“When I sing in Ukrainian, I feel more real”

When the full-scale invasion of Ukraine happened four years ago, Odesa-born music student Valeriia Vovk wasn’t entirely clear how she could make a contribution.  The singer-songwriter-musician says, “I would go anywhere I was invited to just play and be a part of different events, fundraisers. I would also go to singing protests, and even organize protests without the music. It was just me figuring out what I can do, because I was just a student in 2022. I was graduating, I had no money, I had nothing to actually feel like I could help. So I was just figuring out my way, where I can be helpful, and somehow it worked out in the end.”

Part of how it came together was Vovk joining the Cultural Forces Ukraine military unit as a civilian participant in their U.S. tour. The Cultural Forces are “soldier artists” channeling their talents in support of Ukrainian defenders and Ukrainian culture. They performed their first diplomatic tour in the US as a cultural advocacy mission, which she found intense. “Just sharing Ukrainian culture with American audiences, and all these Cultural Forces performers in uniform, because they’re actually military personnel sent to the US by the Ukrainian government. We performed everywhere; in churches, on the streets, at different and important events. And the tour was also covered by a bunch of media in the United States. So that’s how I started using music as a tool for cultural advocacy.”

After the Cultural Forces tour, Volk started her own fundraising concert tours for Ukraine, sharing the works of legendary Ukrainian composer Volodymyr Ivasiuk. “We call him the father of Ukrainian pop music. He was super big in the 70s and Ukrainians loved Ivasiuk songs before his death. He became the most famous Ukrainian songwriter at the age of 21 and was killed 10 years later. And people really love the songs, they sing them together, and when the full-scale invasion happened all the Ukrainians started sharing the songs again, and I felt like it united us so much, and it kind of felt like therapy, singing them together, and living through all that together.” In 2024, Volk performed in over 30 cities. She is an ambassador of the TYKHO charitable foundation, supporting Ukrainian defenders and preserving cultural continuity. Her first two tours—conducted in collaboration with MRIYA, a Boston-based nonprofit—raised $50K for first responder vehicles to evacuate Ukrainian soldiers.

Valeriia Vovk (at L) with “soldier artists” Cultural Forces Ukraine at Ukraine House in Washington DC, May 2024, on their Gratitude Tour across America.  Photo courtesy Cultural Forces

Besides fundraising and performing in support of Ukraine, the war impacted how she sang and spoke and turned her more deeply to Ukrainian folk music. “I was just learning more about Ukrainian artists.  I was doing Ukrainian music already when I was younger, and I would also do songs in English. But then I realized with time that when I sing in Ukrainian, I feel more real, and I feel like I can give more as an artist. So that happened already before the war, but when the war started, it was like, okay, what can I do? This is one of the reasons why I want to keep singing in Ukrainian. I don’t want to transition to English, because the Ukrainian music industry is developing so much right now; there’s so much more need for Ukrainian songs.”

Volk was 15 years old when she first left Ukraine with her family to Singapore for her father’s work. After finishing high school in Singapore, she attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and Valencia, Spain. During COVID, she moved back to Ukraine and in 2022 returned to the US six weeks before the invasion.

Volk is doing her part to nurture the growing Ukrainian music scene with influences that reflect her travels. “Since I’ve lived so much abroad, it makes sense for me to take the influences from other countries and from the US, because the music industry here is so developed. And kind of blend that with Ukrainian, and show that Ukrainian language can sound very good in all these different styles. Ukrainian folk is amazing, and we have a lot of folk artists that do beautiful, beautiful music, and I still probably will also write folk songs. But I want to experiment with a whole spectrum of genres.”

Her current tour is the first time she’s presenting only original music, accompanying herself on the piano. “Some of my works were already released, half of them haven’t been, so it will be more intimate. This is the first time I let it just be me, my music, and the piano.”  Her latest single is “Сигарети“ (Cigarettes).

Volk’s performances have been credited with emotional depth beyond technical prowess.  One critic described her concerts as “not just performances, they are encounters with Ukraine as it is: alive, bright, unbreakable.” 

Valeriia Vovk solo tour stops in 14 cities across America.  She will be performing in Portland OR March 28, buy tickets here.  Her music can be found at Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming services, as well as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, where she has earned millions of views and likes.