The Best Ukrainian Songs in 2022. So Far

KRUTЬ — Воля

“We will wake up all on the same day from the spring and good news”— if music can give hope, then the composition of the bandura player and singer does it as best as possible.

Pur:Pur — Років на сто

A week before the start of the full-scale war, the Kharkiv indie pop band had released its first EP in Ukrainian. His best song, of course, is about the love that lasts a hundred years.

Tapolsky — Відбій тривоги

The decision to combine a measured drum-n-base with the voice of Oleksii Arestovich (for someone soothing, for someone — annoying) had a remarkable effect.

Діти інженерів — Рубці

During the war, TikTok became the place where Ukrainian music has gone viral. It was true not only for pop or rap, but even for such a rather rough, but lashing grunge with punchy female vocals.

Макс Барських — Буде весна

A native of Kherson wrote his own song, possibly the most tearful and sincere one. If you meet it in a video where the fighters return home, then you would understand everything.

Krechet & KOLA — Медея

“This brother is a murderer of children, his name is Medea”, a rapper and a pop singer deftly compare the ancient Greek Queen Medea with the Russians, because of whom Ukrainian children die.

Саша Чемеров — Кращий з кращих

Probably, the musician and singer knew something when on February 21 he again released the song, which he first showed back in 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity. Listen to the text.

Циферблат — Земля

Space jazz-fusion in Ukrainian with rethinking the story by Olha Kobylianska is one of the tracks, in which scope and strength really take your breath away.

OTOY — Енемі

Full of punches and ridicule about the enemy, an eerie and ferocious rap about the war as it should be.

Паліндром — Літній час

A harsh and truthful statement about the war with burning lines and aptly noticed problems instantly found a reaction in hundreds of thousands of people.

SadSvit — Світанок

He is known as the author of the same song from the video of the Azov regiment, but SadSvit has repeatedly shown that he will not remain a man of one hit.

Лилу45 — Війна

A hysterically determined song with a tenacious beat is an adornment of the debut Ukrainian-language album Лилу45.

Структура Щастя — Друг

The 18-year-old singer’s rave mantra sounds like she’s been kept on a leash for a long time and finally released to put all her desperation into the recording.

Kalush Orchestra — Stefania

At the beginning of the year, it was a hit with which the band wanted to win Eurovision. And so it happened, and even more — from the mere hit Stefania turned into one of the anthems of war.

Alina Pash — Тіні забутих предків

Alina Pash was unlucky to perform at Eurovision despite the initially won National Selection. But the song remained — spirit-lifting and epic.

ЮЮ — Чорна хмара

The transition to Ukrainian and experiments with electronic music returned to us the already familiar Yulia Yurina but also revealed it from a new side.

Oi FUSK — По кому подзвін?

What can a song, written the day after a shell arrives at the author’s house sound like? Absolutely fierce and mad.

Postman — The Good Old World

A canonical singer-songwriter song, where the soul takes the first text.

KOLA — Чи разом?

One of the 100% pop hits of the year in Ukraine. Based on her own relationship history KOLA created a song that hit the pain point of Ukrainian women, and the singer’s beautiful vocals completed the job.

To Eternity — Несмачний мед

The main TikTok hit of the year in Ukraine? Of course! The song seems to be created to go viral on the net, although behind the major sound lies the text about toxic relationships.

хейтспіч — бий окупанта!

The multi-genre duo appeared already during a full-scale war and began to regularly release relevant songs on issues of the day, and at the same time did not bother. All thanks to skillfully designed texts, choruses that you want to write on the walls, and aggressive presentation.

Люсі & Hyphen Dash — Babusi

A song about the connection of generations and Ukrainian identity, which Lucy dedicated to her grandmother. It sounds like a song that can be inherited further in the family.

Karoon — Брудна вода

As always, the dark, mystical and pulsating composition of the couple duo. Lera and Taras Karun say it is their best song. From synthesizer intro to beat and combination of voices, it really sounds like the best song Karoon.

Cepasa — Kyiv

Not everyone managed to fit the anthem of a country or city into a track so that it does not sound like a failure. Oddly enough, the electronic musician Cepasa managed to do it amazingly. Listen to the track only with a clip.

Alice Change — Не вистачає кисню

In recent years Tetiana Konovalenko produced a sad indie pop that rarely resonated with a large audience. And then it turned out that rock diva is hiding in it, which for the second time was overtaken by the war (the singer moved from Donetsk to Kyiv in 2016). And that’s why her aggressive track appeal to the invaders is falling apart like HIMARS.

Zbudny Chas — Persha

It is not uncommon for a young band to sound so elegant and confident in the first song. Luxurious lyrical pop-soul rock.

White Ward — Leviathan

A 13-minutes-long opus that opens a new album of the black metal band from Odesa. It demonstrates their recognizable sound – the combination of black metal, dark jazz, and shoegaze.

Mauser — Тривога

A hysterical hard core from Lviv that makes you let off steam.

Денні Дельта — Стурбований

The Volyn rapper voiced unpleasant but important thoughts about how the world perceives the war in Ukraine.

Sheetel — Sun

Noir art rock about the sun as grace and power that can erase all life outside the planet. The tension in the song builds up gradually and reaches a climax as the keys, cello, drums, and bass explode together.

KAT — Мертві

It is the pearl of the album of the Kharkiv post-hardcore band, released at the very beginning of a full-scale war and got lost in the whirlpool of events and news. «Мертві» eerily tells about fallen heroes who call from the graves to the living, calling for revenge.

Sera Sheer — Меч

A playful parable song about the beast, a sword, a severed head, and all that. Sasha Shcherbakova chose a very successful vocal presentation — as if she did not sing, but tells a fairy tale.

Джозерс, Ницо Потворно — Піф паф файє

Light-sad work about war as commonplace, but not in the context that people don’t care about it, you just get used to the horror sooner or later. Піф паф файє may not be frightening anymore as before. But is it good?

Стас Корольов — Який сьогодні день

It is not at all a trash fixation on the opinions of Ukrainians during the war (the lyrics of the song are Google queries) with an avant-garde sound, where jazz and rock were mixed.

Nastya Kiana — Feb 24

Minimalist reflection on war. There is almost no singing. It is just a story with rhetorical questions under delicate production, ending with the poem by Lina Kostenko. Amazing!

Translator: Roman Klochko