Singer Sasha Tab will become an official member of Kalush Orchestra and sing as backing vocalist for the group at Eurovision 2022.
Sasha Tab will replace Johnny Strange as a backing singer in Kalush Orchestra, becoming an official member of the band. Sasha Tab will now go on to sing with the group at both the pre-party Israel Calling and Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. Sasha Tab has already now performed “Stefania” live as part of the Kalush Orchestra in Lviv.
Kalush Orchestra is due to take part in a number of promotional concerts over the coming weeks and is planning to raise funds to aid the reconstruction of Ukrainian cities affected by the war.
Earlier Suspilne had reported that the Ukrainian Government has given Kalush Orchestra permission to leave Ukraine and promote their entry and perform at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
Sasha Tab is the lead singer for the band “Flip Back” and in 2017 took part in the National selection for Ukraine with the song “O, mamo” as part of the group “Salto Nazad”.
“Interestingly, fate still led me to sing a song about my mother at Eurovision” – Sasha Tab
“Stefania” is a song about Oleh’s mother, who heard the song for the first time while the group performed on the Vidbir stage. Sasha joked about the fact both his National selection entry and the Eurovision entry are about mothers on his social media after it was confirmed he would be singing at Eurovision 2022.
Kalush Orchestra will perform in the first half of the first semi-final on May 10.
Who are Kalush Orchestra?
Kalush is a rap group formed in 2019, consisting of Oleh Psiuk (rapper), Ihor Didenchuk (multi-instrumentalist), and MC Kilimmen (DJ). Ihor is also a member of Go_A, who represented Ukraine at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. This year, Kalush launched the Kalush Orchestra, which focuses on rap and folk fusion music. Tymofii Muzychuk and Vitalii Duzhyk joined the core Kalush members for this project.
Image Source: MAXIM FESENKO | Source: suspilne
Ukraine first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, when Oleksandr Ponomariov performed “Hasta la vista”. The following year Ruslana brought the country their first win with the song “Wild Dances”. It was a feat that would be replicated in 2016 by Jamala with her song “1944”; her emotionally charged song scored a record 534 points to take victory in Stockholm. In 2017 O.Torvald represented the country on home soil with the song “Time”. The group finished in 24th place, Ukraine’s worst result at the contest to date. Ukraine is the last remaining country with a 100% semi-final qualification record.