The fabulous concert of the National Capella of Bandurists of Ukraine in Vigo

This Wednesday, the city of Vigo had the honour of being one of the stops on the Spanish tour of an internationally renowned musical choir.

'Hej Sokoły', the beautiful and nostalgic love song that unites Ukrainians and Poles
'Siúil a Rúin': the Ukrainian version of a beautiful Irish ballad about love and war

The National Choir of Tenors and Bandurists of Ukraine "G.I. Mayboroda", also known as the National Capella of Bandurists of Ukraine, gave a concert at the Higher Music Conservatory of the city, located on the hill of Castro. The name of this group is due to the fact that its main instrument is the bandura, a traditional plucked string instrument typical of Ukraine.

Besides the bandura, the other great instrument of this Capella is the voice. The choir is made up of 45 men, and it should be noted that not all of its members were here yesterday: currently, nine of its artists are at the front in Ukraine, fighting against the Russian invaders.

In fact, one of the first songs of this choir was a tribute to the victims of that Russian invasion, a very moving moment in which the artists of this centenary group (it was founded in 1918, during the brief period of independence that Ukraine enjoyed between 1917 and 1920) demonstrated their great skill as a choir, as you can hear in this video:

The concert had a very varied repertoire, with patriotic songs, songs about war, about love and also some humorous songs. One of the songs that the group performed was the Ukrainian patriotic song "Гей, степами" (Hello, steppes), which you can listen to in this video (I put the lyrics and their translation at the end of this post, and the video includes subtitles in English, Spanish and Ukrainian, you can activate them in the bottom bar of the player):

The last song of the concert was a pleasant surprise from this Ukrainian choir. On every tour of a country they make a surprise like this, and on this Spanish tour they are performing the beautiful Spanish song "Eres tú" by the group Mocedades. They sang it very well and enchanted the audience, as you can see in this video (I have also included subtitles in English, Spanish and Ukrainian in this video):

This was one of the best traditional music concerts I have ever seen, and I have been to many of them, and with very good groups. My congratulations to the National Bandurist Chapel of Ukraine for the pleasant time they gave us and for being kind enough to come to our city. Hopefully we will be able to hear them here again, God willing, when Ukraine has been liberated from the Russian invaders.

By the way, this group will soon give concerts in other Spanish cities. You can see the information about them at their Facebook page.

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These are the original lyrics of the song "Hello, steppes" in Ukrainian:

Гей, степами, темними ярами
Йдуть походом залізні полки.
Хто відважний, хай іде із нами,
Лицарями будьмо, юнаки!

За нікого битись не будемо,
До нікого в найми не підем,
Для Вкраїни ми усі живемо
І за неї голови складем.

Кожний ворог йде нас визволяти,
А для себе землю він краде,
На могилу землю буде мати,
На могилі воля зацвіте!

Лети, пісне, попід небесами,
До вкраїнських промовляй сердець,
Хай же буде наша воля з нами,
А ворожим намірам кінець!

Here you can read the translation of the lyrics into English:

Hey, by the steppes, and by the dark ravines
The campaign marches forth with iron pikes.
He who's brave, now, let him come on with us,
Let us all be knights, O you young men!

We will not fight just for anyone
We'll not be mercenaries, for no one
For Ukraine, it's now that we all live for
And for her let's loose our heads together.

Every enemy comes here to free us,
And he steals the land for himself,
For a grave, now, will he have the land,
On that grave will our freedom blossom!

Fly, oh song, underneath the heavens,
To Ukrainians do speak to their dear hearts,
Let our will, now, always be here with us,
But to the enemies desire let it be an end!