‘Inner Need to Engage With Heritage’ – Ukrainian Singer Khrystyna Soloviy on Stories Through Music

Khrystyna Soloviy, Ukrainian singer-songwriter and musician, belongs to a generation of Ukrainian artists for whom music has become a way to explore national identity and give a voice to stories that have long remained on the margins of the cultural mainstream. In this exclusive interview with Kyiv Post, Soloviy discusses how Ukrainian music – vibrant, contemporary, and full of surprises – can challenge stereotypes abroad. She also reflects on women’s independence, artists’ responsibility for the stories they choose to tell, and what it means to preserve one’s voice during wartime.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Kyiv Post: Russia’s war has profoundly changed Ukrainian culture. What messages are you most determined to convey through your work today? Khrystyna Soloviy: Fundamentally, nothing has changed for me. My career began in 2014, when Russia launched its war against Ukraine. From the very beginning, I worked with the Ukrainian language, culture, and musical heritage. For me, this has never been a reaction to the political situation or an attempt to respond to public demand. “Music cannot change the circumstances, but it can offer emotional support, provide a moment of escape, or remind people what they are fighting for.” Of course, the full-scale invasion has changed how we perceive many things and heightened our sense of responsibility for what we do. Today, I feel particularly strongly about exploring our own culture, bringing attention to aspects that have been forgotten or undervalued, and showing just how diverse, bold, and contemporary it is. Other Topics of Interest Third Political Prisoner Dies in Russia This Month – Report Aleksandr Kondratov, 52, returned to Russia to renew his passport. His treason case concerned online posts whose contents remain unknown. You frequently perform for Ukrainian service members. What resonates most with them?I have performed extensively for the military since the first year of the full-scale invasion. I have made many trips, including to dangerous areas, but I have not spoken or posted much about them on social media. This is not something I want to turn into a public gesture.Music cannot change the circumstances, but it can offer emotional support, provide a moment of escape, or remind people what they are fighting for. For me, these encounters are first and foremost an opportunity to thank the people who make it possible for us to continue doing our work.What resonates most with Western audiences today?This summer, I gave some very warm concerts in Poland and the United States. My performance in Warsaw was particularly memorable. When I sang “Liubyi Druh” (“Dear Friend”) and thanked the Polish people for their unwavering support for Ukraine since 2022, neither the audience nor I could hold back our tears. I felt just how powerfully music can bring people together.I am also especially pleased that this fall, my album “Liubyi Druh” was finally released on vinyl. This summer, you visited California and met Sestrichka Vika, who moved from Ukraine to the United States in 1993, the year you were born. Viktoriia Vradii was one of the most prominent Ukrainian rock performers of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She won the rock category at the first Chervona Ruta festival in 1989 before launching a solo career under the stage name Sestrichka Vika. What struck you most about meeting her? Her sincerity impressed me most. She told me how important it is to preserve the child within yourself – to never lose the ability to be amazed by the world. Sestrichka Vika is not a manufactured image or a project. She is a genuine artist whose work is inseparable from who she is. I encourage everyone to listen to our conversation. At one point, she chose to step away from public life, and I respect that decision. That is why it means so much to me that she allowed me to record my own versions of her songs and have this brief conversation with her. I will remember for the rest of my life the moment I played her the demo of my version of “Proshchai” (“Farewell”), and she told me it gave her goosebumps. Khrystyna Soloviy with Sestrichka Vika. (Photo via Soloviy’s press office) On Oct. 30, you will release your own version of Sestrichka Vika’s song “Proshchai.” What was most important to you when working on this track? As a songwriter, it is very important to me to approach other people’s work with care and respect. When recording a cover, you need to find your own voice without losing what makes the original special. “Proshchai” is an exceptionally precious song to me. Vika wrote it when she was 16, initially inventing words that sounded like English, even though she did not yet know the language. At one point, she performed it at a club where she had been brought to meet the band Arnika. Viktor Morozov was thrilled by the song, and the two later wrote its Ukrainian lyrics together. I think some songs can only be created at a certain age, when you can experience the world with a particular kind of spontaneity, without trying to explain everything. My debut song, “Trymai” (“Hold On”), has something similar about it for me. When working on “Proshchai,” I wanted to avoid overshadowing that sincerity with my own interpretation. Instead, I wanted to find a way to convey it through my own experience. You are working on an album inspired by Ukrainian music of the 1990s, reinterpreting songs that became part of the country’s musical history. How should contemporary Ukrainian artists engage with the legacy of previous generations – not only to preserve it but also to introduce it to new audiences? I started doing what has become mainstream today back in 2014. I began my career making Ukrainian-language music and exploring Ukrainian culture when our cultural space was still heavily Russified. Back then, I released an album of Lemko folk songs, when “reinterpretation” and “research” weren’t trends. “There is a risk that Ukrainian culture will become a convenient career-building tool.” Today, this has become fashionable, part of popular culture, and sometimes even an expected stage in the career of every contemporary Ukrainian artist. I am genuinely happy about that. I think we are finally beginning to realize just how much we have – and how much we still do not know about our own culture.At the same time, I would like there to be more behind this than fashion or commercial calculation. There is a risk that Ukrainian culture will become a convenient