I was searching for Ukranian adoption news stories…. Instead, I started my journey into Ukrainian Gypsy Punk Cabaret this evening. It started with a news article. I didn’t even know such a category of music existed. So I had to google and check out the iTunes Store. (I have an iPod and I love it.)
I discovered Gogol Bordello. They are out of New York. And as you see from the picture above, the band includes an accordion player.
A punk accordion player…. My world view has been expanded.
I am not a huge fan of punk, but they are very unique. I really want to go to one of their shows. According to their web site they are touring Russia, Australia and Japan now.
The Gypsy punk revolution is coming to Moscow at last. Gogol Bordello, New York’s celebrated underground band that mixes punk rock, Gypsy folk music and cabaret
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Formed by charismatic Ukraine-born singer Eugene Hutz in 1999, Gogol Bordello got a boost in 2005 when it released its hugely acclaimed fourth album, “Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike,” and Hutz co-starred opposite Elijah Wood in the film “Everything Is Illuminated.”
From: Larger Than Life
Gogol Bordello had 2 songs on the Everything Is Illuminated sound track. Bublitschki and Start Wearing Purple. You can hear samples of the songs here.
Hutz got the movie role after a 15 minute conversation with the director, Liev Schreiber. And Hutz seems to have greatly influenced the sound track.
Everything Is Illuminated is about a Jewish man’s search for his grandfather’s Ukrainian past.
Hutz is 1/4 Roma and actively supports the non-profit organization Voice of Roma.
The task of Voice of Roma (VOR) is unique and crucial. Roma have been voiceless for centuries. As a people and as a culture, Roma have been and continue to be misrepresented, mythologized, stereotyped , romanticized, scapegoated and persecuted throughout the world.
While many organizations and human rights institutions are debating which human rights come first, (civil liberties, freedom of speech, environmental rights), the rights of the Romani people have been nonexistent and are universally ignored.
From: VOR – WHO WE ARE
Many parents who adopted Roma childen from Ukraine have run into this prejudice. For example, one family adopting from Ukraine was advised not adopt a “gypsy boy” by an orphanage director. After all the boy would just grow up and steal like all gypsies.
[Hutz said] “There’s much work to be done about that. Discrimination against Roma is very present, it’s a massive issue. It’s very big in Ukraine, it’s actually pretty devastating.”
From: Larger Than Life
One more point about the music that I found interesting… Hutz slides between English, Russian and Romany in the songs.