Making Noise with "Shum"
At the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Rotterdam, Ukraine was represented by Go_A with “Shum,” a song about performing a spring ritual that awakens nature for the sowing season to begin. Go_A is a four-person electro-pop band that specializes in the retelling of Ukrainian folklore that has been passed down through many generations. The band consists of lead singer Kateryna Pavlenko, multi-instrumentalist Taras Chevshenko, sopilka player Ihor Didenchuck, and guitarist Ivan Hryhoriak. Together they share Ukrainian folklore that has previously only been passed down through word of mouth by combining it with electronic music to produce songs for the world to hear. The song, “Shum,” originated as a combination of multiple versions of a Ukrainian folk song “A v nashoho shuma”(Fuster, 2021). Due to its similarity to the original song and the fact that it was a minute too long, “Shum” had to be reworked in order to fit the Eurovision song requirements t...