Laibach to become first foreign band to perform in Kyiv since invasion

Subversive Slovenian industrial rock band Laibach are set to be the first foreign group to perform a full concert in Kyiv since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The group will play Bel Etage Music Hall on 31 March, under the concert title Eurovision – an arch reference to the fact the Eurovision song contest, won by Ukraine in 2022, will not be hosted in the country this year, but rather Liverpool in the UK.

In a statement announcing the concert, the band said: “While the rest of Europe prepares to celebrate its idea of freedom and solidarity on 9 May in Liverpool, Laibach is taking Eurovision back to Ukraine, where it belongs and where the only true and real vision of Europe is taking place right now.” Proceeds from the concert will be donated to charity.

Speaking to the Guardian via email as a group, they added: “They say that while weapons speak, art is silent. We don’t agree with that. Some of the most important works of art and music were created during war. Even in the most unbearable times of holocaust, art gave meaning and power to life, to resist the violence of war.”

The group performed two concerts in Sarajevo in 1995, when the city was besieged by Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian war. “We are therefore aware of the importance of resisting the psychology of violence and conflict with a civilian attitude and by supporting normal life, whatever that means in the given context,” Laibach said. “We must not allow the cynicism of war, or cynicism of the strategic interests of capital to turn our lives completely into a state of emergency.”

Laibach formed in the former Yugoslavia in 1980. The group quickly became controversial for their absurdist (but deliberately somewhat inscrutable) use of fascist symbolism and totalitarian martial imagery, wearing military uniforms on stage and using march-like rhythms in what they later described as “a dadaist adventure”.

They moved to London in 1984 after being banned from performing in their home country, though were later embraced by Slovenia following its independence. The quintet have recorded a celebrated series of idiosyncratic cover versions, reworking Europop, national anthems, the Beatles album Let It Be, the Sound of Music soundtrack and more. In 2015, the band became one of the first – and certainly the most high-profile – non-Korean bands to perform in North Korea.

In further remarks to the Guardian, the group lamented the conflict in Ukraine as “a cynical proxy war for the geostrategic interests of the superpowers and financial capital (of the military industry, etc). In this war, the Ukrainian people and Ukraine as a country are most at risk, and the disastrous consequences of it will be felt by Russia itself and also by Europe and other regions. Peace can and must be achieved only and exclusively through intensive diplomacy, serious talks at the green table, especially between America and China, who are the main players on the chessboard, and the two protagonists of the immediate conflict, Ukraine and Russia.”

While Laibach may be the first touring band to perform a whole concert in a traditional venue, in May 2022 Bono and the Edge from U2 played a 40-minute set in a Kyiv subway station. “The people of Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you’re fighting for all of us who love freedom,” Bono told the crowd.

Other western acts have thrown their support behind Ukraine, such as Pink Floyd, who reunited to record a new song to benefit relief efforts. Ed Sheeran and Chic were among the artists performing at the Concert for Ukraine benefit show in March 2022.

Ukrainian musicians, meanwhile, have performed acclaimed and emotive concerts around the world since the invasion. Eurovision winners Kalush, along with Dakhabrakha and Go_A, all performed at Glastonbury festival in 2022; the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, comprised of Ukrainian refugees as well as Ukrainians already working abroad, toured Europe and the US last summer.