Greenjolly

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Greenjolly
General information
Genre (s) Hip hop
founding 1997
Founding members
Roman Kalyn
Roman Kostyuk

Greenjolly (Ukrainian: Ґринджоли , transcribed Gryndscholy , also Gryndzholy ) is a Ukrainian music duo from Ivano-Frankivsk . With their rap - or hip-hop-like piece Rasom nas bahato ("Together we are many") they created the "anthem of the Orange Revolution " at the end of 2004 . The song was sung by the masses during the anti-fraud protests . The duo also won the Ukrainian qualifications for the Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in May 2005 in Kiev.

Career

Greenjolly consists of Roman Kalyn and Roman Kostjuk, who had already played together in the reggae band Nema Marli , which was dissolved in 1997 . They chose one of the last pieces of the old band "Gryndscholy" as the band name for their new formation. The word is from the Hutsul dialect and means something like "small wooden sledge". From the beginning, however, they also considered the English spelling Greenjolly .

While the previous band was still characterized by classic reggae, Greenjolly experimented from the beginning with a very happy, danceable variant. Thematically, they revolved around winter themes from their homeland: snow, mountains, sledding - this is why their style was given the name "Winter Reggae".

In 1998/99 the duo took part in three festivals and competitions: Future of Ukraine (Майбутнє України, 1998), Melodija (Мелодія, 1998 in Lviv ) and Pearls of the Season (Перлини сезону, 1999), where they played their first three pieces. However, as the runner-up, they did not win any prizes and decided not to take part in any other events of this kind. In the following years they experimented with different styles, including more lyrical rock ballads, after which they had an acoustic phase in which they rearranged their old songs, using acoustic guitars, viols and tambourines . With this program they toured the western Ukrainian clubs for a few months.

In the years 2003/04 the project of the two musicians was suspended - they arranged for other artists in their own recording studio Roma Record (Рома Рекорд) and did not produce any new pieces of their own. Roman Kostjuk worked as a sound director for the radio station Sachidnyj Poljus (West-Pol); Roman Kalyn managed two projects at the local TV station Tretja Studija (Studio 3).

When protests took place all over Ukraine at the end of 2004 after the election fraud during the presidential elections, tens of thousands of people were on the streets in western Ukraine and in Greenjolly's hometown Ivano-Frankivsk, including the two musicians who had previously been rather apolitical. They played their old pieces at one of the events in the first week of the protests and then, within a few hours, wrote the hip-hop-like song Rasom nas bahato (Разом нас багато, Together we are many ), based on quotes from Viktor Yushchenko and put on political slogans and also has lyrical echoes of the Chilean revolutionary song El pueblo unido jamás será vencido from the 1960s . With the title they struck a chord with the troubled masses all over Ukraine - it became the “anthem of the Orange Revolution” within a very short time. Radio stations played it several times a day and it was downloaded as an MP3 several million times on the Internet. At the height of the protests, the MP3 file was mirrored on more than 30 servers to handle the download rush. The two musicians had no idea of ​​commercial exploitation at the time of its creation.

In February 2005, Greenjolly received a commemorative medal from the new President Viktor Yushchenko , on which the title of her song is embossed around a sliced ​​orange, as a thank you for his active participation in the Orange Revolution .

On February 27, 2005, Greenjolly won the Ukrainian qualification for the Eurovision Song Contest , which took place in May 2005 in Kiev. The process of the final of the national preliminary round was controversial, as four music groups were wildcarded after a multi-stage preliminary round in the final , including Greenjolly. Although this approach by the organizers was permitted under national competition rules, it met with criticism. Voting was done via a kind of TED over the phone, and Greenjolly won ahead of Ani Lorak.

Then plagiarism allegations were made, the song was a direct remake of the Chilean piece; It was also pointed out that the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest do not allow political propaganda. Both points could have disqualified the band. Greenjolly then announced that he would sing an English song text in Kiev in May that does not break the rules. Finally, the duo took 19th place with this version at the 50th Eurovision Song Contest on May 21st .

Discography

  • 2004: Rasom nas bahato - nas ne podolaty! (Разом нас багато - нас не подолати!) (EP)

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