DZHAMALA: Hopefully, my audience will develop along with me

Probably many people felt a fresh breeze on some deep level, which is responsible for music perception when they saw and heard Dzhamala for the first time several years ago. Although, judging from everything, music is the major component of our heroine’s life, the singer’s virtues refer not only to vocal dimension. Among other things, Dzhamala, Susanna Dzhamaladinova, has good human qualities.

Dzhamala’s grand concert with a band’s accompaniment is planned to take place on March 29 at the Zhovtnevy Palace of our capital, where the singer will present her new program.

Dzhamala, last year you went for a first large-scale tour across Ukrainian cities. What was the country you saw like?

“I am thankful to my profession for the opportunity to see not only other countries, but my own too: different cities, various halls and situations. Sevastopol for instance. Before the concert the organizers told me that the tickets were selling badly, people did not want to go to the concert because I am a Crimean Tatar. But in spite of the obscure forecasts, Sevastopol surprised me by one of the warmest concerts in the tour.

“I think music changes people. I can always see this transformation of the audience in the course of my two-hour performance. I won’t make bold to say that I am able to reach out to people’s hearts, change their life, but I can clearly see that something changes in their look and they start smiling.

“I had a very warm concert in Lviv. It touched me so much that I was almost all the time crying. I am a vulnerable person, even now, when I recall Lviv, it sends shivers down my spine.

“On the whole, we should not divide our country. I would like to feel that we have a common pivot, the understanding of the fact that we are Ukrainians. And we do not take pride of our people. I have recently met Oksana Dyka at the airport: she was going to New York to perform at the Metropolitan Opera. But she was not appreciated here.”

Many of your buffs dream to see you on an opera stage. Is this possible?

“After the graduation from the conservatoire I dreamed to sing only operas, to impress the audience with my technique, because academic singing is above all the technique. Why not opera stage? This is a complicated question. I have been thinking of going to La Scala and undergo training at the studio of this famous opera house. And I received such offers. But I think it was not accidental that life made me take namely this path and I don’t regret a bit. I continue to take singing lessons. I am trying to realize my classic education in my music. I want it to be enduring. Above all, I am a singer. This is what I am trying to cultivate in me. And this is what is in common between me and the opera.

“By the way, speaking of academic singing, I have taken part in the TV show ‘Stars in Opera.’ Practically a few days ago they showed the final gala concert of the show, and me and Vlad Pavliukov, my wonderful partner in the duet, won, if this word can be applied to music. I have also received an offer to sing Traviata’s part in Verdi’s eponymous opera on the stage of the National Opera. But the thing is that I am a very responsible person and I can’t sing ‘almost opera’ or ‘almost jazz,’ or ‘almost pop music.’ If I agree to take part in this production, I will have to refuse from my new tour, for example, or postpone the recording of my new album.”

On what music did you grow up? Where do you have this feeling of European music and European quality?

“My parents are everything for me. These are people who have contributed and I think will contribute into my development and education. I cannot say that at home we had some propaganda of Western culture. My Dad is a Crimean Tatar patriot; I don’t know a person more devoted to his people than he. At the same time, he is well aware of all the cons of the mentality, but still he remains a champion of Crimean Tatars. That is why my childhood was above all Crimean Tatar music and Crimean Tatar language. When they say, you were born in Kirghizia, I always recall the saying my father likes to repeat: ‘If a dog gave birth to pups in a stable, it does not mean they are horses.’ In fact I am a mixed-blood. On my mother’s line my grandmother was half-Ukrainian, half-Russian. My mother’s father was an Armenian. My father is a Crimean Tartar. Correspondingly, I was raised not exclusively on European music, we listened to Crimean Tatar, Armenian, Ukrainian, Russian, Azerbaijani, Iranian, and Turkish (my father likes Eastern music very much), and classical music of course.

“Later, when I was nine years old, I became fond of pop music and soul – Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey. Thank God, our record sound library included jazz: Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Holliday, James Brown... Later I myself started to listen Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, and gradually made myself accustomed to more complicated, instrumental, jazz: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans.”

By the way he is Ukrainian by origin: his mother came from Transcarpathia.

“Really? This is interesting.

“So, my music education had many sources, but above all it was my family. By the way, the main thing for parents in this respect is not to go too far, so that the child was not repelled by good music. I have seen such cases.

