VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Ukrainian Pop Star Jamala On Saving Her New Album From Russian Bombing

Ukrainian pop star Jamala spoke about how the Russian bombing almost destroyed the recordings of her latest album, QIRIM, in her new uInterview.

Jamala explained to uInterview founder Erik Meers how her album reflects Crimean Tatar music and culture. 

“Honestly, the world doesn’t know about Crimean Tatar culture and that’s why, for me, it’s like my desire to create a strong voice from my homeland, Crimea, to desire to tell stories that were previously unknown or written, forgotten about,” she said.

The singer recorded the album in Kyiv during the ongoing war. She was forced to leave the studio and all her materials behind due to the Russian bombing. 

She recalled, “You know on February 22, [2022,] we left the studio and left all the materials, all vocal sessions, all instrumental tracks.”

A few weeks later, a producer was able to get back to the studio and download the album. This process was difficult due to the power outages and poor wi-fi connection.

“And he started to save the material but it was intermittent internet – blackouts in Kyiv but we risked it,” she said. “Honestly, literally, we risked it. And he was able to get with the help of special permission to get in the studio and start saving the songs.”

After recovering the album, Jamala mastered it in the U.S. and was invited to perform QIRIM at the Eurovision contest, which she won in 2016, in Liverpool, England. 

She shared, “It was a huge opportunity with the BBC Philharmonic orchestra on a stage to perform my music for 20,000 people on an open-air stage. It sounds like a dream and it was but first of all, for me, it was as an artist I wanted to show something more than in such inhumane conditions we try to save our culture.”

Jamala also decided that although it was risky, the album had to be performed live in Kyiv as well. While she was on stage, an air strike took place forcing her to stop the concert and take cover in a bomb shelter. 

While many would be discouraged, Jamala made sure that “the premiere still took place and even a lot of international media were with me in a basement such as the Rolling Stones and, you know, they can see how it can be to perform, to sing under the fire.”

The singer has been personally affected by the war, living in Kyiv with her family.

She recalled the moment when the war first began while she was sleeping in her home.

“My husband woke me up at five in the morning and he said it started, the Russians began the war,” she recalled. “After that day, I was thinking, ‘Oh my God what do I have to do? I had to dress my children and make sandwiches,’ I’m just confused in this moment and I was in shock.”

She and her husband decided to leave their home, out of concern for their family’s safety.

“I remember that we decided to get out of Kyiv, it was almost night,” she shared. “We were on a road and a rocket flew in front of us and we didn’t know which way you have to go. Forward, back, we didn’t know. It was a huge traffic jam and a large number of cars were still and did not move. It was absolutely helplessness.”

Jamala has also lost many friends throughout the war whom she was very close to and described some of them as family.

“The experience of war, it’s really scary,” she said.

Although she has been negatively affected by these experiences, she still has hope for her music.

She described how she grew up listening to American music as a child and, even though she did not understand English, she was able to grow as a singer. 

“I learned these songs by heart and I started singing them and I started to practice, for example in pop music as Whitney Houston or jazz Ella Fitzgerald,” she said. “It’s every song, album that gave me development as a vocalist.”

She hopes that her songs can do the same for Americans who don’t understand Ukrainian as American music did for her.

“I found truth, I found inspiration and my vision to live,” she said. “This is exactly what I want to offer. Maybe just as I fell asleep to ‘Lullaby of Birdland’ by Ella Fitzgerald, someone will put their children to one of my songs from QIRIM. Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. “