War reaches Ukrainian rock band Ziferblat even at the Eurovision Song Contest

BASEL, Switzerland — Ukraine's musicians can't escape war, even at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Rock band Ziferblat were in Basel, Switzerland to represent their country when they learned the home of backing singer Khrystyna Starykova in a frontline region of eastern Ukraine had been destroyed by Russian shelling.

''She's so strong,'' said guitarist Valentyn Leshchynskyi, who formed Ziferblat with his vocalist twin brother Daniil and drummer Fedir Khodakov. ''She is 19 years old only, but the impact of this situation — I think she won't give up.

''Of course it's difficult when you're losing your flat while you need to stay calm to celebrate here because it's a musical festival, it's not about the war.''

The band is set to compete for Ukraine in Saturday's Eurovision grand final with ''Bird of Pray,'' a song whose intense vocals and prog rock sound owe something to the 1970s – as does the bell-bottomed pink suit Daniil Leshchynskyi wore in Tuesday's semi-final.

Valentyn Leshchynskyi said the lyrical message of loss and hope, centered on a phoenix-like bird, resonates with what Ukrainians experienced in recent years.

''We want to build a dream on the stage – even for three minutes, for Ukrainians – like the war will be over in the very near future,'' he told The Associated Press.

Ukraine is a longtime Eurovision competitor – as was its neighbor Russia. Both saw their relationship with the continental pop contest transformed by Moscow's full-scale invasion three years ago.

Russia was kicked out of Eurovision. Ukrainian folk-rap group Kalush Orchestra won the 2022 contest less than three months after the invasion. Winning brought the right to host the contest the following year. When war made that impossible, Liverpool stepped in to stage Eurovision with a distinctly Ukrainian flavor, decking out the English city in blue and yellow Ukrainian flags.

Even before the full-scale invasion, Ukraine used Eurovision for cultural diplomacy, as a way to tell the world about their country's history, music and language. Ukrainian singer Jamala won the contest in 2016 — two years after Russia illegally seized Crimea — with a song about the expulsion of Crimean Tatars by Stalin in 1944. Kalush Orchestra's winning song ''Stefania'' blended rapping in Ukrainian with a haunting refrain on a traditional Ukrainian wind instrument.

Now the message is that Ukraine is still standing, and still fighting.

Daniil admitted to feeling a ''little bit of pressure'' ahead of Saturday. But he said it was ''such a privilege'' to represent Ukraine.

''We have two missions here,'' his brother Valentyn said. One is to come out at or near the top in Saturday's 26-nation musical showdown. The other is ''to remind Europeans about the war.''

As part of its Eurovision journey, the band is fundraising to buy robotic de-mining systems to help clear an area of Ukraine he says is 3 1/2 times the size of Switzerland.

Ziferblat's trip to Eurovision coincided with Vyshyvanka Day — the third Thursday in May, when Ukrainians around the world wear traditional embroidered shirts as a symbol of national pride.

The band members joined scores of Ukrainians clad in elaborately stitched vyshyvanka in a Basel park to eat borscht, sing Ukrainian songs and cheer on the band ahead of Saturday's final.

''This is a day that is gathering all Ukrainians together,'' Valentyn said. ''In Kyiv, the capital, everyone is wearing these shirts and going to the streets celebrating and you feel like a united nation for one day.''

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Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha contributed to this story.