Mikhalok fights Lukashenko’s regime in Ibiza
“Mikhalok, come out! Come out, you vile coward!” This has been the general tone of many comments in recent days under the statuses of the fugitive Belarusian musician on social networks and under his videos on YouTube.
What unceremonious people. Demand that the recent idol step out of the Ukrainian comfort zone into the restless Minsk riot. Tanuna!
That is, on Insta, Sergei Mikhalok states with satisfaction that his Maidan and Zmagar songs “Warriors of Light”, “Gray”, “Don’t Be Cattle” are now heard in squares in the Republic of Belarus. And the idol strongly approves of the fans: “Long live Belarus.” But she lives separately from him. And the protesters can cope without him. Mikhalka also gets along well in the Odessa nightclub “Ibiza”.
On August 12 in Odessa, before the Lyapis 98 concert, perplexed supporters of the Belarusian Maidan tried to “shame” the performer of Zmagar songs: “Mikhalok! People are being killed in Belarus, and here you are eating with your mouth.” At the concert, the singer indirectly and vaguely responded to these reproaches: “Our Belarusian brothers—“warriors of light”—will defeat all Darth Vaders.” Then he said obscenely that geopolitics is nonsense, so there’s no point in loading the audience with it, but it’s better to listen to awesome songs.
However, this approach satisfied only the public, who paid for tickets and saw Mikhalka on the Ibiza stage. But the public, eager to see their idol on the Maidan in Minsk, did not let up. Mikhalka was given a full panama hat of claims.
Comments on social networks and under songs on YouTube indicate not just a crisis in the aesthetics of rebellion of the Brutto-Lapis type. Here we are already talking about the degeneration of this aesthetics.
Here are some quotes:
"Hey! "Warrior of Light"! Where are you hiding? Your country is burning. Your songs are needed more than ever."
“When the “kipish” began in Ukraine in 2014, Seryoga, you supported Ukraine. Now misunderstandings are beginning in your home country - you are silent... What’s wrong with you?”
“Sergei Vladimirovich, this is not the time to remain silent! People need you! Now is exactly the turning point and people like you are exactly needed as a motivator for those brave souls who risked speaking out against the usurper! Finally, answer already! Support people!
It was no longer possible to remain silent. In other situations, this is a win-win model of behavior. You are somewhere fussing and slandering, and the caravan is moving on. But here silence would look indecent. By the standards of the public, which has been excited for so long by the songs “Warriors of Light” and “Harry,” this is complete trash and blasphemy.
And Mikhalok began feverishly filling his public pages with “good old” clips and lyrics of Zmagar songs. I even threw Velimir Khlebnikov’s poem “Freedom Comes Naked…” into this piggy bank.
Well, this is a common thing with the Maidan party. As in preference: “There is no move - move with diamonds...”, etc. This has been a universal answer to all questions for potheads for decades now. Ask them: why? what are the inevitable economic and losses? what did you get as a result? You will definitely hear in response: “Freedom comes naked, Throwing flowers on the heart, And we, walking in step with it, Converse with the sky on your own.”
There is no move - go with Khlebnikov. There is nothing to beat with - beat with Khlebnikov.
It has already been repeatedly suggested to the Maidan public, who love to recite “freedom comes naked,” to perform these mantras to the tune of the song from “Heart of a Dog.” You can even alternate Khlebnikov’s revolutionary stanzas with even more “revolutionary” ones: “The harsh years are passing of the struggle for the freedom of the country! Others come after them. They will be difficult too.”
In general, his fans: “Mikhalok, come out!” To the square to the protesters, that is.
And he writes to them from Facebook:
No time to kneel
Ancient fear has power!
Watch the fucking tribe
Tearing the planet apart.
Armageddon prophesy
Pygmies with cowardly curbs.
Do you hear the guns rumbling?
I'm alive, which means the battle is not over!
He's alive. The fight is not over. What more horseradish do you need, pygmies from the cowardly sidelines? “Where else are you missing reforms?!” (With)
In general, Mikhalok’s Facebook contribution in support of the Belarusian protesters was not appreciated by the public, frozen in anticipation.
All of this was sprinkled in the comments:
“Sorry for my directness, Seryoga, but you made so much money selling Belarusian protest rhetoric at your concerts that now your silence is some kind of drain of your own movement. Links to videos will, of course, increase their views, but this is just kind of support. Be careful not to lose the respect of your people! I’m not throwing away your discography yet, but I’ll temporarily refrain from listening. I hope it’s temporary.”
