contemporary modern music in Ukraine. This is what our stay in France and in Europe allowed thanks to the links created at that time. And then, during the revolution in Ukraine, we were the bearers of the idea of reuniting Ukraine with the family of European peoples.
Is communication, in addition to the dissemination of culture, an essential element for you since the start of the war that has marked your country since February 24?
Absolutely, it’s very important. We live in the digital world and how we communicate with each other is important. In addition we have lived for a very long time under the computer dictatorship of other countries which do not support the existence of our people. And only today Ukrainians and the whole world understand what is happening. Previously few people understood our concerns. For Russia, for Putin, the problem is the existence of the Ukrainian people, it’s incredible. The goal is to make a great country disappear.
Are the artists all in unison in your country?
For 30 years it seems to me that my country lived a pseudo-independence and the most famous artists sang in Russian. It was logical since Ukrainian culture has long been under the control of Russia and singing in Ukrainian was a revolution in itself! The beginning of the conflict, the patriots have since remained in Ukraine, at the front or to help the army. The people transmitted by Russian culture left Ukraine and today a large number of artists who represent Ukraine in Europe and the United States are those who have always sung Russian. These are people who, before February 24, had a different opinion. Our team, made up of the three groups participating in the tour which passes through Toulouse this Thursday evening, carries the idea of defending Ukrainian song, independent Ukraine.
What perception do you have of President Volodymyr Zelensky who embodies the Resistance against the invader?
I have known Volodymyr very well for 20 years because he is an artist and we worked on the same scenes or shows for different projects. I know he’s a very sincere person, when he says something he does it. And in the modern world it happens very rarely between people, even less between politicians! I did not vote for him because I thought, with the awareness that the war could subsidize with Russia, that we needed a more military leadership profile, but the situation completely positively radicalized Volodymyr Zelensky. He has completely changed but his frankness is still there. He is a human guy who suffers from seeing all the deaths that this war entails.
Where is your family currently?
She is in kyiv, the war continues but, slowly, the city returns to normal life. There are still soldiers everywhere, checkpoints, barricades, sometimes sirens, bombs falling. We all have friends, family members who are at the front, we lose a lot of people and civilians. The war continues and on Monday I left my country for these concerts and, after all this time of war, to see normal life in Poland, in the Czech Republic and here it became strange for me. People walk quietly, they go to the shops but for us for three months, all that is the past.
Do you still hope for an end to the conflict?
It’s amazing what is happening. And our initiative, with the association Ukraine Libre is not very easy to organize but I am sure that it will have very positive results afterwards. We must return to Ukraine and win this war. And I must mention the date of May 9 which is very important for the Russians. We are afraid that a very bad provocation could come from them. I hope that when this date has passed we will be able to consider another future.