Russia Ukraine Conflict
Met Opera Concert to Mark Anniversary of Ukraine Invasion
The Metropolitan Opera in New York will mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a concert to remember victims of the war. Met music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Soprano Golda Schultz, mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo, tenor Dmytro Popov, and Ukrainian bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi will be the soloists at the Feb. 24 performance. “Mozart’s Requiem is to remember the innocent victims of the war, and Beethoven’s Fifth is in anticipation of the victory to come,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Friday (Jan. 20). The concert will be broadcast on radio and will be presented in association with the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. A...
Believe Is ‘Maintaining All Its Operations’ in Russia — And Some Claim ‘Aggressively’ Growing Market Share
LONDON — Six months after Believe announced it had “suspended activities” in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine, the French music company now says it is “maintaining all its operations” in the isolated nation. At best, that means recruiting staff to fill vacated roles and making multi-million dollar deals to renew contracts with label partners. At worst, sources say, Believe is taking advantage of the moment, “aggressively” signing Russian record labels and artists to gain market share in the region while major labels have committed to cease all new business there. In one Aug. 30 email reviewed by Billboard, a senior Believe executive in Russia offered a Russian record label 3 million euros ($3 million) for rights to its catalog and future releases. The email, which was wri...
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Awards Universal Music With Peace Prize for Wartime Support
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has awarded Universal Music Group the Ukraine Peace Prize for its support of Ukraine during the country’s war with Russia. At a ceremony on Monday (Sept. 5) at UMG’s Belgium headquarters in Brussels, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, presented the award to Frank Briegmann, UMG’s chairman and CEO of Central Europe. UMG, which was among the first major labels to declare its support for economic sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, is the first music company to receive the award from Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Universal Music has proven that they are true friends of Ukraine,” Stefanishyna says. The label says its efforts include support f...
War Rap: Ukraine War Fuels Angry Voice for Furious Generation of Rappers
From the battlefronts of Ukraine comes rap music — filled with the anger and indignation of a young generation that, once the fighting is done, will certainly never forget and may never forgive. Ukrainian rapper-turned-volunteer soldier Otoy is putting the war into words and thumping baselines, tapping out lyrics under Russian shelling on his phone, with the light turned low to avoid becoming a target. It helps numb the nerve-shredding stress of combat. “Russian soldiers drink vodka, we are making music,” says the rapper, whose real name is Viacheslav Drofa, a sad-eyed 23-year-old who hadn’t known he could kill until he had a Russian soldier in his sights and pulled the trigger in the war’s opening weeks. One of the ironies of the Feb. 24 invasion launched by Russian President Vl...
‘Patriotic’ Russian Musicians Are Cashing In on Putin-Backed Concerts
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to deep division among local musicians. While critics of the war have trouble playing shows — or are voluntarily refusing to do so — supporters of the invasion are cashing in by playing government-sponsored “patriotic” concerts. With Europe’s largest conflict since World Word II now passing 100 days, throughout April and May, dozens of concerts have been organized across Russia by local authorities to support the Russian “military operation” in Ukraine. Artists participating in those shows were paid sizable fees by local authorities. The folk rock band Pelageya collected 3 million rubles ($49,000) for participating in a patriotic music festival in Stavropol, South Russia, on May 1, and singer Denis Maidanov was paid 2.5 million rubles ($40,000) for taki...
In Record-Setting Fashion, Ukraine Rides Popular Sentiment to 2022 Eurovision Win
Ukraine’s rap and folk group Kalush Orchestra, riding a record number of votes from the public and a kinetic song that became an anthem for suffering mothers, overtook the United Kingdom, Sweden and Spain to capture the 66th Eurovision Song Contest in a nail-biter in Turin, Italy. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news While the oddsmakers, pundits and fans pegged Ukraine as the clear favorite to win going into Saturday’s final, it didn’t look good after the jury vote, when Ukraine was in fourth place with 192 points and the U.K. was in first with 283. The juries were not especially kind to Ukraine, with some countries, like the Netherlands, giving them no points at all. Poland, Moldova, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania — all countries that are c...
