Authors

Discussion

In the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, particularly in the aftermath of the 2022 full-scale invasion, the country’s popular music scene has become an important arena for the re-imagining and re-conceptualization of gender and sexuality. Crucially, popular music provided space for Ukraine’s queer community and its allies to increase the community’s visibility and advocate for its rights, even while it continues to face significant challenges, both the new ones, brought about by the war, and those predating it.

In recent years, in Ukraine’s public arena, where previously non-heteronormative expressions of gender and sexuality were largely considered taboo, a fragile space of visibility began to emerge, with public figures and organizations advocating more openly for the rights of LGBTQI+people or, in some cases, coming out as queer themselves. In the musical space, this gradual shifting of societal attitudes resulted in the emergence of new pro-LGBTQI+ voices.

Some of these artists, like the singer TUCHA, who identifies as bisexual, have spoken openly about their queerness and addressed discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community in their songs. Others, like the pop singer Olya Polyakova who led the Ukrainian column at the 2023 London Pride, are vocal allies, regularly speaking up in support of equal rights for queer people. Others yet, like Stasik and Alyona Alyona, while not directly addressing the issues facing the queer community, nevertheless help to advance broader acceptance of difference in Ukrainian society by challenging the heteronormative expectations around how individuals perform their femininity or masculinity.

In my paper, I will examine Ukrainian popular music as a tentative space for queer solidarity and allyship shaped by the complex range of influences from the ongoing Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.