Racist comments about Gaitana shock artist, online community
Gaitana
Ganna Bernyk
Gaitana’s victory at the national selection for this year’s Eurovision pop song contest was sweet, but a racist comment that followed from an ultra-nationalist was anything but.
Gaitana-Lurdes Essami, a 32-year-old black singer born and raised in Ukraine, was chosen through a mixed vote of jury members and fans during a live TV program on Feb. 18. She will sing a song called “Be My Guest” at the Eurovision contest in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku in late May.
Yet at least one person did not like it. Yuriy Syrotyuk, a senior member of Svoboda party, said that “Gaitana is not an organic representative of the Ukrainian culture.” He added that she is “great singer,” nevertheless.
“Eurovision is our chance to promote Ukraine,” Syrotyuk said. “As we want to be accepted to the European Union, it could be our opportunity to show the Europeans that we are also a European nation. We need to show our originality,” he told Kyiv Post on Feb. 21.
Syrotyuk said that the Ukrainian band Gaydamaky would be a better choice, while Gaitana, “who represents another race, will provoke an association of Ukraine as a country of a different continent.”
His comments provoked an outrage among Ukraine’s artistic and online communities, but not much political reaction.
Singer Marichka Burmaka said on her Facebook page that “with friends like these you need no enemies,” and wished Gaitana luck at the contest, which Ukraine won in 2004.
Eduard Klym, Gaitana’s producer and husband, says that if there’s something that feeds the unflattering stereotypes about Ukraine, it’s precisely the kinds of statements made by Svoboda’s representative.
“It doesn’t even hurt,” Klym said. “We just feel shame for our society.”
Klym believes that Gaitana has everything to win the contest, but said that political and social factors also weigh in on victory.
“It’s not the name of the contestant that is showed in the corner of the screen, but the number and the country’s flag,” he explains. “But we will do everything possible to present the best show we can.”
Walid Harfouche, deputy head of the state-run UT-1 channel and co-organizer of the national selection, also believes that the nation picked a strong representative. “On Feb. 18 everyone felt that the song is strong and positive,” he says. “Gaitana herself is full of positive energy. It was a real feast.”
Harfouche says hopes that people like Syrotiuk will understand that their remarks stir up conflicts among Ukrainians.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at zhuk@kyivpost.com