Real name—Susana Jamaladinova. Ukrainian singer of Crimean Tatar origin (Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of Crimea), People’s Artist of Ukraine, winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
“We often underestimate ourselves in various fields: culture, sports, IT. There are many Ukrainians whose achievements we know nothing about. And that’s a shame because our people are our treasure. It is important to know about them, to appreciate and to help them. We should be together as one—that’s how we can achieve greater things.
Foreigners know that we are unruly. This image was created after The Revolution of Dignity (mass protests in 2013-2014 against corruption and in support of the European path of development of Ukraine’s foreign policy), during which I performed for the protesters of Maidan. I lit candles, sang, sometimes cried, and even screamed together with everyone.
Now we feel even more what it is like to be ‘free’. We can’t live without freedom—we proved it many times.
My Eurovision contest prize is not only my award. It is an award of the entire Ukraine, because, at this contest, artists represent not themselves or their art, but the whole country.
The hardest part during the competition was not to lose an understanding of what I came there for and to sing the song as sincerely as I could, as many times as necessary. But it didn’t have to look like I’m acting. Even though this song is technically complex, the most important thing there was not a technique, but the soul.
I have a lot of songs similar to ‘1944’ (Jamala’s song with which she won Eurovision-2016). My grandmother’s stories about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, which were full of emotions and the feeling of the loss of their home, inspired me to write this song. I wrote it before the occupation of Crimea as if I anticipated those events.
During the contest, I was nervous, but people’s faith in me gave me strength. I felt supported even during the national selections, and when people were greeting me at the airport after returning to Ukraine. And also, I realised that I just want to sing this story because it is about me, my family, and my people. I was comforted by the understanding that I was singing the truth”.
— Jamala