War in Ukraine: testimony of the Ukrainian Jamala, the winner of Eurovision in 2016
Ukrainian singer Jamala, who won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 for '1944' and now fled war in her country, shows off a Ukrainian flag as she performs her then-winning song at ESC, in Berlin, Germany, March 4, 2022. © Hannibal Hanschke / AFP
Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow |
Jose Marinho Follow
2 mins
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine 12 days ago, there have been almost 1.5 million Ukrainian refugees.
Among them, the famous singer Jamala, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
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Jamala, whose real name is Susana Jamaladinova, was born in 1983 in Osh to a Crimean Tatar father and an Armenian mother.
In 2016, at the age of 32, she won the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm with
1944
.
A very political song, dedicated to the tragedy experienced by its people during the deportation of 240,000 Crimean Tatars under Stalin.
Written by the singer herself, the piece was inspired by the memories of her great-grandmother Nazalkhan, deported with her four sons and daughter.
Like Jamala's family, Crimean Tatars only began returning to Ukraine after the fall of the wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Today, overtaken by the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian singer fled Kiev on the first day of the conflict to escape the war with her children.
"
My life will never be the same again.
It is a disaster.
A terror for all Ukrainian women and children.
Please excuse me for my emotion.
When I think of all those bombs.
I fled the war from the first day of the Russian attack by crossing the Moldovan border, then I took a plane to Istanbul to bring my children to safety in Germany.
It was very long, tiring.
My husband, their dad, stayed in the country to defend Ukraine and we don't know if we will ever see each other again.
My own weapon is my songs.
I put my notoriety at the service of the cause of my country.
I am more useful abroad than staying hidden in a shelter.
I give interviews and I even interpreted, last Friday, in Berlin,
1944
, the song with which I triumphed at Eurovision six years ago.
It speaks of the tragedy of my family and of thousands of Crimean Tatars, victims of Stalinist deportation.
Today, we are witnessing the exodus of my people.
I never thought that a single horror could ever happen again.
»
Ukrainian singer Jamala in 2016, when she won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "1944".
► To read also:
War in Ukraine: the heartbreaking testimony of Ukrainian director Vlad Troitskyi
► To read also:
War in Ukraine: Russian conductor Maria Kurochkina will no longer return to Russia
► To read also:
War in Ukraine: the cultural offensive
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