Ziferblat are one of the ten acts in this year’s Vidbir. The Kyiv-based band will bring “Bird of Pray” to the stage, a song written by themselves. Songwise, they provide one of the most unique tracks we have seen in recent Eurovision history.
Scroll down to read the “Bird of Pray” lyrics and its translation
Vidbir 2025: Ziferblat “Bird of Pray”
Remember that band in your school that dreamed of releasing albums and spent their free time listening to old school American and British rock? Well, that could have been Ziferblat…
Ziferblat consist of twin brothers Danylo and Valentyn Leshchynskyi – who created the band together with several school friends in 2015 – and drummer Fedir Khodakov. Before the latter joined, the brothers performed at different festivals and released a debut EP independently in 2017. Fedir initially joined the band in 2019 as a replacement for their drummer during the group’s shortlived X Factor journey, but stayed along the way.
In 2022, the band made a name for itself by releasing “Земля” (“Earth”), a single and music video inspired by the eponymous 1902 book by Olha Kobylianska. It attracted attention as they were subsequently asked to submit an entry to Ukraine’s national final. With some success, as they made it to the longlist. The following year, Ziferblat released their first full-length album Перетворення (The Metamorphosis) and won – somewhat unexpectedly – the prize for Best New Alternative Act at the Muzvar Awards.
However to many Ukrainians, Ziferblat remained unknown until last year’s Eurovision selection in Ukraine. Then, their song “Place I Call Home” finished in a respectable second place. Combining modern alternative music with elements of art rock, Britpop and at times, Ukrainian traditional music, Ziferblat has carved a way for themselves in the country’s music scene.
What do the “Bird of Pray” lyrics mean?
“Bird of Pray” tells the story of Ukrainians who been separated by the war, especially since the Russian invasion in the country since 2022. However, the song’s message can be applied to anyone separated from their loved ones. Like a messenger of good news, the bird is a motive for the insecure connection between those who cannot see each other due to war. That’s why the song’s title is “Bird of Pray” and not “Bird of Prey“.
It’s in part a personal story, similar to “Place I Call Home”. Like many Ukrainians, the band’s families have been spread out over different countries as refugees due to the war.
The song opens with a Ukrainian-language verse that translates to: “Come, come and to me/ My Bird/ A difficult song flies away with wings/ A little heart, a beloved heart/ Don’t worry”.
Explaining the song’s lyrics, “Bird of Pray” lyricist Valentyn Leshchynskyi said to our correspondent Renske ten Veen:
“I think for people all over the world, the bird is the import symbol of freedom. I think it is symbolising the freedom. And I wanted to share the emotions of Ukrainians to people from Europe, of course. The bird is like a medium, like the person [in]between who will share my emotions with others. It’s about our problems we go through, the tragedy for the last three years. To be honest, the last eleven years.”
“Or 100 years.” his brother Danylo chipped in during the conversation.
The lyrics are partially in English and partially in Ukrainian. The English-language chorus speaks for itself, knowing the song’s meaning: “And I call you / Fly/ Bird/ Im begging you/ Begging you please just/ Live/ Share”.
In the second Ukrainian verse, the bird is called back to bring a message from that person who is far away. Translated, the lyrics read: “Come back, come back to home / The native path / The singing of migratory birds will give birth to spring”.
Valentyn noted that he wanted to continue on last year’s “Place I Call Home” in terms of thematics:
“This song is about home too. The bird is flying away and to share my emotions with someone who is far, far away from home. It reminds of home, and it’s a symbol. Of course, the home topic is in this song too.”
Ziferblat explain how they created “Bird of Pray”
Although “Bird of Pray” does not offer an overly surprising structure, the song does mix an unexpected amount of styles for many Eurovision fans. Speaking about the song’s stylistic choices, Valentyn Leshchynskyi said:
“We wanted to do something new. Do something different from what we presented a year ago. As I mentioned too, we wanted to show to a big audience that we are very familiar with Ukrainian traditional music. That we can do something using the Ukrainian choir, the Ukrainian vibes of music. In Ukraine, we have 60s music, it’s very familiar to Western music. It’s something that is near to Beatles music, someone mentioned Queen. We call it Moustache Funk.”
“As [Renske] said to me in my Instagram, [she] wrote me. That this song, maybe, can be the first progressive rock song after 30 years or 40 years. The last song was like in 1974 or something like that. I think the last winner, Nemo, [they have] a complicated song. It reminds me of prog music. What do we call prog? It’s an old term, it’s an old explanation. It can’t be used in our time.”
