Kalush Orchestra and The Rasmus Released a Joint Song

I am witnessing how my small provincial town suddenly became famous. And this is an interesting story.

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A Bit of History

The small town of Kalush, located near the Carpathian Mountains, has a population of about 65,000. After the start of the war, the number of residents increased, but I don't think it was more than 5,000. Growing up in this town, I got used to the fact that I often meet familiar faces on the streets, there are almost never traffic jams on the roads, and you can reach any point on foot, if you wish and have time.

The town is ancient. For centuries it lived on salt mining. There was a foundry known to many countries, where church bells were cast. Excellent beer has been brewed here for half a thousand years. But the town has never been the center of any important historical events, or we simply don't know about it. Even when Muscovy burned Kyiv and the center of Ukrainian statehood moved to the city of Halych, which is only 30 km from Kalush, Kalush remained a provincial town... probably.

In the 20th century, the chemical industry began to develop rapidly in the town. This added a negative image to the town. If anyone knew something about Kalush, it was only that there was bad ecology. Over time, the dirtiest factories were closed, and the environmental situation improved dramatically.

Nobody would have known about Kalush, but suddenly the rap group Kalush Orchestra appeared and everything changed.

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Kalush Orchestra Phenomenon

I'll say right away, I don't like rap and I'm not a fan of Kalush Orchestra's work, but that doesn't change the fact that its success story is amazing.

In 2019, the Kalush band appeared. Its first clip was shot on the streets of my hometown, that's why I found out about this band. I was interested to see how Kalush looks in the music video. This could have been the end of my acquaintance with the band's work, but over time, Kalush began to be played more and more often on the radio, and new songs appeared at lightning speed.

Despite my dislike of rap, I liked some of Kalush's songs. The band gained popularity very quickly. And this is not surprising, because, in addition to the songs themselves, the band has many other components of success.

One of the curiosities is a band member nicknamed Kilimmen, which means carpet man. This guy never goes out of style and always appears in public in his original costume. I think he chose this look not by chance, because making carpets is a traditional occupation of folk craftsmen in my region.

Another component of success is cooperation with many artists. From the very beginning of its existence, the Kalush band began to release joint songs with other artists. It was very interesting.

The soloist's rapping style is specific and unique.

In 2021, the creation of a parallel Kalush Orchestra project was announced. The task of the new team is to release songs with notes of national folklore. The same performers take part in the new band, but multi-instrumentalists have also joined the band.

By the way, Kalush is the hometown only for the founder and frontman of the band - Oleg Psyuk.

Eurovision

The newly created group Kalush Orchestra took part in the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Its song "Stefaniya won".

This caused a storm of interest to the town of Kalush. Journalists started coming to us, and later famous people. Kalush became known throughout the country.

During the Eurovision Song Contest, the country's leading TV channels broadcast live from the town's central square. And after the victory of the Kalush Orchestra in the competition, even more celebrities began to come to the town. This is quite unusual for us.

Now our railway station looks like this:

^Source.

It was decorated with the famous pink panoma. It is similar to the one that the lead singer of the band constantly wears.

When the train arrives, the song "Stefasia" is played, regardless of whether the people living nearby like it.

Kalush Orchestra and The Rasmus

This Saturday, I was listening to the local Kalush radio while I was doing quite everyday things in the garden. Guess who I heard live here? Soloist of The Rasmus band! On the provincial radio!

As you may remember, the band The Rasmus was very famous in the past. As it turned out, the band members met our guys in Turin during the Eurovision Song Contest and decided to release a joint song. As a result, they reworked their most famous song In The Shadows and it is now called In The Shadows Of Ukraine.

And you know, I liked it, despite the weak content of the words read by the soloist of the band Kalush. And I also liked how the performers of The Rasmus Released sing in Ukrainian at the end of the song. They learned quickly.