Translated material
Alyona Alyona rapper and singer Jerry Heil will present Ukraine at Eurovision 2024
The duet is accused of bribing the jury and disrespect for the mother Teresa, which they mention in their song
Popular Ukrainian singers Alyona Alyona (Alena Savranenko) and Jerry Heil (Yana Shemaeva) won the national selection for Eurovision 2024 with the Teresa & Maria track. On the day of the final, the voting application fell due to the influx of users, and the competition was extended for a day. After that, it turned out that the winners scored seven times more votes than their closest competitor, musician Yaktak. One of the participants in the selection accused the singers of bribing the jury, and users of social networks of insulting the mother of Teresa, which they compare in the song with "ordinary women." "Medusa" tells how the singers criticized at one of the most important moments of their career (although both in Ukraine are loved and listened for a long time).
The critics did not like the words of the song about mother Teresa. And also - a failure in the operation of the voting application
“With us, Mom Teresa and Virgin Mary, barefoot, as if along blades, walked on the ground. Mother Teresa and Virgin Mary with us. All the Primadonnas were born by ordinary women ” - this is how the chorus of the song“ Teresa & Maria ”sounds, with which Ukrainians Alyona Alyona (Alena Savranenko) and Jerry Heil (Yana Shemaeva) won the national selection for Eurovision.
For these lines of the performers, they began to criticize in Ukrainian social networks in January 2024, when they presented a track to participate in the competition. Some listeners did not like the “ambiguous image of the mother of Teresa - a Catholic missionary and philanthropists in the song, who for more than 40 years helped the poor in India (also the mother of Teresa opened 517 charitable missions in the hundred countries and received the Nobel Prize of the World in 1979; in 2016 she was ranked as saints).
Translation of the song "Teresa & Maria" into Russian
The source breaks through his way
Be that as it were, the world is on her shoulders,
Roundabout, winding, rocky,
But know: happiness is in your hands.
Mother Teresa and Virgin Mary with us
Bosom, as if along a blade, walked on the ground.
Mother Teresa and Virgin Mary with us.
All primadonns were born by ordinary women.
From an early age we were looking for a way.
But life is a loop, as if for those who are falling.
A very little girl on her shoulders
He carries a sea of pain and sees that this is wrong.
Again not like that: it’s too soft
Either all in rags, then naked, then why not married?
Where is your child? What is your life?
After all, your years are flying! And then: soon the end is soon.
Even if someone wants us to break
Let there be a charge in you:
Not on an elbow, but at least on a finger.
And let someone hide behind a smile
When you let anger in your heart,
There are saints in the sky.
Their legs came this land, you know
That is why all this is not in vain.
And let it be very scary and dark,
Mother Teresa and Virgin Mary with us
Bosom, as if along a blade, walked on the ground.
Mother Teresa and Virgin Mary with us.
All primadonns were born by ordinary women.
Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil did not agree with critics. According to Yana Shemeva, their composition is not about the historical person - the images of the mother of Teresa and the Virgin Mary only symbolize charity and love. And the meaning of the song is in the association and the importance of good deeds. Savranenko adds that the track “conveys the mood“ Womenʼs Power ”.”
Despite the discontent in social networks, in the final of the competition on February 3, the performers were supported by the jury (Jamala, Sergey Tanchinets and Andrei Danilko) and the viewers in the vote, which took place in the Ukrainian appendix of the State Supervisor, more than a million Ukrainians participated. At the same time, during the broadcast of the final, the application stopped working due to the influx of users-the organizers had to extend it for one day. The victory of Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil announced on February 4. The singers gained more than 700 thousand votes of the audience-seven times more pop musician Yaktak (Yaroslav Karpuk), who took second place.
After that, the singer Mélovin (Konstantin Bocharov) - the third in the list of finalists - said that the voting results and an unexpected failure, as well as a huge gap in the results, look suspicious. Mélovin claims that the Enko label, which belongs to Alyona Alyona, paid the jury for the victory.
