Mariya Yaremchuk has returned from New York and she’s wasted no time in releasing her latest music video “In The Open Field“.
Oozing soul and a tender mix of love and anxiety, Mariya seems to channel the emotions of a distressed bride ahead of her wedding day as she and her bridesmaids slip into white silk and taffeta.
But not everything is as it seems. You can watch the video below and scroll down for spoilers.
“From the first note to the last, this song is full of truth,” Mariya gushed to Viva magazine in Ukraine.
“The truth of life, which is very subtly interpreted by the director of the music video. Our songwriter, Sergei Dotsenko, also embodied this truth. I waited with anticipation to see our work, and personally it was more than I ever expected it to be.”
At the video’s climax, it becomes clear Mariya isn’t stressed about the wedding to come, but rather the wedding that won’t take place.
That’s because Mariya’s character — as with so many military wives and girlfriends — has lost her beloved on the open field invoked by the song’s title.
The fantasy of men in wedding tuxedos gives way to soldiers spitting blood.
The video was directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alan Badoev.
“These projects are not easy,” he said of the video. “It is important to accurately relate to the actor and be with him at the same time, to tell a single story”.
It isn’t the first time Mariya has addressed the issue of fallen Ukrainian soldiers and war.
In 2014 she toured eastern Ukraine as part of the Bring Peace tour. And during Eurovision 2014 she became a symbol of her nation at a time of intensifying military conflict with Russia.
Our editor William chronicled her travails in a lengthy story for Newsweek.
“Symbolically we wear black clothes and black ribbons to express solidarity for the mourning in Ukraine and to express the respect for all the suffering,” she said. “Our hearts and our souls are now in Ukraine with our people…We feel a lot of sadness.”
Good on her.