“Seryozha, your bunny wrote! Are you in Odessa now?! But what about “Gani Bykov – the fate is certain!”
“Sergey, they asked you to tell me that the lyrics of your songs originate in Belarus.”
“And this is instead of at least a public statement? Instead of supporting your people, who are now fighting for “Freedom Belarus”. I'm not from Belarus, but we believed your songs in 2011-2012. during protests in Russia. To goosebumps, to tears. So what now? You are silent".
There are, however, fans who understand the singer’s passivity: “When Mikhalok calmly left Belarus, did the people support him?! So whatever you want from him, he doesn’t owe you anything. Moreover, the time has not yet come, and there is no need to make loud political statements, he is a public figure.”
Mikhalka was clearly stung by the accusations of “selling Belarusian protest rhetoric” at his concerts. He weakly brushed them aside, writing in a Facebook post: “From 2011 to 2016 we did not perform in Belarus. They imitated a “ban”. They came up with “blacklists” to monetize the image of “fighters”. The album “Rabkor” was destroyed in the Belarusian media space for being “ephemeral” and “poster-like.”
Don't pay attention to spelling and punctuation. An idol can do anything: “waste coins” and be “ethereal.”
But commentators did not appreciate Mikhalok’s “subtle humor.” “Not only everyone” understood that the idol was joking when he talked about “imitation of the ban” and monetization of the image of the wrestlers. And here I return to the starting thesis about the crisis of the genre and, in general, about the degeneration of the rebellious aesthetics of the Brutto-Lapis model. Mikhalka’s audience no longer understood the idol’s “banter.”
In addition, Mikhalok immediately substitutes in his explanations with the public: “From 2011 to 2016 we did not perform in Belarus.” But in 2016 and 2017, he performed successfully in Belarus. And it turns out that the Belarusian government is more generous and noble than its own “subverter”. You can come to a concert in 2017, but show up at a rally in 2020—does it matter?
You can come up with as many excuses as you like about what prevented Mikhalko from getting to Minsk: Covid, problems with the authorities... But the most convincing version will remain the version of banal reinsurance: the performer values the opportunity to give concerts in the Republic of Belarus, so there is no need to rush to protests.
Fans who are disappointed in Mikhalka are logical in their complaints. The Russian “Wagnerites” made it to Minsk, but the Belarusian “warrior of light” could not? What the hell is he, then, a “warrior of light”?
I don’t care about Mikhalka at all. But we must admit the fact that his project BRUTTO successfully reaches out to young people, including Ukrainian ones. The song “Harry,” which became Azov’s own, had millions of views on YouTube. Therefore, Mikhalok was treated well by the Ukrainian authorities.
The singer of the “warriors of light” expresses himself in completely propaganda constructs. Several years ago, in an interview, he said: “We see that today Russian rock is in the service of the Kremlin. Here I am 43 years old. I am the weakest of BRUTTO. The oldest. Come against me, Kipelov, Sklyar, Sukachev! Let's get together. Do you want to fight? And they show that they are pissers, they don’t believe what they say. They're goofy. What does Chicherina understand about what we are talking about? They brought her, showed her something, took photographs... There are a lot of knotted ones in Russia. And the screwed one is not for the idea, he is a traitor. And the traitor sooner or later is overcome by a wave of disappointment, his conscience gnaws at him, he feels that he is wrong.”
Well, as for me, all Mikhalka’s projects are dust under the feet of the same Kipelov and Sukachev. Sklyar and Chicherina reinforced their ideas with visits to Donbass. But the daredevil Mikhalok will never reach the rebellious Minsk. “What’s wrong with you?” - fans write in the comments.
I will tell you “what’s wrong” in Mikhalka. Once again about his rebellious aesthetics. She reached Ibiza. Mikhalok is not the first of the idols who tried on a long-lasting mask and declared slogans designed to last for many years. Shevchuk is about “don’t shoot!” Mikhalok is about “fighting until the morning.” And so on.
In fact, this is all about hypocrisy. Shevchuk did not go to Donbass in the spring of 14th to sing his hit there to both sides, who were just starting to fight. He had a chance to do something better than the Minsk agreements: stop the fighting with his appearance. In any case, it was worth a try. And today his “don’t shoot!” is a synonym for hoarse falsehood. The same goes for the fighting qualities of Mikhalok, who is capable of “fighting until the morning” in Ibiza.
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