“God give us the strength and those money that everyone thinks that we have them,” Savranenko answered .
In addition to the accusations of falsifications and bribery of the jury and criticism of the song itself, the usual insults also fell on Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil. For example, the former People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada and the Doctor of Philology Irina Farion called the performers " Babers with hybrid howl." At the same time, many colleagues of the singers supported them. Andrei Danilko believes that their song “reflects the spirit of time”. The singer and presenter HAS (Nazar Hassan) noted the “powerful message” of the composition and “very successful musical harmony”.
Upon learning of the victory in the national selection, the performers thanked the fans and the jury for the trust - and promised to improve the number as the judges wished. Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil devoted their victory to the Armed Forces:
This is all thanks to you, for you. We did this [talked about the war] with Yana in Europe, and we will continue to go and talk, but now ten times louder.
In addition to the joint performance at the Eurovision Support, Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil, who began to work in a duet in 2022, prepare an album: according to Yana Shemaeva, the singers have already written more than ten songs - “Ridni Mine”, “Zozul”, “Kupala” and others.
Alyona Alyona - main star of Ukrainian rap
32-year-old Alena Savranenko became known in 2018 after the video was released for the track “Ribka”. As Alyona Alyona herself explained , the song tells about her and other girls whom society condemns for the unconventional appearance and lifestyle. In the video, as if taken to the phone, Savranenko appeared either in home clothes, then in a brilliant swimsuit on a jet ski, and naive animated inserts flashed between these scenes. But the main thing that was surprised by the “Ribka” is the speed with which Alyona Alyona read ( 138 words per minute ).
By that time, Savranenko read rap for more than ten years. She became interested in hip-hop at school, participated in the battles and recorded music under various pseudonyms. After school, the artist tried to join the Russian-speaking hip-hop-core: she recorded tracks in Russian and read about topics in which, according to her, she did not understand anything (for example, about drugs). But in the mid-2010s, Savranenko decided to write texts only in Ukrainian and look for plots for them in her own life.
While the musical career was not built, it worked as a saleswoman in the market, then a cashier, then a collector and a cleaner in the shopping center. In addition, Savranenko received a psychologist’s diploma and became a social worker, and later retrained to the kindergarten teacher. By the time of the release of the song “Ribka” she worked with children for more than five years.
Employment did not prevent Rapersha from constantly writing texts about her experiences. For example, in the track of the “head” she reads about the escape from reality. And her other viral clip - for the song “Vidchinay” - is dedicated to life in her native village of Baryshevka.
After the success of the Ribka track in 2018, Alyona Alyona began to actively perform in Ukraine (but not in Russia, where, according to her, she did not go “either for interviews or concerts, although the proposals are a car”). Rapesh released two full -fledged albums - “gun” (2019) and “Galas” (2021), as well as two EP - “In Hatі MA” (2019) and “Lava” (2021). The debut record received excellent critics reviews. For example, the publication about Hip-Hope The Flow wrote : “The title“ Best Artist in the history of the Ukrainian rap ”would sound appropriate, but it is somehow weak. She, consider, there is no competition in the female category. ”
Savranenko writes texts for other performers, such as Mamarika, Tina Karol and Monatika. In 2020, Alyona Alyona opened her own Enko label together with her manager and sound producer Ivan Klimenko. The Kalush group, which won the Eurovision-2022, operates with the label.
Alyona Alyona refused joint projects with Russian performers even before the start of a full -scale war, in 2021. The latter was Fit with Cast (as well as another Ukrainian Ivan Dorn), “Van-Boonde”. Savranenko then explained that she agreed to him for two reasons: she was a caste fan since childhood, and members of the group “ opposed the Putin regime”. But some listeners from Ukraine criticized it for this record, because in 2015, Casta performed in the occupied Crimea. For example, a participant in the Ukrainian Indie-Group OUR Atlantic Dmitry Bakal called the collaboration of rapper with a “caste” “baseness, unprincipled or stupidity”.
