A delayed flight, car crash and medical emergency couldn’t stop Ukrainian band Yagody from performing at Big Ears this past weekend.
Hosting a slew of artists from all different genres and backgrounds, Knoxville’s biggest music festival welcomed a particularly special band traveling all the way from Lviv, Ukraine. Eurovision finalists Yagody performed twice on Thursday, once at Barley’s and once at Jackson Terminal.
Both performances were unforgettable and full of heart.
Kicking off their tour around the United States, Yagody began with a small but lively show for the Blue Plate Special in Barley’s at noon. Before their performance, the band sat down to share more about their musical journey to Knoxville and what their roots in Ukraine meant to them.
“Through our language, we would like to show Americans, the whole world, that you need to appreciate your own culture, your own language and you need to appreciate freedom,” founder of the band and lead vocalist Zoriana Dybovska, as translated through Teimuraz Gogitidze, said.
With only one of the five band members speaking both Ukrainian and English, communication between artist and audience can be difficult. However, Yagody communicates just as effectively through the powerful language of music.
An emotional rollercoaster of a performance, Yagody immediately opens with their powerhouse songs, full of energy, and soon moves into slower, mournful tracks. One moment, the crowd is chanting “Bramaya” and stomping their feet, the very next they are swaying and singing along to a song dedicated to Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield.
No matter the song, the audience can feel the emotion of the band members on stage. In part, this is due to Dybovska’s background in theater. A famous actress in Ukraine, Dybovska brings a full body experience to her performance.
“These skills are very helpful because we can express the emotions and … you can feel more of what you’re singing,” vocalist and actress Tetiana Voitiv said.
Both performances included dancing and chanting from the audience, as well as boos at the mention of Russia and tears during their mentions of Ukraine.
“I expect that people will cry. They will cry, they will smile, they will jump, they will scream, they will sing. They will dance,” drummer and band manager Gogitidze said.
Honored by the cheers and support from the Big Ears crowd, all of the band members put their hands over their hearts and thanked the crowd with tears in their eyes.
Yagody’s members are excellent performers, but first and foremost they are Ukrainians who said that they feel the reverberations of a war as violent as the Russo-Ukrainian war. Yagody hopes that their music can inspire people “to live” and to appreciate their own freedoms while they still have them.
Later that night at Jackson Terminal, while leaning over an enthusiastic crowd, Gogitidze’s face splits into a huge smile as he yells, “Big Ears, you have big hearts!”
