A few days after the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops under the command of Vladimir Putin, the UHF published the song free ukraine, with subtitles in Portuguese and Ukrainian. It was a way of showing their position in the face of the conflict, as had already happened with the Bosnian war, which led them to compose the song Sarajevo. And if in this one they sang “Tell me this summer was a lie/ None of this is happening/ Sarajevo, a target in the crosshairs/ And the policemen of the world are watching”, free ukraine it begins with a gloss on the beginning of Sarajevo, changing only the season of the year: “Tell me that this winter is a lie / The old order wants to return / Madness is in the crosshairs / The invader cannot pass.” And the chorus goes: “Free Ukraine / War devours / Standing stand / In old Europe / Free Ukraine / Free Ukraine – will win.”
When he wrote the song, published on March 4, 2022, António Manuel Ribeiro, vocalist and founder of UHF, was far from imagining that he would still sing it a year later, not as a memory, but with the same fundamentals. “I didn’t imagine”, he now tells PÚBLICO. “I was shocked that there was a new war in Europe, which seems to have forgotten the two world wars, the Bosnian war and some conflicts, but I never thought that this would be such methodical destruction. What I see is rubble appearing where cities used to be.”
But the song has had several echoes since publication: “I let things go and they took on a life of their own. Only yesterday I learned that a UHF fan, through Instagram and in the first few days, posted our song and video on Zelensky’s Instagram, with subtitles in Portuguese and Ukrainian. What I saw, over this time, on YouTube, is that the song has many comments, even in Ukrainian, which means that it reached many places.”
“Fantastic reactions”
On the 2022 tour, UHF sang it and it was a “solemn moment”, says António: “Usually it was the first song of the encore, and even our technicians would go on stage to sing the chorus. In December, on our tour could be christmas, we had fantastic reactions, people springing to their feet, clapping their hands. And it is essential that this happens, above all so as not to let this fall into a kind of ‘normality’, because we see the news every day and escalation is dangerous.”
The most recent speech by Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, left António Manuel Ribeiro even more apprehensive: “I was stunned. How is it possible for a guy to be at the head of a nation and have this type of speech, lying, completely false. And that confuses me a lot, because this might not be as ‘simple’ as we would like it to be. Because I don’t see the desire to reach a peace conference.”
Collective concert in Porto
To continue the song free ukrainethe leader of the UHF will not stop, on the 24th. It starts early in the morning at Antena 1 and will end at night, in Porto, in a collective show at Alfândega, the proceeds of which go towards humanitarian aid to Ukraine. “I learned that there are a series of materials that are perfectly necessary at this moment, such as blankets, heaters, because if the winter is the way it is, it is even worse there.”
As long as the war continues, the UHF will not disarm, guarantees António Manuel Ribeiro: “This is what we have left, the troubadours: to alert people, draw attention to what is worth it at the moment, which is the situation of the Ukrainian people and also from the Russian people, who don’t know what’s going on, with soldiers dying by the thousands in a stupid war. It’s both sides. And I see the situation from both sides, naturally.”