Ukraine
has decided against using a love song as its entry in this year’s Eurovision
Song Contest, preferring a tune about Stalin’s mass deportation of the Tatar
people in 1944, in a move sure to provoke Russia.
Susana Jamaladinova, who uses the stage name #Jamala, was chosen as Ukraine’s entry on Sunday night. She struggled to hold
back the tears as she performed the song 1944, whose opening lines are: “When
strangers are coming. They come to your house, they kill you all and say ‘We’re
not guilty. Not guilty.'”
The
song tells the story of Jamala’s great-grandmother, one of the
240,000 Crimean Tatars sent on crowded trains to Central Asia on Stalin’s orders. Stalin’s
government accused Tatars of collaborating with the Nazi forces who occupied
the Crimean peninsula. Between 20 and 50 percent of the deportees died within
the first two years of exile.
Last year the Ukrainian parliament said the
deportation of the Crimean Tatars was tantamount to genocide and declared
a national day of remembrance for the victims.
Memories of the events were revived by Russia’s
annexation of Crimea in 2014, although 1944 does not directly comment on that
issue.
The song could fall foul of Eurovision’s rules, as
overtly political songs are not allowed. The deadline for all songs to be
submitted is March 14. The
song contest takes place in Stockholm on May 14.
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