i still decided that we should go further. unfortunately, i don't drive a car, the only possibility is when a bikir takes us to the border, then we walk. i contacted my sister who is in istanbul. it was two o'clock in the morning, we reached the romanian border, i thought that someday in my life i would walk across the border with my children in my arms, i don't even understand where it goes.

to say goodbye to him, to tell him that i love him and all that, i said hello to this friend whom i didn't know, got into the car, put the children down and fell asleep, i woke up somewhere already at the border with bulgaria, at that moment there was such emptiness inside. you leave home, and at this

moment your whole life is in front of you, istanbul, where is my sister, where are my nieces, this is my family, part of my family. and at that moment everything, i accused my sister, we cried, and there were no words, well, i could not believe my eyes that this

was happening right now with us, and it reminded me of the stories of my great-grandmother, grandmother about a friend world war the crimean tatars are a sunni muslim turkic-speaking nation that is the indigenous population of the peninsula. people crimean tatars in 1944... amounted to approximately 2,000 people. this deportation took place over three days in may 1944 and was mainly directed against women, children and the elderly. the great-grandmother said: yes, again on the 5th morning, on the 5th morning , soviet soldiers came, pointed their guns, said: they have 15 minutes to assemble, she

was in freight cars with five children in her arms, without food, without water. 150,000 people were crammed into train cars, the doors of which did not open for 18 days, on their way to their final destinations in central asia, in siberia in the ural mountains. imagine to start. a trip in a freight car , two weeks without water and without food, they milled something there, took a bag and ate it there, they survived like that, and unfortunately, during this trip, the youngest daughter of my great-grandmother died, and she asked the soviet soldiers , can she bury it somewhere? on

the way, at some stop there, and of course , she was refused and the body was thrown away about... just somewhere, so, unfortunately, we don't know where my great-grandmother's daughter is. many crimean tatars believe that she died as a result of deportation about half of their entire population. it is quite clear that this was an act of brutal ethnic cleansing. there were so many killed, those who died during those 18 days on the way to the places of exile. that is, the fact that they survived in general, that's all, and the fact that i'm sitting here now, it's a great happiness that they went through all this.

it seems to me that i had no chance not to become a musician, because my mother plays the piano, she is a teacher at a music school, my father, him... faithfully sings, plays the accordion, sang in the choir, music is in my home 24/7 because my mom used to play me records when i was a kid, steve wonder, that was all my

music. it was inspired by the 60s, so it's me jamala, smile, they sound a bit like the 60s.

oh, 1944, it was written in 2015, when crimea was occupied, and i was so sad, i was so depressed. i remember my great-grandmother nazilkhan, for me she was like an image of my consciousness, she was such a bright person. and it's like she

asked me to release her soul, release this story and release thousands of souls. this is a story about 1944 about deportation. there is no information about the crimean tatars, thousands of people were killed. when i wrote this song, i thought: "oh my god, no, it's too much, it's too sad, i'm not ready for it." to sing, she waited a whole year for the national selection for eurovision. i decided that if you have a story, if you have something to say to your audience, to your listeners, you should do it.

i have three minutes to live it. to see more meaning in the eurovision winners, they sought to connect through political and...

mala holds this note at the climax of the song, it seems to release all these emotions, dispossession, suffering and trauma, somehow it does the impossible.

made jamala an international star, not so much because her song became a hit, but because the song was politically provocative, which is what drew her to european audiences in the first place.

i already said, sister, but we can't be silent, we have to do something, and we gathered a big press conference in istanbul, to all the media that were there, i told my story. with with all the changes in ukraine, with the second russian invasion of ukraine in 2022, jamala really became one of the leading faces of the country and... one of the leading political advocates of the ukrainian cause, i went to berlin, where

the national selection of eurovision was held in germany, they asked me, can i sing 1944 my victory song, they will make a meeting for ukraine. i said yes, if i... needed to collect money for ukraine and singing, i am ready, and then there was romania, and then there was barcelona, ​​and then there was georgia and so on, and more than 30 countries. only together we can stop this unjustified and cruel war. please

support us, support ukraine. thank you very much. this is not only a ukrainian war, it is a war against european values. values ​​that were built for a long time after the second world war. and, unfortunately, it never happened again. we believe that this is a war crime and it will be recognized by the world as genocide, what you see here today .

