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 to be eligible for the contest.  In an interview with the members of Go_A, they shared that the title “Shum” is a play on words.  In Ukrainian mythology, the word shum is a spiritual forest in which their ancestors believed needed to be honored in order to live with the people in harmony (Shandra, 2021).  To do so, they would sing songs and perform rituals to please the spirits and awaken spring.  Another Ukrainian translation of the word shum is noise, and so the members of Go_A joked that people made noise with shum at the rituals.  The song “Shum” honors a “vesnianka” and a “haivka,” which are types of songs associated with the spring ritual (Shandra, 2021).  Kateryna, the lead singer and songwriter, shared that the vesnianka that inspired “Shum'' was one that she knew from her childhood growing up in Polesia, a region in northern Ukraine.  Polesia was known for its existence as a former Chernobyl nuclear plant with a surrounding exclusion zone.  The spring equinox was a momentous occasion for Ukrainian ancestors and a time to celebrate the victory of light over dark (Shandra, 2021).  Vesnianka was sung to awaken the cosmic cycle and noise of the green spring while the haivka was sung after the trees had grown leaves (Shandra, 2021).  These songs praised the spring and the gifts it brought as well as the people that danced to these songs.  The dances were circular and endless to represent the cosmic trajectory of the song as well as the endless cycle of life on earth (Shandra, 2021).  

In the live performance of “Shum” at ESC, the background dancers holding halos dance in circles around Kateryna.  This is to replicate the traditional Ukrainian vesnianka and haivka dances in which people danced around a person in the middle (Shandra, 2021).  The circles on stage, as well as the circular motions of the dance, represent the journey of the sun in the sky.  As the music gets more lively, the sun gets stronger and awakens to bring about the victory of spring over winter.  The dancers also move to replicate the moving branches of the young spring forest.   In the opening scene, we see Kateryna standing at the center with her green coat as she “greets spring,” with the beginning of the song.  They dance around Kateryna, who is dressed in a green fur coat to represent the green tree branches from forests where Ukrainian ancestors gathered to call for spring.  In this performance, Kateryna represents the spirit shum.  

Throughout the performance, Kateryna makes minimal movements and facial expressions.  She stays fixated in her spot on the stage while the people around her move around.  This tension between the background dancers and Kateryna emphasizes the movements during spring rituals.  While the forest stays still, the people around it make noise, conduct rituals, and dance to awaken spring.  On stage, the musicians symbolically “sow” hemp seeds on stage while Kateryna sings “sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing hemp plants.  Sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing green ones.”  Go_A’s performance of “Shum” is a representation of a spring ritual including the greeting the spring, awakening the sun with the circular dances, and planting hemp seeds.  Following that step is the awakening of nature in which the music gets faster and faster while figures on the screen start running forwards.  The white figures that were once entrapped in their windows on the screen are now free to make noise to awaken spring, finishing the ancient ritual of setting the circle of life in motion.  

The story behind “Shum” takes a look at a time in history when rituals were only passed on by word of mouth before landing on the Eurovision stage in 2021.  The performance of “Shum” was a beautiful recreation of the spring ritual that fell under the category of a novelty song.  Kateryna sang using an unusual voice technique called “white voice” which is an ancient folklore technique that is difficult to master.  It requires a command of extreme vocals and is mainly practiced by cultures in central and eastern Europe.  This type of singing gives the impression of brightness because it pierces the space with a strong vibration, making it the perfect accompaniment for a song such as “Shum” which sings about the celebration of light overpowering the darkness (Miu, 2020).  Go_A’s unique mixture of folklore and modern electronic music further adds to the aspect of a novelty song.  This musical innovation is what makes this band stand apart from other performances and what helped them to place 2nd at the semi-grand finale and 5th at the grand finale.  

