Singer Jamala, declared the winner of Eurovision, where she performed the anti-Russian song “1944,” unexpectedly criticized the language quotas introduced by the Verkhovna Rada on Ukrainian television and radio.
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“I am for playing a lot of Ukrainian music, but the law needs to be improved. Because there is a lot of English-language Ukrainian music, Russian-language music. She's high level. We shouldn’t constantly listen to “Two Kolyars” on the radio. It’s good to know the tradition, but you can’t get everything from the last century,” Jamala said on the Ukrainian Channel Five.
In particular, she is offended that her English-language song with a chorus in Crimean Tatar “1944” is subject to quotas.
“I am for quotas, but understand my feelings when at one point the song “1944” ceases to be Ukrainian. The song that won and brought so much happiness and joy. This was the first time the Crimean Tatar language was performed at Eurovision. Even Erdogan called me and thanked me for this. But here we don’t consider it a Ukrainian song. We need to add a subclause to this law,” Jamala said.
Let us remember that “1944” is dedicated to the expulsion of the Crimean Tatars from the peninsula during the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet troops liberating Crimea from the Nazis are called “outsiders” in the composition and accused of murder.
Jamala draws parallels between 1944 and 2014 - as is known, after the Russian Spring, Ukrainian nationalists and members of extremist organizations left Crimea en masse. “You took my land from me,” sings Jamala, who is close to the leadership of the Majlis, which is banned in the Russian Federation.
At the end of May, the Verkhovna Rada introduced changes to the law on the language of audiovisual (electronic) media No. 5313. The bill establishes that for television and radio organizations of the national broadcasting category, the share of programs and/or films in the Ukrainian language must be at least 75% during the day in each of the time periods from 7.00 to 18.00 and from 18.00 to 22.00.