This is a list I have compiled for my foreign friends and students who want to explore Ukrainian music, but might not know where to start. Obviously, there are quite a few limitations that I should explain at once.
First of all, I wanted to have proper songs, and not instrumental pieces etc., because the audience that I have in mind is mostly guys who study Ukrainian, so they should be able to listen to, or read, the lyrics.
Secondly, I excluded all songs sung in languages other than Ukrainian, for the same reason, and also, speaking of Russian in particular, because I feel that that would be inappropriate now, after the Russian invasion. This, by the way, cuts off a huge chunk of Ukrainian music, a lot of which I personally used to enjoy.
Thirdly, understanding that any objectivity would be out of reach, I still tried to make it just not too biased. I looked at different periods and styles, and I wanted to include what every Ukrainian would know (or at least have heard the title).
I asked a little group of friends to help me, and I was quite surprised to see their lists. Some contained nothing but traditional songs, others—mainly the music that is currently popular, whereas it seems hard to predict which of that will turn out significant over time. So, I have used but a few suggestions from them (and deliberately omitted a large portion of folk songs, which would otherwise totally dominate the list).
The first part of the list contains some of the songs that were mentioned the most, with the first one being, understandably, the State Anthem, and the second—the actual leader of my small poll. The rest come in random order. Enjoy!
Державний гімн України (вик. хор «Думка)
State Anthem of Ukraine (performed by Dumka Choir)
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