how much money did you collect in these two months? during these performances, they collected 90 million euros. it is incredibly. 90 million in two months. do you feel that your voice is a weapon in this war? i use my voice to raise money. i use my voice to tell the truth about war.

i said again that i accept this award on behalf of all the performers, and for everyone who is really doing everything possible to stop the war. it is happening now, at this very moment, right in the middle of europe. i hope we can end this together once and for all, and that no one else went through it again for god's sake, never again. today this war is in my

home, but where will it be tomorrow if it is not stopped? the fact that jamala can meet an international audience at concerts, with politicians and speak in her own voice is really an asset to the world, to the democratic community of nations. it was crazy, getting a letter. first from the band yutu, then from kennedy, and they would like to, because yutu wanted to invite me to close. ceremony, walk song, special the version made by youtube for ukraine. three days before this moment, i was at

a meeting with volodymyr zelenskyi, where is he, where i directly asked him: i am going to washington now, what should i say? glad to look, glad to see. like you, well, you look beautiful. for me it is an important event that proves that once again the cultural front works, it works cool enough, because during all this time of the war, wherever i was, wherever i sang 19:44, as they say, oh my god, which, how can it be that such words seem to be about the 44th year, but they are just every word about today, first of all, your meeting, it seems to me, will do much more, even than you think, by itself. as informational, this is an informational attempt to remind people once again that there is a war here, so that people do not forget it, because

the war is at a distance, unfortunately, it is at a distance, and it does not have such an outbreak of such a tragedy and such all the sensations that are here in of our people, well, the most important thing is that you will be there and that this is once again about ukraine. an honor to be there at that moment, to share this event, to sing a song. for almost for 50 years together, utah has used their music as a way to create change. so it's only fitting that on a night in their honor, they once again used their platform to spread a message of peace. now please.

his own grave for photograph, this is not a carton call, this is the greatest actor,

stand up for freedom, father, work on, what you got the can st'? when i spoke with a voucher for all the carlier brandies, they said to me: how can you be so bold, i said, i don't want to be a bitch, i only have one home, i want it back.

poland, as a neighbor of ukraine, was one of the first to open its borders and accept ukrainian refugees. polish civil society. helped children, families, provided food, a roof over their heads, tried to put them in a safe environment, yes susanna, anaka susanna, just one detail, kiss me, let's go for a walk, i'm like a mother and have children who... already p do my generation personally have to run away from russian aggression? the end of villages!

i have to do everything for them so that they don't feel neither fear nor field, i believe that children should have a childhood, but of course, this is not the dream that i would like to give them, when i am with them, this is the best that can be done.

to work, because if i know that they are in kyiv, and even in a good bomb shelter, i will not be able to drive, i will not be able to do what i would like to do for my country right now, i will give it to you. i went to the children, with smiling eyes, very so lively and so on, my name is jamala, they do not look like children, so that i am really happy that i have the opportunity to see. here are the eyes

filled with sadness, some kind of wisdom, remember , i was in tears then, screaming and begging you, and you, what about you, turned around and left, went there, killed you, and the girl who read me a poem about murders, that you killed yourself? it is it it was just a shock to me and i understood that i have to support her with her and she has to understand that this is a difficult poem but it can also be a song why who said that all songs have to be about tickets and happy love, i understood that i had to do something somehow. just now to

to cheer them up, to lift them up, and i started, it was completely unplanned, i started making music with them, and at that moment they became children again, for this period when we made a song with them. for us, you came, you went over there, and you, they sang, they drank, it's hard, but this, this, this poem has the most emotional point, that's why it's a chorus, thank you.

yes, thank you. we have to understand that it is not just people who left. their homes were bombed by russian aviation and the russian military. these people literally took away their home, they have nowhere to live, and i sang, i was shocked that many of them have been living there for more than a year, and it is very sad, but nothing, we will leave soon.