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Sunday, March 11, 2007


Verka Goes to Helsinki!
Ukraine-Mocking Comedian to Represent Ukraine at Eurovision Song Contest

Yee-hah! Verka Serduchka, a faux female character created by Andriy Danylko impersonating a train conductor who can’t get enough of marginalizing Ukrainian culture alongside Russian chauvinist stereotypes, should be packing his bags for Helsinki. Ironically, whatever he sings there on May 12 will most likely be interpreted as a quintessence of Ukrainian culture.

Over the last decade, Andriy Danylko has perfected his kinky pseudo-ethnic character into a huge commercial success in Russia and eastern Ukraine. He won the ticket to Helsinki having outperformed several other artists in a nationwide SMS vote broadcast live on state television. So how does someone who masquerades as the Ukrainian equivalent of the N-word get to go to Eurovision? Well, I guess it tells a great deal about Ukraine’s post-Soviet identity crisis. So far, only one local FM station has voiced a protest.

If, for some reason, Kazakhstan fielded Sacha Baron Cohen, I’d rather vote for him than Andriy Danylko. After all, Borat Sagdiyev did not mess with Kazakhstan without making some pointed jabs at Amerikastan. With Verka Serduchka, it’s always been a one-way street.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

youtube.com
search for "serduchka"
lots of videos inc. the Eurovision entry in which he sings in english, german, russian and speaks a little in ukrainian
I am surprised because it is not his best work and quite weak. I thought Pirojok was better.

and by the way he is one handsome man
search under "danilko"
for song entitled "After you"

Anonymous said...

Of course the Bulgarian entry "Voda" is an techno homage to Ruslana
http://youtube.com/watch?v=F9ytzgtLW1A

Taras said...

Wait a minute, do I detect a hint of sympathy for Serdyuchka;)?

Well, he may be handsome, he may be hot, but that doesn’t excuse him from the horrible things he does. Normally, he performs in surzhyk, a post-colonial colloquial mixture of Ukrainian and Russian that puts a stamp of cultural inferiority on Ukraine. At least, that’s how urban Russian audiences typically react to it.

I’ve heard Serdyuchka being referred to as “Smerdyuchka,” a perfect cross-cultural analogy for “Shitney Beers.” And, comparatively speaking, I must confess I like Britney more:))

Anonymous said...

And the Czech entry is a homage to the Finnish 2006 winners so the thing is that if Serduchka is able to connect to the audience and seen as an "original" he could place within the finals which would keep Ukraine in the finals. He does incite strong passions and people do either love or hate him but he is a pro-performer and if anyone could swing it, it could be him. At the very least, he may put a pause in the "sex tourism"" to Ukraine.

Hint of sympathy?
I am actually a fan. And unabashedly so. As for lang. that boy harks from Poltava (where the purest form of Ukrainian is spoken) and he speaks Ukrainian perfectly. (Like a # of people inc. deputities he chooses not to.)

Taras said...

To the best of my knowledge, he rarely speaks Ukrainian, either onstage or offstage.

No one can deny his talent. It’s just that his talent bastardizes Ukrainian culture in a way that strongly appeals to bigoted Russian/Russified audiences and thus perpetuates the stereotypes at work here.

As a Ukrainian who understands this effect, I still can laugh my ass off watching him from time to time. But it’s not the kind of entertainment I would ship off to Eurovision to represent Ukraine.

I’m glad that YouTube identifies him as a Ukrainian-Russian artist, which means that Russia will share in the shame. Well, there’s no disputing tastes;))

I loved the sex tourism clause:)!

Taras said...

To the best of my knowledge, he rarely speaks Ukrainian, either onstage or offstage.

No one can deny his talent. It’s just that his talent bastardizes Ukrainian culture in a way that strongly appeals to bigoted Russian/Russified audiences and thus perpetuates the stereotypes at work here.

As a Ukrainian who understands this effect, I still can laugh my ass off watching him from time to time. But it’s not the kind of entertainment I would ship off to Eurovision to represent Ukraine.

I’m glad that YouTube identifies him as a Ukrainian-Russian artist, which means that Russia will share in the shame. Well, there’s no disputing tastes;))

I loved the sex tourism clause:)!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the following is going to come off as "sour grapes" and I doubt that the Pres. of NTN will even consider it (unless vote rigged) as he backs Serduchka - noticed the weakness of the competition in the finals?
----

Lviv regional and municipal youth organizations are calling on President Viktor Yuschenko and the Ukrainian National Television company’s director-general to repeat the competition via which Ukraine’s entrant for the 2007 Eurovision song contest was selected.

The organizations made the call in a statement, a text of which Ukrainian News obtained.

The statement says that the organizations are deeply concerned by the shameful outcome of the competition, which was won by Andrii Danylko (also known as Verka Serdiuchka).

«We believe that this is not the true choice of admirers of Ukrainian music and vocal arts but a manipulation aimed at disgracing the Ukrainian nation in the eyes of Europeans,» the statement says.

Taras said...

Serdyuchka’s triumph pissed off both his competitors and his culturally concerned critics. While the former may painfully dissect it in terms of performance, the latter passionately debate it in terms of repertoire.

Anyway, now that we let it happen, let’s wait for the big show in Helsinki:)

The character created by Andriy Danylko stands for a country whose cultural affairs and state television are run by Kuchma’s chief of staff Dima Tabachnyk and by Yanukovych’s promoter Eddie Prutnik.

Serdyuchka provides them with the sought-after “missing link” in their evolutionary theory of Ukrainian culture. And I believe she’s the only theory of Ukrainian culture they can accept.

But that doesn’t guarantee wide acceptance in Europe.