career-building tool: Today, you turn to it because it is relevant, and tomorrow, you move on to something else when the trend changes.I would like artists to feel an inner need to engage with our heritage rather than simply feel that it is what they are supposed to do. For me, it is important to see more personal experience reflected in their work – their own traumas, mistakes, doubts, and genuine interests. I want to see a living dialogue.Your new project dedicated to Ukrainian music of the 1990s will include reinterpretations, duets with iconic Ukrainian artists, and a concert film. What is your greatest creative challenge with this project?One challenge is avoiding the temptation to make an album of covers. That would be too easy, and I do not think it would offer enough in terms of exploration. That is why the album consists primarily of my own original songs inspired by the lyrics and sound of Ukrainian music from the 1990s.My sound producer and I are working extensively with instruments and sonic techniques characteristic of that era. The lyrics of my songs also contain a kind of dialogue with the artists who fascinated me back then. “We need to shed Soviet-imposed ideas about Ukrainian culture.” Another important challenge is avoiding a stereotypical portrayal of the 1990s. My album is also about what was pushed aside, forgotten, or left out of the dominant cultural narrative. I am fascinated by how daring, experimental, and sometimes even eccentric Ukrainian music was during those years, while remaining deeply sincere. There will be plenty of unexpected choices on the album. In a sense, this is a tribute to the artists I listened to as a little girl, watching music charts on television and imitating my idols in front of the screen. I want to return to that childhood sense of wonder, but look at it through the experience I have today – to understand what captivated me back then and how that music shaped the artist I became. What messages about Ukraine and its culture should be communicated abroad today, and which stereotypes are we ready to leave behind? We need to shed Soviet-imposed ideas about Ukrainian culture and stop being afraid to present it as modern and experimental. For example, I am currently working on a song inspired by Komu Vnyz, an iconic Ukrainian band from the 1990s that combined Ukrainian martial lyrics with a heavy rock sound. I am fascinated by their boldness and how different musical languages can be combined without losing one’s identity. I would like audiences abroad to see Ukrainian culture in precisely this way – as vibrant, contemporary, and capable of surprising them. Khrystyna Soloviy. (Photo via Soloviy’s press office) You were born just a few years after Ukraine restored its independence. How do you think Ukrainian society’s attitudes toward women, their freedom, their choices, and their right to independence have evolved during this time? I think we have changed a great deal, but genuine equality is still a long way off. Women continue to face numerous prejudices. A man can express harsh opinions, criticize, and provoke, and this is often perceived as a sign of strength and boldness. When a woman does the same, she risks facing a wave of hate. Even if you write your own songs, you constantly have to prove that your talent as a songwriter is worth something. A woman is allowed to be pleasant, but not too ambitious or outspoken. The moment she begins to belong to herself – to express her opinions openly, defend her decisions, or determine for herself who she wants to be – she is viewed negatively. You have had relationships with charismatic, high-profile men. Looking beyond the public headlines and considering those relationships as experiences that shaped you, what did they give you — and what did they take away? My mentor, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, once gave me valuable advice: Do not comment on your private life; speak about it only through your songs. I broke that rule at one point, as everyone knows. Eventually, there were more sensational headlines about me than discussions of my music. I realized that I did not want my private life to overshadow what I do as a songwriter and singer. So now I have returned to his advice. If you want to know what I went through, what shaped me, or what I lost and found in relationships, look for the answers in my songs. But I would be even happier if you found yourselves in them, too. Ultimately, that is what music means to me: a personal experience that, at some point, stops belonging exclusively to you and becomes something other people can relate to. Khrystyna Soloviy. (Photo via Soloviy’s press office) Your studio, located on the grounds of the Dovzhenko Film Studios, was damaged in a Russian attack in the summer of 2026. How difficult is it to create music in a space that has been wounded by war? It happened just as we were releasing the music video for “Druha Nochi” (“Two in the Morning”), a tribute to Ukrainian cinema that we created with support from the Dovzhenko Film Studios. In the video, we revisit Ukrainian films that Russia has spent decades trying to appropriate or push out of the cultural space. What is happening now only proves that this struggle has never been limited to the informational or cultural sphere. The studio holds many personal memories for me. It was where we recorded my debut album, “Zhyva Voda” (“Living Water”), and where we completed the recording of my new album about the 1990s. It is not simply a place where I work; it is a space that holds part of my creative history. We are continuing to finish the album at other locations. I think it is especially important not to stop now. Culture is a way to preserve memory, defend our identity, and continue speaking about ourselves in our own voice. How do you envision the next stage of your career?I would love to bring this entire 1990s era to life – to release a full-length album, make a film, and go on tour. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to plan too far ahead right now, so I am trying to focus on what I can do here and now.At the same time, working on this album has opened up many other creative directions. I can already see the outlines of my next albums.I also have substantial material in development for a second album of Lemko songs. This is a very special project for me, one I approach with great love. So I do not feel that I will be facing a creative void after the 1990s album.On the contrary, the deeper I dive into Ukrainian music, the more stories I discover that I want to tell.