Danylo added: “We use the name art rock.”
Long-time listeners of the band will recognise the style from their earlier work. Valentyn said: “Of course this song reminds our listeners who are with a long time, this song reminds of our song “Земля”. They have similar vibes in some ways.”
“Our last song, someone found it very complicated, “Place I Call Home”. I was very honoured, but someone thought our last song was too hard to get. It was the standard pop song with 80s vibes, I wanted to show something new.”
Danylo said to that: “We have the song “Земля”, “Earth”. It’s an important milestone in the development of our creativity. I wanted to return to our roots for a long time. So finally such an opportunity appeared: Eurovision. “Земля” inspired “Bird of Pray”.”
Valentyn added: “We wanted to show that we are something different than someone can see, than someone can imagine. Because I found that a lot of people don’t know our other songs. “Place I Call Home” is the most popular song of course, because it had a part in last year’s selection. We wanted to show that we are of something different than some people can imagine.”
Danylo concluded: “I think it’s important for me to show that Ukraine, although it was a part of the enemy empire until the 90s, was not separated from the development of European musical culture. We heard what was happening in the West and we developed our own unique music scene. This is what we want to demonstrate. That is not art rock, this is Ukrainian culture.”
Ziferblat “Bird of Pray” lyrics and translation
Lyrics: Valentyn Leshchynskyi, music: Valentyn Leshchynskyi, Danylo Leshchynskyi, Fedir Khodakov
Original lyrics
Моя Пташка
Крилами пісня злітає важка
Серденько серце кохане
Не турбуйся
Доля довірила світ останнім із нас
Я світла шукаю, гори зверну
And I call you
Fly
Bird
Im begging you
Begging you please just
Live
Share
My heart with someone who
Cares
Of
Me and my little bird of pray
Вертай-вертайся додому
Рідна стежка
Спів перелітних пташок народить весну
I call you
Fly
Bird
Im begging you
Begging you just
Care
Of
Me and my little bird
Fly
Like a Bird
Where do you go
Im begging you please just
Live
Share
My heart with someone who
Flies
Bird
Im begging you
Begging you please just
Live
Share
My heart with someone who
Cares
Of
Me and my little bird of pray
English translation
My little bird
A difficult song flies away with wings
A little heart, a beloved heart
Don’t worry
Fate entrusted the world to the last of us
I am searching for light, moving mountains
And I call you
Fly
Bird
Im begging you
Begging you please just
Live
Share
My heart with someone who
Cares
Of
Me and my little bird of pray
Come back, come back home
The native path
The song of migratory birds will birth spring
I call you
Fly
Bird
Im begging you
Begging you just
Care
Of
Me and my little bird
Fly
Like a Bird
Where do you go
Im begging you please just
Live
Share
My heart with someone who
Flies
Bird
Im begging you
Begging you please just
Live
Share
My heart with someone who
Cares
Of
Me and my little bird of pray
What do you think of Ziferblat’s song? Do you understand the song better after having read its lyrics? Do you want Ziferblat to represent Ukraine with “Bird of Pray”? Let us know in the comments down below!
Boringgggg…… Ukraine needs to find a new genre
I like this song very much. It’s my favorite song fot represent Ukraine in Basel
For
Last year winner recycled, new version coppy cat musicwise..sorry but I can smell it. This is Nemowise screaming..Ridiculous
Which winner ?
What a great song. It´s my favourite from Vidbir. Good luck, Ukraine !
This is gooooooood
I like this beautiful so f very much. It’s my favorite song from Ukraine and I hope that they will win the ticket to Basel.
song
Going after the pity votes, again. *eyeroll*
Also, it’s “come back home,” not “come back to home.” Another “all the divas were born as a human beings” case. lol
I just hope no one tries to censor it. Countries traumatized by war have a right to sing about it without having to worry about it being “political,” and that goes for both Ukraine and Israel.
Exactly, singing and sharing about pain and feeling of the common people about something which happened to themselves, even if in a war (in difference than singing about present-future war strategies of goverments or singing about desire to hurt the other side), is therefore an artistic expression and not politics; this form of sharing feel of pain (as long as it’s not calling for listeners to hate or lyrics about venging the other side) should be allowed for any entity participating now or in the future in Eurovision, and can produce amazing songs like Jamala’s 2016 winner “1944”.