Svyatoslav Vakarchuk

Svyatoslav Vakarchuk (Ukrainian: Святослав Іванович Вакарчук, born May 14, 1975) is a Ukrainian musician, politician and public activist. He is the lead vocalist of Okean Elzy, a rock band in Ukraine. Vakarchuk is a former[1] member of the Ukrainian parliament,[2] and the founder of the Voice (in May 2019).[3]

Svyatoslav Vakarchuk
Святослав Вакарчук
Svyatoslav Vakarchuk in 2016
Background information
Birth nameSviatoslav Ivanovych Vakarchuk
Born (1975-05-14) May 14, 1975
Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
GenresRock
Occupation(s)Singer, politician
Years active1994–present
Associated actsOkean Elzy
Websitehttp://www.okeanelzy.com

Vakarchuk was active in supporting the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan-protests, and is involved in many social and cultural projects. He is one of the most successful musicians in Ukraine and has a PhD degree in theoretical physics.

Vakarchuk is the son of Ivan Vakarchuk, a professor of physics at Lviv University and a former Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science.

Biography

Vakarchuk was born in the western Ukrainian city of Mukachevo, into a family of scientists.[4] His mother and father were both university professors of physics.[4] His father Ivan Vakarchuk is also former Education Minister.[5][6]

Vakarchuk founded the band Okean Elzy ("Ocean of Elza"), in 1994 as an undergraduate at Lviv University.[4] At this university he earned a Ph.D. in the field of supersymmetry.[4] After graduating Vakarchuk moved to Kiev.[4]

In 2005, Vakarchuk answered all questions correctly and won the grand prize (1 million hryvnias) for the first time on the Ukrainian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, called Khto khoche staty milyonerom? – Pershyi milyon. He donated his winnings to orphanages in Ukraine.[7]

In the early 30 September 2007 parliamentary election, he ran as an independent candidate on the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc's list (as No. 15). In the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) he was a member of the parliamentary committee for freedom of speech issues. He was also a member of groups of parliamentary contacts with the Russian Federation and other countries.[8] Vakarchuk did not submit any legislative acts during his deputy's term. He submitted two amendments, one of which was accepted by the Verkhovna Rada.[9] In early September 2008, he renounced his seat in the Verkhovna Rada due to the political situation.[10] On December 16, 2008, the Verkhovna Rada accepted Vakarchuk's renunciation.[11] According to Vakarchuk, he renounced his seat because “I was really frustrated by the level of mutual fights, at the absurd Hobbesian world of all against all, rather than changing the country for the better.”[4]

Svyatoslav Vakarchuk in Kharkiv,
Ukraine on April 19, 2008

In 2008, Vakarchuk released a solo project "Vnochi" (In the Night). This album was released under the name of Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, but it includes appearances by all members of Okean Elzy and other various guest musicians. Another solo project followed in 2011, "Brussel" (Brussels).

In support of their album "Zemlya" in spring 2013, the band embarked on a stadium tour throughout cities in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, the US, Canada, and a number of countries in Western Europe.

In December 2013, Okean Elzy performed during the Euromaidan protests.[12]

In the summer of 2014, Okean Elzy performed a number of large concerts in the biggest stadiums in Ukraine to mark the band's 20th anniversary. Their performance in Kiev's Olympiyskiy Stadium broke the record for the largest number of people attending a concert by a Ukrainian band — over 75,000.

In 2015, Vakarchuk took part in the Yale World Fellows international fellowship program at Yale University.[5]

Vakarchuk stated multiple times in 2017 that he had no political ambitions.[13] However, in 2018 he joined Stanford University as a visiting scholar,[14] focusing on politics and leadership. Later that year he appeared at several politically-themed conferences, speaking alongside established Ukrainian politicians.[15] This led the public to view him as a potential candidate for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, where he became one of the frontrunners according to opinion polls. But by late 2018 he was overtaken by other potential candidates, and in October 2018 he stated “Who can change the political culture is more important than who becomes the president.”[16][nb 1] In the election Vakarchuk did not back any of the candidates.[18][19] According to an early March 2019 poll by sociological group "RATING", 64% of the electorate would have liked to see Vakarchuk among the presidential candidates.[20]

Vakarchuk also plays an active role in social and cultural projects, and is the founder of the charity foundation "Lyudi Maybutnyoho" (People of the Future). The main projects of the foundation were "Knyga Tvoryt' Lyudynu" (A Book Creates a Man), "Osvita Krainoyu" (The Country's Education), "3-D Proekt. Dumay, Diy, Dopomagai." (3-D Project. Think, Act. Help.). Together with the members of the band he actively supported the preventive campaign IOM and MTV Europe's "People Are Not For Sale." In 2003, Vakarchuk became an Honorary Ambassador of Culture in Ukraine. In 2005, he became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme.

