Ruslana, Serduchka, Jamala: national self-imaging in Ukraine’s Eurovision entries

Rules governing the lyrics and stage appearance of Eurovision Song Contest entries prohibit ‘lyrics, speeches, gestures of a political or similar nature’. But Eurovision songs are subject to interpretation for the overt or implicit political messages that they carry. Three of the most successful Ukrainian Eurovision entries-Ruslana’s ‘Wild Dances’ (winner, 2004), ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’ by Verka Serdiuchka (runner-up, 2007) and Jamala’s '1944' (winner, 2016)-generated extensive commentary in Ukraine itself and in the international media. This chapter proposes two reasons for this: their status as contributions to a debate within Ukraine over national identity; and the geopolitical context within which such statements became politically provocative: explicitly or in subtext, all three rejected the perpetuation of the colonial cultural hierarchies of the Soviet past.