- Title: Jamala's parents upset with Crimeans' reaction to her Eurovision song
- Date: 23rd May 2016
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) JAMALA'S MOTHER GALINA, SAYING: "When she started crying like this (imitating Jamala's child's cry), my mother was the first to say: 'You are my little singer'. My mother said she had never heard children crying like this, she told me: 'She is not crying, she is singing'." GALINA'S HANDS AND CUP OF TEA ON TABLE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) JAMALA'S MOTHER GALINA, SAYING: "When they were born, my two girls, I've always played music for them. Susanna had always been sleeping to Ella Fitzgerald. I like jazz myself."
- Embargoed: 7th June 2016 15:01
- Keywords: Jamala Eurovision Crimea home family
- Location: MALORICHENSKE, CRIMEA
- City: MALORICHENSKE, CRIMEA
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Music
- Reuters ID: LVA0054J12WXL
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Parents of Ukrainian singer Jamala, who won an unexpected victory in the Eurovision song contest, said they were upset with reactions of fellow Crimeans' to their daughters' success, but had not doubted for a moment that she would win.
"We knew all along, until the very last moment that she will get the first prize," said Jamala's father Alim, a Crimean Tatar whose family was deported along with tens of thousands of other Tatars families from the peninsula to Uzbekistan in 1944.
"I was sitting (watching the contest) and I don't know what was happening to me - for some reason I was sure she would get the first place," said his wife Galina, whose father, a native Armenian had being deported to Kyrgyzstan.
Ukrainian singer Jamala, herself of Crimean Tatars descent, overtook the bookmakers' favourites, Russia and Australia, to lift the prize with the song "1944" about the war-time deportations of ethnic Tatars from Ukraine's Crimea peninsula by Soviet dictator Stalin.
Upon their return to Crimea in the late 1980s Galina and Alim settled in a small resort village of Malorichenske in the Crimean peninsula. Here Jamala enrolled into a local music school and started taking singing lessons at the age of 8. But her vocal talents became obvious much earlier, her mother says, during her first months.
"When she started crying like this (imitating Jamala's child's cry), my mother was the first to say: 'You are my little singer'. My mother said she had never heard children crying like this, she told me: 'She is not crying, she is singing'", said Galina.
Jamala's love for jazz has also been "cultivated" by her mother: "When they were born, my two girls, I've always played music for them. Susanna (Jamala's birth name) had always been sleeping to Ella Fitzgerald. I like jazz myself".
Jamala, whose real name is Susana Jamaladinova, has been performing her own compositions in different genres from jazz to soul, blues and pop.
For the Eurovision entry she composed a song "1944", sung part in English and part in the Crimean Tatars language, which told the story of the people's deportation and, particularly, of her great-grandmother whose daughter died on a train which was taking them to Central Asia.
Ukraine's victory, 12 years after it last won the Eurovision title, lifted the mood of Ukrainians tired of political crises and daily struggles against corruption and poverty. But it received different reception among many in Crimea and Russia.
"All of them didn't like the title: 'Why did she call it (the song) '1944'?' Why 1944? They all reacted like they took part in 1944 deportation. I cannot understand why they are against this song. I have no idea why," said Galina.
While the Eurovision voting has long been tainted by allegations of political alliances among competitor countries, songs are not allowed to be political and Jamala's entry seemed to come close to breaking that rule.
Event organiser, the European Broadcasting Union, said Ukraine's offering did not contain political speech and therefore did not break Eurovision Song Contest rules.
While many Crimean residents say they want to be ruled by Moscow, Tatars generally tend to be mistrustful of the Kremlin after the wartime deportations and have opposed Moscow's annexation. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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