On 16 May 2019, Vakarchuk announced the creation of a new political party, Voice (Holos), with the aim to participate in the July July 2019 parliamentary election.[21] Vakarchuk assured on 19 May 2019 that if elected to parliament, he would not stop playing music, but political activity would be a priority.[22] He also claimed that he believed that currently the Ukrainian parliament is the place "where real changes are being made" so he did not participate in the presidential election of the previous month.[22]. Vakarchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in July 2019.[23] His party gained 5.82% of the vote.[24] On 11 June 2020 Vakarchuk registered in parliament a request to terminate his parliamentary mandate.[25] He insisted that he did not plan to end his political career but would be working on extra-parliamentary activities for his party.[25] On 18 June 2020 parliament rejected the draft resolution on the early termination of Vakarchuk's parliamentary mandate (the resolution was supported by 175 deputies, while 226 votes minimum were required).[26] The next day Vakarchuk left his party's faction so the party could terminate his mandate via a party congress.[27] His party did indeed did this on 26 June 2020.[1] Vakarchuk was replaced in parliament by Alina Sviderska.[28]

The Ukrainian magazine Korrespondent has ranked him as one of the 100 most influential people in Ukraine (in 2008 ranked 55).[29]

Vakarchuk speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English and Polish fluently.

Awards

Discography

Vakarchuk has released nine studio albums together with his band, Okean Elzy:

  • Tam, de nas nema (Where there is no us 1998)
  • Ya na nebi buv (I was in heaven, 2000)
  • Model (2001)
  • Supersymetriya (Supersymmetry, 2003)
  • GLORIA (2005)
  • Mira (Measure, 2007)
  • Dolce Vita (2010)
  • Zemlia (Earth, 2013)
  • Bez mezh (Limitless, 2016)

and also one live acoustic album Tviy format (Your Format, 2003).

Notes
  1. In January 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda commented that Vakarchuk was not going to go to take part in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election but that his likely goal was to participate in parliamentary elections.[17]
gollark: I have a 1.1KB blob of CSS styling everything and an optional user theming thing which just injects CSS.
gollark: It's small enough to practically inline so I get a performance boost.
gollark: I don't like the gibsonoformic "essentially just plain HTML" thing entirely, so I wrote mine to have a few nice things like minor changes to lists and indentation, a 40em or something limit to make it narrower on desktop for easier reading, that sort of thing.
gollark: I personally handwrite all my CSS and my stuff looks fine. If I subscribed to one of the trendy "design languages" this could be less practical.
gollark: Amazing.

References
  1. "Voice" took away Vakarchuk's deputy mandate, Ukrayinska Pravda (26 June 2020) (in Ukrainian)
  2. {{Cite web|url=https://itd.rada.gov.ua/radatransl/Home/deps/en%7Ctitle=Verkhovna Rada Deputies List
  3. Вакарчук заявив про створення партії і похід у Раду. pravda.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 16 May 2019.
  4. For His Next Act, a Ukrainian Rock Star Looks to Politics, The New York Times (14 September 2018)
  5. Vakarchuk to study at Yale as third Ukrainian fellow, Kyiv Post (April 23, 2015)
  6. Former Rector of Lviv University Ivan Vakarchuk died, UNIAN (4 March 2020) (in Ukrainian)
  7. Вакарчук трішки побув мільйонером
  8. "Офіційний портал Верховної Ради України". itd.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  9. "Офіційний портал Верховної Ради України". w1.c1.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  10. "Солист "Океана Эльзы" отказался от депутатского мандата". Gazeta.ru. 2008-09-11. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
  11. "Про дострокове припинення повноважень народного депутата У... | від 16.12.2008 № 664-VI". zakon.rada.gov.ua. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  12. Ukraine suspends mayor, security official over protest crackdown, Zee News (14 December 2013)
  13. President Vakarchuk: The musician spoke about political ambitions, Ekspres (26 August 2017) (in Ukrainian)
    Vakarchuk broke away from political ambitions, but called 10 points for Ukraine's development, Ukrayinska Pravda (10 December 2017) (in Ukrainian)
  14. "Sviatoslav Vakarchuk joins Stanford as a visiting scholar this fall". www.okeanelzy.com. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
  15. "Vakarchuk presents at Yalta YES conference". yes-ukraine.org. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
  16. 5 months before voting, race for president well under way (November 2, 2018)
  17. Vakarchuk about the election: I'm in action, Ukrayinska Pravda (23 January 2019) (in Ukrainian)
  18. "Musician Vakarchuk says he doesn't plan to back any Ukrainian presidential candidate". en.interfax.com.ua. Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  19. "Гриценко вважає, що Вакарчук має публічно висловити свою позицію на цих виборах". ua.interfax.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2019-03-24.
  20. (in Ukrainian) 20% of Ukrainians would like Vakarchuk to go to the presidency, Ukrayinska Pravda (11 March 2019)
  21. "Rock Star Vakarchuk Sets Up Political Party Ahead Of Ukraine's General Elections". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2019-05-16.
  22. (in Ukrainian) Vakarchuk: There will be no acting deputies in the list of new party, Ukrayinska Pravda (May 19, 2019)
  23. "Verkhovna Rada Deputies List".
  24. "Центральна виборча комісія - Вибори народних депутатів України 2019". www.cvk.gov.ua. Retrieved 2019-10-02.
  25. Vakarchuk resigns as Member of Parliament, Interfax-Ukraine (11 June 2020)
  26. Parliament rejects Vakarchuk’s resignation, Ukrinform (18 June 2020)
  27. (in Ukrainian) Vakarchuk figured out how to get rid of the mandate if the Rada does not release, Ukrayinska Pravda (19 June 2020)
  28. The CEC recognized the new People's Deputy of the Voice instead of Vakarchuk, Ukrayinska Pravda (8 July 2020) (in Ukrainian)
  29. Korrespondent 2008-08-22, nr 32.
Preceded by
New title		 Most beautiful by VIVA!
2005
With: Ani Lorak		 Succeeded by
Oleksandr Shovkovsky
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