Ukraine’s national identity was somewhat aligned through Go_A’s performance of “Shum” at Eurovision.  In an interview with Fakty, Kateryna shared that the group was following a mission to promote Ukrainian culture on the world stage.  She shared “we absolutely want to sing there in Ukrainian language, to honor Ukrainian folklore and to show that Ukrainian is cool, interesting and is there to love” (Fuster, 2021).  Part of Ukraine’s national identity places a strong emphasis on speaking Ukrainian, and so it was very important that their submission to the ESC was sung in their official language.  

Another aspect of Ukraine’s national identity was displayed through Go_A’s unique musical innovation of combining folklore with electronic music.  By combining the two, they were essentially creating a mashup between the traditional east and the modern west.  This plays on Ukraine’s sense of dual identities as it struggles to forge its new path between the modern west, including the EU, NATO, and so on, or the traditional eastern powers of Russia.  Go_A, itself, is a perfect representation of Ukraine in the ESC, for the meaning of its name derives from '‘Go’ as ‘movement’ and ‘A’ as an ancient Greek letter ‘alpha,’ which refers to going back to one’s cultural roots” (Kulbachny, n.d.).  The band is a good representation of Ukraine’s want to move forward with the west while maintaining its past cultural ties.  

The staging of the performance also hinted at Ukraine’s national identity with its modern and futuristic setup.  The stage included white minimalistic branches to represent the forest and everyone on stage except for Kateryna was dressed in white tracksuits.  The instruments and props were all white, adding to the futuristic vibe of the performance.  What added to this performance was the fact that Go_A incorporated traditional aspects while displaying a look of modernity.  They used a sopilka, a type of flute made out of wood or bark.  It is a popular wind instrument in Ukraine and featured mainly in folk music.  The sopilka was heavily featured in the performance as Ihor Didenchuck had many solos throughout the song.  Alongside the “white voice” of Kateryna singing folklore in Ukrainian with the accompaniment of the guitar and electronic music, “Shum” displayed an eccentric performance that carefully balanced modernity with tradition, which further aligns with Ukraine’s national identity.  

Whether you understood a word of Ukrainian or not, Go_A’s performance of “Shum” captured the attention of everyone with its powerful vibes and strong stage presence.  Everything about the performance was unique: Kateryna’s “white voice,” the sopilka, the dance, stage set up, the folklore electro-pop mix, and their costumes.  Go_A took the stage with the intention of representing Ukraine’s unique culture and they ended up accomplishing even more.  They celebrated Ukraine through its creation of “Shum” as well as through the performance of a spring ritual paying special attention to the background, dance, costume, setup, and sprinkling of hemp seeds.  The meaning behind “Shum” combined with Go_A’s novelty performance is what made Ukraine’s submission a top finisher at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest.  

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References:

Fuster, L. (2021, April 12). Go_A’s “Shum” lyrics greet spring by transforming a traditional “vesnyanka” ritual in a rave. Wiwibloggs. https://wiwibloggs.com/2021/04/12/lyrics-shum-go-a-ukraine-eurovision-2021/263926/

Go_A. (2021). “Shum” (Ukraine). Eurovision Song Contest 2021 Rotterdam. ESC 2021. 

Kulbachny, I. (n.d.). About us. Go_A Band. https://go-a-band.com/about

Mantach, A. (2021). Go_A-Ukraine-Rotterdam 2021. Eurovision.tv. https://eurovision.tv/participant/go-a-2021

Miu, P. (2020, February 22). White singing intensive workshop. K77 Studio. http://k77studio.org/en/white-singing-intensive-workshop/

Shandra, A. (2021, May 25). Why was Ukraine’s Eurovision performance by Go_A so mesmerizing?. Euromaidan Press. https://euromaidanpress.com/2021/05/25/pan-european-archetypes-goa-ukraine-eurovision-performance/

Tsinivits, K. (2021, April 28). Eurovision 2021 Ukraine profile: Shum by Go_A. Aussievision. https://www.aussievision.net/post/eurovision-2021-ukraine-profile-shum-by-go_a