Photo: Maksym Fesenko

Eurovision is a contest that creates bridges between nations and cultures, not just in May but throughout the year. We now have another strong example of this unity and solidarity with the new collaboration by Kalush Orchestra and The Rasmus. Ukraine’s Eurovision 2022 champions have joined hands with Finland’s own representatives of this year’s contest for “In The Shadows of Ukraine”.

This new song is a rework of The Rasmus’ hit “In the Shadows”. Originally released in 2003 and part of the Finnish band’s fifth studio album Dead Letters, it is considered to be one of the band’s most famous songs and one they keep performing regularly to this day.

The message of the original song is one of liberation, one of overcoming your condition, a song about never giving up the battle. Lyrics including “They say that I must learn to kill before I can feel safe / But I, I’d rather kill myself than turn into their slave”, as well as “Sometimes I feel that I should go and play with the thunder / Somehow I just don’t want to stay and wait for a wonder”, could get a brand new meaning when applied to the current situation in Ukraine. It is for sure a great song choice in order to express a powerful message of not giving up.

 
 
 
 
 
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Kalush Orchestra bring a great contribution to this new version. The instrumental of the song is
an incredible mixture of rock and traditional folk music, with Kalush Orchestra once again using the musical instruments that brought magic to their Eurovision winning song “Stefania”: telenka (an wood overtone flute) and sopilka (traditional Ukrainian flute).

“In The Shadows of Ukraine” also includes a rap verse and a Ukrainian folk verse courtesy of Kalush Orchestra. The Ukrainian lyrics speak about the pain of a mother’s heart and that it’s Ukraine’s time to rise again with the Sun.

Kalush Orchestra & The Rasmus – “In The Shadows of Ukraine”

The accompanying music video for “In The Shadows of Ukraine” represents a battle to get to the bright side, a battle to kill the enemies and to rise again. Soldiers and people in traditional Ukrainian costumes can be seen in the video, directing the idea of the song straight to the terrors Ukraine is facing right now.

Kalush declared on Instagram: “Our mission is to let as many people as possible know about this war and the courage of the Ukrainian people. Therefore, we decided to shoot a video for this song so that people could hear and see everything that we want to convey to the world with this new work.”

The Rasmus’ vocalist Lauri Ylönen was also thrilled that their “almost 20 year old song gets a whole new meaning and life” with this collaboration.

The friendship between Kalush Orchestra and The Rasmus was born during their time at Eurovision 2022. The two groups jammed together in Turin, performing the songs “Stefania” and “In The Shadows”.

Their jamming session was absolutely touching and gave a wonderful example of how music can bring people together.

What do you think of “In The Shadows of Ukraine”? Do you want to see more collaborations between Kalush Orchestra, The Rasmus and other acts from Eurovision? Let us know in the comments below.

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Dane
Dane
1 year ago

Damn the rap part is on fire. I love it!

Eurotoxic
Eurotoxic
1 year ago

This is great. And i can’t wait for the collaboration between Kalush and Sam!

Xaxaxa
Xaxaxa
1 year ago

Collaboration of these two perfect groups is amazing. The rap part is fabulous. I love it. Eurovision needs more groups with their own styles. This is true music for me.

NotHere
NotHere
1 year ago

the song is incredible

Ray
Ray
1 year ago

This seems such a genuine collabration as members of Kalush Orchestra showed to be fans of The Rasmus already in pre-Eurovision events and furthermore in Turin!

Esc addict
Esc addict
1 year ago

Great! That’s a nice symbol, and that’s for things like this that I adore Eurovision. The total opposite of the eurofans from a certain country totally obsessed by an hypothetical Esc or Jesc victory, spamming everywhere that Ukraine doesn’t deserve their victory like they did for France in the Jesc 2020, these bunch of frustrated people are spitting like crazy on some countries and mainly on Ukraine now and they want Europe to vote for them after…. I wonder how they can be so disgusting, so selfish and unbearable….the frustration I guess, it’s so ugly, they don’t think enough and… Read more »

Esc addict
Esc addict
1 year ago
Reply to  Esc addict

No respect, they can’t loose properly, always complaining and this is the only one country to do that, so I hope they keep losing until they learn what is the respect, until they learn to loose and until they are educated correctly, sorry but I’m furious.

Marco
Marco
1 year ago
Reply to  Esc addict

Same in F1 with Abu Dhabi 2021 that some fans from the coureur Louis Hamilton and the teamboss self behave like these fans but instead saying that Ukraine didn’t deserve to win at ESC2022 that Max Verstappen isn’t world champion F1 in 2021 but louis Hamilton ?

Roo
Roo
1 year ago

Question. If Russia was to demonstrate aggression to Finland and it culminated in a second Finnish Eurovision victory would we still sook about it like many here have about Ukraine Victory with Kalush Orchestra?

Ray
Ray
1 year ago
Reply to  Roo

Russia has always treated Finland very badly and looking at the Finnish Eurovision results, it’s clear they’re not gaining any sympathy votes at all.

Stian F
Stian F
1 year ago
Reply to  Roo

Lets hope it never get to that – but what if it were to happen that people vote in solidarity for someone in need? Just get over yourself and accept that other peoples votes are just as valuable as your vote! You complainers are getting really tiring by now…

Jess
Jess
1 year ago

What a patronising article. I love this collaboration! Everyone stream and watch the video it’s great *claps*

Jonas
Jonas
1 year ago
Reply to  Jess

What’s patronising?

HUGS
HUGS
1 year ago

Well done!?????
The free world stands with Ukraine!
Support!