Алиби без лишних слов

The Alibi Sisters Anya and Alina Zavalsky

Popular Ukrainian girl-pop duo Alibi was all over the news last week as rumours spread that they were going to split up. Is it true? "The end of something is usually the beginning of something new," the girls told What's On when they sat down with us for a chat. So are they breaking up? Not quite. Both Zavalsky sisters will be looking into doing some solo projects, but that doesn't mean they'll never perform again as Alibi.  Indeed, as Alibi celebrates its seventh anniversary this year, the duo ranks as one of the longest-lived acts on the Ukrainian show-biz scene. "Alibi is the thing that unites our family," Alina says.  'Any big project that we're planning for the near future will just make it stronger.

We're going to see the project bloom even more in the future, as we get more comfortable with Western ex- л The girls are proud to have helped pioneer the Ukrainian pop market years ago when, hard as it is to imagine now, there existed no competitive girl groups and there was no certainty that their experiment would be successful. Of course it was - beyond their wildest dreams. Their collective intuition, which plays an extremely important role in their lives, turned out to be correct, and now it's telling them that they should try their hands at musical styles in which Alibi doesn't typically traffick Towards that end they recently threw a party called the Long Farewell, during which the sisters showcased their other talents. Anya presented a book of her poetry, which she'd completed long ago but never showed anyone. "What took her so long?" you may ask Well, she was busy writing texts for Alibi songs, and besides, she considered many of the poems too private to show to other people. Dedicated as it is to different men in her life, the poetry turned out to be highly romantic and very emotional But reading it publicly she saw how successful it was. "I reached a crucial moment in my life and realised that in order to start something new I had to put an end to the old things I was doing," Anya says. A new period in her creative life is starting. "I called the party the Long Farewell to emphasise that I'm energised to participate in different projects and open to everything new," she says.  Multi-talented and Creative So, apparentiy, was talented photographer Mikhail Novosyolov, who loved the idea of Anya branching out and conceived the idea of publishing an art book consisting of both poems and pictures, and in which Anya plays the main role. In the wake of that project, the young poet is even thinking of taking up fiction writing. "Poems to me are private and highly emotional, while fiction is about observing the world around you. I've got a lot of impressions from our tours, and I think that at some point they'll ferment into my next piece of work," Anya says. Alina, meanwhile, is also expanding her image and her oeuvre, taking the stage as a jazz singer in a vintage dress and throwback hair. Speaking of creative work, the Zavalsky sisters agree that the best of it is done in a state of melancholy. "When I'm depressed, the best psychologist I can find is a piece of paper, where I can express all my feelings," Anya says. 'And usually I get right back into the swing of things as soon as I hear the music and start singing," her sister adds. Creative work, the ladies say, is like a cardiogram image on a doctor's screen: it's all ups and downs, and that's not a bad thing "If you want to succeed, you should be sincere with your audience," the sisters say. "Sometimes if you want to rise higher, you have to fall down first." Anya and Alina are proud of having been trendsetters for the horde of Ukrainian girl bands that appeared in their wake: girl-pop is now one of the things that foreigners in the know think of when they think of this country. "Nobody knows how much work we'll do as Alibi in the future," the girls say, speaking at once, "but when the desire to write, create and perform together overcomes us, we'll be back for sure." In other words, a bright new year is starting for these Ukrainian pop luminaries turned writers, jazz singers, and anything else they'd like to be.

Kishe - Забудь

Kishe & Polina Griffith

I’ve been always selective as far as parties I attend are concerned – they are usually all the same with local celebrities hunting down cameras for additional PR, scantily clad damsels walking around in their glam rags, and people who hardly know each other smiling welcomes with a fixed grin – but when I heard that Kishe and Polina Griffith were holding one in Barsky for the launch of their new video, I didn’t hesitate.

The chance to talk to Kishe and Polina Griffith is always welcome, especially as Kishe is a humble guy who doesn’t surround himself with an army of PR people, and I’m a fan of his music so I was very keen to see his new video, ‘On the Edge’, that he’s made along with Russian singer and former member of ‘A Studio’, Polina Griffith. In and Out of Love “Sometimes the life you share with your loved one turns into a daily routine: you eat, sleep and have sex like you were an automatic machine, and you realise then that the love has gone,” Kishe says about the theme behind the song. It’s an interesting comment to make, as Andriy Kishe has been with his wife for 15 years, and the couple recently had a little baby girl, Sonya. Add to that the fact that Kishe’s videos always feature scantily clad girls, and I find myself wondering if his career causes problems in their marriage, but he says she understands it’s all part of the job. “I dedicated the song ‘Closer’ to my wife, and that song is 100% autobiographical. The rest is work, and she understands that,” he says. While Kishe and his wife manage to overcome the difficulties they stumble upon, Polina isn’t quite so lucky as she recently divorced from her husband, Thomas Nevergreen. Sitting across from me on the sofa wearing a D&G dress, she says: “I didn’t write the song, but I have lived through just such a problem. In the video, the characters manage to get through their difficulties and come out the other side, but my husband and I failed to preserve our love.” The story of the new video starts in Moscow, when Kishe’s friend took him there in December to try and help him make some useful contacts. After all the networking was over, Andriy happened to be randomly introduced to a girl named Svetlana, who, as it happened, turned out to be the PR manager for Polina. As Kishe is one of the few Ukrainian performers who sings in English, and Polina is one of the few Russian singers who does the same, it seemed an ideal pairing. “When I came up with the idea of a duet, Polina was the perfect candidate,” Kishe says. “Our co-operation isn’t commercial. We have no sponsors for this video. I covered all the expenses for producing the song and video, and the PR here in Ukraine, and Polina will handle things in Moscow. But the main thing behind this is the song itself. We really want to captivate the audience by the quality of the words, by the song’s meaning.” It’s all About Friends Polina likes Kyiv very much, and can’t even remember the number of times she’s been here. “It’s always interesting in Kyiv. Here anything can happen. For example, I was late for my flight to Moscow once and had to stay a night in a hotel near Boryspil. It had a large stable, so I couldn’t help but spend some time riding a couple of the studs they had there,” she says, smiling. Kishe is something of an anachronism on the Kyiv celebrity circuit, in that he has a good voice and is very talented, but he’s completely devoid of that negative character trait adopted by all those who’ve ever spoken a word on TV – arrogance. This, however, has made him a very popular man, and while there wasn’t a PR man in sight, his party was overflowing with pop stars and media people. “I try to be nice to people, to be friendly, because you never know when and where you might need a hand. I appreciate my friends: these are the people who make us happy, and even if you have no money, when you’ve got friends you can make things happen. I try to make friends with people at the nightclubs and radio stations. They support me, and I perform for them. It’s all done via friendship. This video presentation is no exception. My friends helped me organise this party,” Kishe explains. It’s worth mentioning, in these times of trouble, that even stars like Kishe know how to do things on a budget when necessary: the video was shot in two days for little money. So what has Kishe got planned for the future? “I enjoyed doing ‘On the Edge’ with Polina very much, and so this leads me to think I’ll do another duet. Maybe this time I’ll do one with Bohdan Titomir,” he says, a slight tone of mystery in his voice, and maybe that’s because Bohdan Titomir caused a real stir with his last song ‘Dirty Bitches Will Be Punished’. It certainly seems like this would be an intriguing partnership, and Kishe promises the song will definitely be about sex!