"Solovey" (Ukrainian: Соловей, transl. "Nightingale") is a 2020 song by Ukrainian folktronica group Go_A. The song had to represent Ukraine in Eurovision Song Contest 2020, but the competition was stopped by the COVID-19 pandemic.[1]
Background
The musical genre of the song is folktronica, a mix between electronic dance music and folk.[2][3]
The song lyrics are about a girl, Katrusia (nickname for "Kateryna"), that lives in the Ukrainian countryside. She falls in love with a boy, Vaniusha (nickname for "Ivan"), but the mother does not approve it. The girl meets him at night and she asks a nightingale not to sing early, because the bird may wake up other people. Katrusia knows that their love is not possible and tries to forget him.[2][3]
The story is based on the singer Kateryna Pavlenko's personal story.[2][3]
The lyrics, all in the Ukrainian language, are in an iambic pentameter verse, the main metre in Slavic folk poetry and drama.[2]
Eurovision Song Contest
On 22 February 2020, "Solovey" won Vidbir 2020 with 12 points, the highest number of points in Vidbir.[4] The winner song of that competition becomes the representative Ukrainian song for Eurovision Song Contest. However, on 18 March 2020, Eurovision was stopped before it started because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1] Go_A then went to Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with "Shum".[5]
"Solovey" is the first song in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest to be fully in the Ukrainian language.[3]
References