The editor of the Kiev FM radio station Dmitry Stolovsky was indignant after the release of the song “Kraina Diey” (“Country of Children”) - the joint work of Alyona Alyona with the “Ocean of Elsa”. Stolovsky stated that the rapper was cynical, first releasing the track with Casta, and after him - a composition about children affected by the war with Russia. In response, Savranenko said that Caste is one of the few Russian musicians who “openly protest against the Putin regime”.
After the start of the full -scale invasion, Alyona Alyona decided not to leave Ukraine. She regularly posted on social networks photo and video of destruction in Ukrainian cities, called for subscribers to participate in humanitarian aid training camp, supported the Armed Forces and did volunteer work. And also recorded several anti -war tracks. In the composition “Behind us, she read:
Evil came to us, and it confused all the shores.
"What is the strength?"
- They ask there.
Strength - drink 100 grams from Karelia to China?
Strength - believe and listen to shit, what broadcasts there [from the TV]?
In the track “Mamo, I am not the same,” the rapper discusses how she changed after February 24, 2022: she began to wish others death, although she would not want to feel such hatred.
In the spring of 2023, at the front, Kum of the singer Vladimir Tsvili died . “From today, my kum in the sky. He courageously defended Ukraine. Parents gave him life, and the rashists took it. Let them burn in hell, ” wrote Alyona Alyona on Instagram.
Jerry Heil is the author of the hit "Protection, ostens". And her song was performed by Vera Brezhnev
Yana Shemaeva has been engaged in music from the age of three. They started talking about the singer in the late 2010s-thanks to her casters for foreign and Ukrainian songs. So, the tracks of the "Ocean of Elsa" performed by Jerry Heil even repostated the soloist of the group Svyatoslav Vakarchuk. Shemaeva recorded an eight -minute cover for the entire album “Without Inter” - moreover, a chapel. Vakarchuk posted this video on his Twitter, called the singer’s work “incredible” and added that “it is worth hearing”.
In 2018, Shemaeva was casting in the Ukrainian version of the Ix-Factor music show, but almost immediately left the show, which she did not like. Popularity came to her in 2021 thanks to the pop-song “Protection, Excavation”-this is an uncomplicated story of love and betrayal. According to Shemaeva, the public liked the track thanks to the "trigger".
Like Savranenko, Shemaeva often writes texts for other performers - for example, for the faith of Brezhneva (“You are not one here”), as well as the popular Dantes musicians (“more or less” in Ukraine) and Nadia Dorofeeva (“Krapayut”).
Brezhneva is the beloved singer Shemaeva. She wrote “You are not one here” specifically for her in 2019 after the release of her own hit “Protection, Isna”, but at first Brezhnev refused the song, and Shemaeva did not want to write for other performers for a long time. In 2021, Brezhnev listened to the song, and she liked it. “Vera said that they [husband and producer] bones [Meladze] cry, listening to the song. And I cried, listening to this [their recognition], ” wrote Shemaeva on Instagram.
On the eve of the full -scale war, Jerry Heil found out that she was admitted to one of the most prestigious music colleges in the world - Berkeley in the American Boston. But in the fall of 2023, the singer said that she suspended her studies in order to focus on an “important project in Ukraine”. What kind of project is it, she did not specify. Shemaeva probably had in mind the preparation for the selection for Eurovision.
Unlike Savranenko, Shemayeva was not the first to take a selection for Eurovision: she tried to get to the competition in 2020 and 2023, but did not receive a sufficient number of votes.
Yana Shemayeva, like her colleague, also supports the Armed Forces. Since the beginning of the war, she has been participating in charity concerts throughout Europe, at which they collect money for the needs of the army. The singer regularly produces anti -war tracks: the song “MRIA” has become popular among users of Tiktok and Instagram, and students of some Ukrainian schools even danced for her a waltz for graduation.
“When I watch videos from the graduation, where children dance against the background of ruins, my heart breaks. I understand that they deserve the best - these are our new generations. And they dance against the backdrop of a destroyed childhood. This is terrible, ”the singer shared .
Alexander Tremasov