“I have many questions to the world, everything that is surrounding me. The death of my favorite singers, Amy Winehouse, Etta James, Whitney Houston, why? Why did these people of genius find themselves alone at their critical moments? Was it their choice? Or popularity and career success means a complete failure of family life? Sooner or later I may also face this choice.

“Coming back to your question, my family has always lived according to Muslim traditions, though my mother has always been and remains a Christian. I was raised in very strict rules. The motivation to become a professional singer was stronger than to get drunk and forget myself. At that time I already understood that I won’t be living a life of an ordinary Muslim Crimean Tatar girl. At the time I am some kind of a hero for my people. I try as much as possible to intersperse my music with Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar tunes. Of course, it would be much simpler to record a whole album of ethnic Crimean Tatar music, but I have released an English-language album of author’s songs, where I used Crimean Tatar melos on a subtler level. And this is much more complicated. But in this way not only Crimean Tatars will be able to familiarize themselves with the culture of my people.”

Do you feel that you are a Ukrainian? By the way, recently the St. Volodymyr Cathedral held a mass dedicated to death anniversary of Petro Hryhorenko, a great Ukrainian, who fought for the rights of Crimean Tatars. Muslims were also present at this mass. How do you perceive this?

“The question of tolerance is often raised in my family. I always admire this kind of events. I think they indicate that if all of us are tolerant, we will be successful. I know that there is a monument to Petro Hryhorenko, and a street has been named after him. Of course, we should love and appreciate this kind of people, not only for helping others, but because they were very brave to raise such issues in that time. Even nowadays few people are able to do so, though we seem to have a democracy.

“As for me, I am one hundred percent citizen of Ukraine, but I am of Crimean Tatar origin. By the way I have recently performed in Berlin. I was invited to sing at an event dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Holocaust. There somebody said that Crimean Tatars allegedly collaborated with fascists. It was very gratifying that the representatives of the Jewish and Ukrainian communities were outraged by these expressions, I can say they defended me with might and main.”

In an interview you said that you pin big hopes on the present young generation, that they won’t inherit the negative from the older generation, will be open, like good films, and listen to quality music. Why are you so optimistic? Currently, quite opposite things are surrounding us.

“Maybe this optimism is my nature. I believe in better things, including in music. Today you don’t have to be a professional musician to be musically educated, because music is an integral part of development of any personality. Children are being actively involved in dancing, physical training, but they vitally need to listen to good music, because it is a physical training for brains and soul.”

Our newspaper is promoting the slogan: “No chance to degradation.” I think, our caring compatriots with special talents should unite and create something for our young compatriots, who really suffer from this cruel world. Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, Oleh Skrypka, Enver Izmailov, you… You need to make joint projects.

“We need festivals. Do you know at least one opera music festival which is held in our country? We have only one jazz festival, which lasts for three days and is scarcely known.”

We have made a contribution in this respect: we brought Stravinsky back to the Ukrainian people via the publications on our sites, the newspaper, we have written about Ustyluh, a town on Ukraine’s western border, where Stravinsky used to live and work. The world knows that Chanel loved Stravinsky. We need promoters, new faces, and we need the energy for great Ukrainian deeds.

“May the country and the world learn about Stravinsky owing to cinema. Or owing to Chanel’s love to him. Not only pop music seeks popularity. Let’s take classical music or jazz. This is Fitzgerald (singing). And this is Puccini (singing). You can reach out for the young generation frequently via quality pop music. This is merely a path. ‘Smile’ is a song that reflects my creative work, but it is also embodying this path. Owing to ‘Smile’ many people found out that the songs such as ‘Find Me,’ ‘Alas,’ which are more complicated in terms of arrangement and melody, are also in my repertoire. I was really afraid for this song, because it is not standard. But our audience is already able to perceive this kind of music.”

It seems to me you are taking a blow, to some extent, because being a classical musician and organically fit into your own classical milieu is one thing, and quite another thing is to be a quality musician who works in the pop music segment. Can you see a quality evolution of the society?

“I don’t want to take much upon myself. I am doing what I like and what I succeed in and what I know will be efficient.

“On the Unity Day I sang on the Maidan. The audience was made of people, most of whom did not understand where they were, a jazz festival or what? It was cold, below 10 degrees, and I was singing like a nightingale. But if at least one of them turned his head to me, I was not doing that in vain. Of course, I could cover the way to recognition and popularity much quicker, but it does not suit me.”

