They’re a dynamic duo singing about two of history’s most famous saints: Teresa & Maria. So when Ukraine’s Jerry Heil & alyona alyona invited us to ride their bus to Eurovision in Concert 2024 in Amsterdam, we said, “Hail Mary!” and slid on in.
So first things first: Do either of them identify with either of the saints?
“I would say I’m more like Maria, because I’ve been virgin for a long time,” Jerry says. “It’s true.”
“And I’m more like Teresa I think because I make charity a lot,” alyona alyona says. “A lot of percent of all my money I gave to charity — to animals, to ecology, to people, and now to soldiers.”
Ukraine’s Jerry Heil & alyona alyona discuss war, Eurovision and their new mission as artists
That charity doesn’t always involve money. As alyona alyona explains, the duo have, as individuals, also given their time to boost morale and entertain Ukrainians.
“The first year of the big invasion, me and Jerry we have a lot of travel in all refugee center in Europe,” she says. “We gave a lot of charity concerts. Different artists choose different missions. Our mission here is more in Europe because of our career. We are invited by European audiences more. For us, it’s the usual possibility to go to Europe and thanks for helping — help more people.”
Daily life has changed dramatically. But Ukrainians have found ways to keep living.
“It’s very interesting how you get used to war,” Jerry says. “During the first month of the war you used to be hiding all the time. And now we have apps which are showing from which sides the rockets are coming. You’re like looking and saying, ‘This is not that dangerous, I’ll stay at work.'”
This changing goal post for what’s normal can be seen elsewhere too.
“When you live on the edge, you really feel the value of life. There is an analytic which calculated the number of women who started wearing make-up when the war started because you want to live each day to the fullest.”
Following the Eurovision-Spain PrePartyES in Madrid, Jerry posted an Instagram Story of her in Kyiv. She added a caption that said she felt safest at home, even if it’s one of the least safe places at the moment. I asked her what she meant by that.
“It’s still your land. It’s still where you feel empowered and you feel the roots. You really do. Every time I come back home, when I cross the border it’s like, ‘Whew, I’m finally home.'”
With Eurovision 2024 just weeks away, we had to ask about tweaks in their staging for the first semi-final on 7 May.
“It will be super different from our national competition Vidbir because you have a bigger stage,” alyona alyona says. “And it will be different colours — not the same colours. Maybe black colour was not the best.”
Jerry teased that the shape of the stage may provide clues to their mood: “I love that the stage is in the form of a cross. It matches our staging…”
Mother Teresa… saint?? I think the song writers should have read up on their history before making this. She showed complete disrespect to the culture, beliefs and religions of others. So to bring that energy to Eurovision is wrong to me. Although I did enjoy the music, the lyrics are disappointing so I can’t support this, sorry not sorry x
Those quotes about being a virgin and charity… How not to chuckle?
Wiilliam, MWAH 🙂
Delusional
I see Wiwibloggs turned to censorship for my totally legitimate comment and deleted it.
I said they’re hypocrites for “discussing” war with Ukrain but ignoring Israel.
Israelis got used to rockets even before Ukraine thought of a conflict with Russia.
Y’all are just something else.
You should know the entire Israeli fandom had enough of how you treated us and people don’t wanna read the blog anymore. I hope you’re happy.
Shame on you for deleting a perfectly fine comment and silencing people who criticise you, like the worst dictatorships.
Ukraine*
Seems like they only love bad news and discussions about Eden and Israel. The Ebu article with the anti-israel comments stayed 1st article of the homepage for days. They loved it. They never deleted a comment, not even deleted that comment about ‘scream like a strangled cat in the kibbutz’, where in real life cats, dogs and people were literally screaming when they were trapped, set afire and burnt alive, sometimes after literally being trapped and tied together with strings and electric wires first. Also that comment when Fzz, during Iran’s massive kamikaze drone and missile attack, came up with… Read more »
Thank you so much!
Glad to see people are aware of their bizzare choices this year with Israel.
Both parliaments in Turkiye and Iran were filled with politicians chanting “death to Israel” – which is literally a gen0cidal call to erase us all.
I guess people are fine with that.
Not all people!!!!!
An overrated entry indeed.
very overrated, who cares about ukrainian gibberish
Jerry and alyona alyona are the Best!
We all love them <3
I can’t take my eyes of Jerry’s eyebrows!
Does anyone have the guts to ask them what they think of Teresa and her crimes and if they are even aware of her true nature? Or is that question too uncomfortable?
Marlon should ask that on air during the green room interview.
MALIN
What is uncomfortable is you trolling this board. We are aware of your true nature.
Only Catholics believe Mary was a virgin… right? What with s e x being filthy satanism. “Original sin” and all that hokum.
I find this veneration of virginism to be sad and problematic. The pure opposite of Zorra.
Zorra Maria.
Mother Zorra
Zorra Maria! <3 <3 <3
(I’m so tired of this website, but I keep coming here once in a while just to read Jonas’ comments)