The Commissioner for Language Protection spoke about Serdyuchka’s controversial concert

Following Andriy Danylo’s, also known as Verka Serdyuchka, concert in Kyiv, a scandal erupted over the performance of certain songs in Russian. This caused outrage among many spectators and Ukrainian celebrities.

Among those who expressed dissatisfaction were blogger Olena Mandziuk and singer Iryna Bilyk, the latter suggesting that Danylo adapt his songs to Ukrainian.

The public reaction was so strong that an official complaint was filed against the artist. However, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Taras Kremin, noted that the legislation was not violated in this case.

“Until 2021, this area was not regulated by the law on language—many Ukrainian performers performed in Russian abroad, which created the impression of a weak linguistic identity. After the war, artists actively switched to Ukrainian in their performances and began to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Kremin noted in a comment.

He also noted that Danylko has been actively helping the army since the beginning of the invasion, and performing songs in Russian is not prohibited by law.

“Unfortunately, his repertoire still includes songs in Russian, but this is legal. The law states that the language of cultural and artistic events should be Ukrainian, but this does not apply to the language of performance of specific musical works,” he explained.

It should be noted that on June 13, Verka Serdyuchka performed several famous hits, some of which were in Russian, which sparked a wave of criticism in the media and social networks.

Read also: Why Verka Serdyuchka does not sing hits in Ukrainian – the artist’s answer.