Ukrainian Pop Star Max Barshik Dedicates Song to Nation’s Fearless Warriors: ‘Don’t F–k With Ukraine’
Ukrainian pop star Max Barshik has a very simple message for anyone interested in taking on his nation’s armed forces: “Don’t F–k With Ukraine.” That’s the refrain of the “Bude Vesna (It Will Be Spring)” singer’s new single, a whisper rap club tune with the simple refrain: “We attack, we don’t play/ Don’t f–k with Ukraine.” The video for the song with the banging techno beat, a female choir singing one of the war’s most famous viral quotes (“Russian warship, go f–k yourself”) and Barshik’s guttural warning features footage of Ukrainian soldiers firing tanks and missiles in the field mingled with more peaceful shots of civilians dancing and celebrating. According to a statement accompanying the track, it is dedicated to the Ukrainian armed forces and the “people’s resistance” against Russia...
Gwede Mantashe Confirms Plans to Support SAns Amid Petrol Price Hikes
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In Ukraine, Music Promoters Pivot to War’s Front Lines: ‘Culture Needs to Hold On’
The ritual is the same every August. Promoters for Zaxidfest, about an hour southwest of Lviv, Ukraine, dig into storage containers and haul out electrical generators, walkie-talkies and other equipment to put on the latest edition of the event, which has been held since 2009. This summer will be different. “All our storage goes to armed forces and refugees,” says Yakiv Matviychuk, the founder of the festival, which booked punk and metal bands like Cradle of Filth and Lacuna Coil in 2019 and drew 75,000 fans in a single day. “Unfortunately, I am not a soldier. So I help with donations. All people do what they can do the best.” Many men on Zaxidfest’s staff have joined the military to repel the Russian forces who attacked the country on Feb. 24. They’re scattered throughout Ukraine, from Ky...
The Ledger: Leaving Russia Will Have Little Impact on Streaming Services, Record Labels
The Ledger is a weekly newsletter about the economics of the music business sent to Billboard Pro subscribers. An abbreviated version of the newsletter is published online. Strong steps taken by Western music companies to cease operations in Russia will have a big impact on the country but will do little damage to the global market. Russia is the 16th largest recorded music market in the world with a trade value $199 million in 2020, according to the IFPI. That was on par with Sweden, which has about 7% of Russia’s population, as well as Mexico, India and Switzerland. For the largest record labels, music publishers and music streaming companies, each with multi-billion-dollar revenues, Russia is a tiny part of their worldwide businesses. Spotify’s decision to suspend operations in Rus...
Sony Music Suspends Operations in Russia Over Ukraine Invasion
Sony Music Group has joined a growing list of global music companies pulling out of Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. “Sony Music Group calls for peace in Ukraine and an end to the violence,” the company said in a statement on Thursday. “We have suspended operations in Russia and will continue our support of global humanitarian relief efforts to aid victims in need.” The move by Sony to suspend its operations in Russia, where it has roughly three dozen employees, follows similar actions by Universal Music Group, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok and Live Nation, among others. A source familiar with Sony’s decision tells Billboard that the company will continues to provide financial and wellbeing assistance to the impacted employees but could not elaborate further.This is a develop...
Spotify Suspends Premium Accounts in Russia
Spotify has suspended its premium accounts in Russia after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, a company executive said on Wednesday (March 9). Paul Vogel, the streaming platform’s CFO, said the shutdown would result in a loss of about 1.5 million paying customers in the first quarter of 2022, Variety reported. That is not expected to be material for the company: Russia represents less than 1% of Spotify’s total revenue of 9.67 billion euros ($10.93 billion) in 2021, up 22.7% from 2020. In the wake of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Spotify said last Wednesday that it was closing its office in Russia and removing content from state-sponsored broadcasters RT and Sputnik. The platform has been unable to add new premium accounts or to run advertising in Russia since credit card companies Visa, Mas...
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