Soon after your victory at the New Wave, you parted with producer Olena Koliadenko, because she put a condition: go to pop music and work in the Russian market. You refused. How real is it for a Ukrainian performer to get into the Western market? Is it real enough to bring not only Diaspora to the concerts of our performers, but also the local music lovers?

“This can be resolved only by music, its quality, and whether it is written in an international language. And nobody is going to ask for anything more. You won’t see native Englishmen and Americans on the British and American pop music stages. There are many foreigners, too.

“A conflict with Lena happened only because as a producer she wanted a quick rise for me. Approximately in that period I read Steve Jobs’s book. He says, ‘A good artist creates, a great one steals, and a genuine one completes the order on time.’ Lena wanted me to become great at once. And I wanted to be a good artist, I wanted to create. That was by far the main reason why we parted and why I began to work with another producer, Ihor Tarnopolsky, and a new team.

“By the way, I am seeking the ways to sing in Russian, but I haven’t found any yet. Russian disorients me a bit because of my love to cantilena. I can see that there is a vast Russian market. The question is in what events should I take part? I have recently come back from the jazz festival ‘A Mansion. Jazz Winter’ in Saint Petersburg. They accepted me from the first chord, like at my solo concert in Kyiv. This is my Russian audience. That is why it would be wrong to say that I orient only at the West. I want to sing for my audience in Ukraine, Russia, and in the West. Hopefully, my audience will develop along with me and will be able to listen to something more complicated than my album For Every Heart, another kind of music: classical, folk, mine.”

You’ve mentioned Whitney Houston. The story of this great singer is sad. Apparently it indicates some diseases of the music world. What is your vision?

“This is a choice. Like a choice you make in your childhood, which I have mentioned. The gift God grants to us has a limit. The voice contemplates, ‘You don’t need this, me – even more. If you don’t need to take care of me: sleep in time, eat well, not to use doping and so on, I don’t need it even more.’ And it leaves us. I have traced: for a year prior to death Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston were practically voiceless. Like Ella Fitzgerald used to say, the older you become, the more you want to sing. She was in a wheelchair, and she wanted to sing even more. This is a tragedy too.

“When I was studying at the conservatoire, I lost voice once. This is dysphonia, when vocal folds are not able to vibrate: because of wrong descant you sing for too long as a result, and the vocal folds stop vibrating for a while. This can be cured only by silence.”

For how long were you silent?

“For a month. And I won’t wish this to anybody. You feel that nobody needs you. Your life is over.

“I cried over Whitney as if she were my relative. I grew up on her songs. I simply think she is a model singer who sang according to the encyclopedia. And Whitney sang so correctly that I studied on her apparatus. This is a loss for me.”

You have mentioned many American and European names. Which Ukrainian performers do you like?

“I have recently been to the concert of Okean Elzy, but unfortunately I left before it ended, because I disliked the sound in the Palace of Sport. But Sviatoslav Vakarchuk is absolutely a Ukrainian performer. He has formed a clear notion of what Ukrainian rock is. Besides, I very much like Boombox. And of course, The Maneken, a band of Zhenia Filatov who is not only a wonderful musician, but also a good friend of mine and sound producer of my debut album.”

And not from the mainstream?

“You see, I don’t want to offend anybody by not naming, because I meet this people. Besides, it is their choice, the music they like. Iryna Bilyk used to have good songs, and now? Tina Karol, too, has good compositions and she manages to find serious audience in Ukraine. But maybe I want something different. I want people to appreciate me for my skills and forget about the other staff.”

Ancient Greeks used to say: the most important thing is to live with accordance to your self. What do you need for this? They say you take Koran with you on tours.

“Yes, I do, but this is no measure for a Muslim. I have already said that I won’t be living the life of an ordinary Muslim. I don’t read Salah which is a direct violation of the Muslim tradition. I am a singer, after all, which is also a violation of the tradition. A woman is not allowed to stand unaccompanied by other women on stage. But I deeply believe in God and He saves me. I am not telling I have no sins. I have recently seen the production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, called Cynical Comedy, staged by the Lesia Ukrainka Theater. The main idea of the play is that our sins are relative. That is why it is not the most important thing that I take Koran with me, I may as well leave it at home, though this Holy Book is very important for me. I always pray before the performance. That is why I always ask God for strength, good eyes and good hearts in the audience. And He gives them to me.”