The Hutsuls’ Wild Dancing Queen!

If you live in North America, chances are you’ve never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest. But chances are, you’ve either enjoyed its fruits – or suffered from them. The annual contest was first staged in Switzerland in 1956, for members of the European Broadcasting Union. It is a major event in Europe, attracting something like 300 million viewers in 2002. The two most successful winners were Sweden’s ABBA (won in 1974) and Canada’s Céline Dion (singing for Switzerland, won in 1988), both of whom shot to world stardom after taking home the Eurovision prize.

This year's contest was held in Istanbul, following Turkey's win last year in Latvia. The Associated Press reported that security was tight, thanks in large part to al-Qaeda suicide attacks last November that killed 62 people. No major incidents were reported during the contest, however.

Competition was fierce, with a record number of countries participating. Pundits alternately predicted wins by Greece, Serbia and Ukraine. Greece’s Sakis Rouvas took third with his Latin-tinged “Shake it,” and Serbia and Montenegro’s Željko Joksimović took second with his very ethnic “Lane Moje.” But it was Ukraine’s entry – Ruslana Lyžyčko and her Carpathian-flavored song “Wild Dances” – that stole the show at the grand finale on 15 May. This was the first time Ukraine has won the contest, and only the second time it has participated.

Ruslana is one of Ukraine’s most successful singers, producers, dancers and composers, but her heart is definitely in the Carpathian mountains. Her album “Dyki Tanci” (Wild Dances) was the first ever to go Platinum in Ukraine, and borrowed heavily from Hutsul folk traditions. The album was recorded in Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio in London, and was released in June 2003. By October, it had sold more than 100,000 (legal) copies – more than any release in Ukrainian history.

Asked by Eurovision.tv about her Carpathian connections, she said, “My father is from Transcarpathia and I also come from the area. The mountains are a very special place where the ancient Hutsul people live and the mountains have a very regenerative effect on people. We made about 20 expeditions to the mountains to develop ‘Wild Dances’ and even moved our studio to a deserted observatory there to record our album. They are a very mystical place.”

The visits to the mountains certainly were apparent in her Eurovision performance. Though “Wild Dances” is a thoroughly modern song, it makes use of traditional Carpathian folk instruments, and typical exclamations such as “hey! hey!” and “dana-dana,” according to Ruslana’s website. The song’s Ukrainian-language name, “Dyki Tanci,” also betrays a Hutsul influence, since “dyki” is a term found in the Hutsul dialect but not in literary Ukrainian.

And the song isn’t the only thing that evinces Carpathian roots – the energetic, “wild,” choreography of her stage performance was also (loosely) based on Carpathian folk dances. According to her website, the mix of folk and modern dancing “attempts to eliminate the border between the Ancient and the Modern and develop a unique dance style, which can potentially become a hit at discothèques.”

Even the costumes she and her dancers wore were partially made by Carpathian craftsmen. She told Eurovision.tv, “Really, we didn’t set out to make them raunchy; in fact my husband is mad at me because they are so sexy! He’s worried there will be other men in my life soon! They’re made from leather and metal and are ethno-military style; I think we look like mountain Amazons. We used contemporary designers, but parts of them were made by traditional Hutsul craftsman in the Carpathian Mountains. The methods they use to create some of the parts are so secret no one else has ever managed to copy them successfully. And they really are very comfortable!”

Agence France-Presse summed up the performance best: “Dressed in leather costumes reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings and wielding whips, Ruslana and her dancers offered a dazzling spectacle inspired by ethnic traditions in the Carpathian mountains of western Ukraine.”

(And Ruslana didn’t mind the Lord of the Rings comparison…she told Eurovision.tv, “I’d be really happy if that were the case; then I might win an Oscar as well!”)

Prior to her arrival in Istanbul, Ruslana undertook a 14 country European tour to promote the song, and the effort clearly paid off. She is now set to become a star across Europe. If you need more proof, consider the fact that her website had to be moved from a Ukrainian server to an American one to handle the huge number of visits it has been getting since the contest.

Ruslana has a huge year ahead of her, which will culminate next May when Ukraine plays host to all of Europe at the 50^th annual Eurovision Song Contest. She will also be hard at work on an English-language version of her “Wild Dances” album for the US and European markets, as well as on “Wild Dances 2,” the follow up album which promises new songs featuring motifs from Bukovina and the Rusyns’ Transcarpathia.

While Ruslana may or may not be a Rusyn, her music is uniquely appealing to Rusyns. Though, say, Anna Čeberenčyk is an ethnic Lemko who records modern versions of Lemko folk songs (ed: see Outpost Dispatch Vol. I, Issue 3), her music is not nearly as sophisticated as Ruslana’s. As Ruslana herself said last year upon the release of her album, “The biggest factor in the success of this album, as far as I can see, is the colossal energy of the music, inspired by our great Carpathians.”