Even despite the hardest times, Ukrainian music continues producing new names. This year they have appeared more than ever. You could have already heard about some of them, or listened to, but the others will become a real discovery to you.
Now you will learn about 20 Ukrainian singers to follow in 2022 and in the future. Surely, they will achieve whatever they want.
For two years Viacheslav Drofa has established himself as one of the most prominent Ukrainian rappers. What differs OTOY from the others? The wonderful articulation, English without the accent, work over the rhythm of songs, non-trivial beats and sounding in general, cinematic films, original and important messages for the tracks.
OTOY is, for God’s sake, Ukrainian rap which can be shown in the West without being ashamed.
18-year-old Bohdan Rozvadovskyi from Ivano-Frankivsk studies at the Prikarpattia National University at the Law Faculty. He plays pure melancholic post-punk containing the lyrics about youth and love.
Since the full-scale war his song Касета (Cassette) has taken hold at the tops of Ukrainian charts. This happened due to the Azov regiment who published a footage with the track.
The romantic music of a Ukrainian singer can be published in the guide of ideal examples for the radio. This is calm and atmospheric Indie pop with the elements of synthwave and tropical house.
Схожа writes naive but always charming songs about adulting and self-search. The only thing she misses is the hit.
The instrumental band was born on FUSION jams. Since then, they have managed to play with Sasha Chemerov, taking part in the ZMOVA project. Besides, both of the band’s musicians are the permanent members of Nadia Dorofeeva’s live band.
While listening, you can feel the flat dweller atmosphere which is spiced up with jazz, synths and sometimes Post-rock. Hyphen Dash improvises a lot, surprises with musical moves and playing skill. They mainly release instrumental tracks, but the band also collaborates with some vocalists.
The full-scale war and TikTok discovered this promising rock band to the Ukrainian listeners. They play a bit raw 2002s garage rock and grunge which have the punk energy but not as primitive with vigorous female vocals. The success of the song Рубці (Rybtsi, Scars) and attention to the band now gives them a good chance to gain a foothold on the Ukrainian rock scene after the victory.
Vladyslav Lahoda and Oleksandra Hanapolska from Kyiv sing about love, life, friendship and human relationship problems . The relationship between the band members complements the songs themselves: a combination of sensual poems and Oleksandra’s vocals, who uses her whisper as an instrument, and Vladyslav’s arrangement.
The video works complement their music. Either this is an acoustic live set on a carpet background, where the singers are looking at each other with the words “we are alive” or strange dances against the background of mountains.
The duet of a vocalist and sound producer was created during the full-scale war and quickly broke into music charts. Their music is furious anti-Russian rock with nice punches and universal sounding. Here you can find Rock, and Metal, and the notes of Industrial, Rap, or even Folk. Presently, each duet’s track is one of the contenders for a soundtrack to future films about the war. Victorious, of course.
He is famous as an author of a fierce song about the war По кому подзвін? (For Whom the Bell Tolls) but these are not his only strong points. Oi FUSK impresses with his versatility from good reggae to aggressive rap, from electric soul to trip lullaby about the war or hyper pop about the love during nuclear war. He is an eccentric and charismatic artist who contributes something of his own to the genres, crazy and interesting.
Serhii Husak works as a doctor, but in his music he turns into Nytso Potvorno, an alternative rapper with rough realistic poetry, ironic stories about life, stories of the journey from alcoholism to sobriety, and other current topics.
The heroine of the Ukrainian electronic stage, Mariia Tuchka produces dark acid music on the relevant topics: toxic relationships and people, masochism, war. Being rebellious on the stage with a bright image and creative experiments, Tucha is a gloomy character of Ukrainian electronic music.
He is an outspoken representative of the Ukrainian doomers: his songs are filled with sadness, echo reverberation and vocals deeply sealed into the beat. The popular musician from Ivano-Frankivsk gained popularity through TikTok where his track Наосліп (Blindfold) went viral.
In one of the interviews, Sad Novelist noted that he is inspired by Linkin Park, Two Feet and Killstation. That is why, no wonder that he is inclined towards the emo-rock sound.
Kyiv rockers generate a mixture of grunge and indie rock, forcing listeners to dive into themselves and the 2000s. They comprise the topics from aggression to the whole world to intimate lyrics and cinematic sound, cool vocals, instrumentals, love for experiments and Ukrainian history.
The art director of Banda advertising agency, Oleksandra Shcherbakova belongs to the category of singers who captivate not only with the text, but also with the sound. It is like in the childhood when we listened to the songs in English with beautiful vocals. Here you can also find minor electronic music, trip-hop, Indie pop or folk.
Sera Sheer’s sound distantly reminds Kate Bush. The singer is not afraid of experimenting with genres and lyrics from the lullaby about NATO to пrunge about “the dead end” while speaking with a person.
He is the flagship of the Ukrainian doomer wave. All we know about Mistmorn is his real name, Roman Yefimov. Besides, he is a successful blogger with a channel dedicated to the voice acting and covers of modern hits. At the same time, his hit “Didko, Ya u rozpachi…” has 1.8 million views on YouTube.
Mistmorn is a lyrical character who is not often mentioned but who is always waited for. As they wrote in the comments on SoundCloud: “I want to sob, commit suicide but I love it”.
He is the most experienced among the freshmen, an author of one of the best albums of last year, a member of the duet Ешелон (Eshelon). In his solo album, Roma went beyond Hip-hop to the direction of melodic, thoughtful and sentimental R’n’B, Funk and Jazz-rap.
Genre: Hip-hop
[ Instagram | Soundcloud]
A 23-year-old singer from Uzhhorod attracts us with his experiments, from romantic soul and jazz to dirty Trip-hop. Additionally, he has already become a finalist of the FRESHER contest and demonstrated that he also has a good flow.
This year IHRYK is planning a solo album and a joint release with Lvivskyi musician Maks Ptashnyk which will be released in autumn.
Translator: Inna Khrystych (+380993094694)
