TVORCHI

Jeffery Kenny and Andriy Gutsulyak are living a kind of a “Cinderella story” with their music project TVORCHI (“creative” in Ukrainian). Firstly, the Ukranian-Nigerian duo demonstrated that music overcomes all kinds of cultural differences and bring a common creative ground. Secondly, over the matter of a year, they managed to grow from a home-based studio project to playing a national TV contest in a country of more than 43 million people.

The project started at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Ternopil National Medical University, where Kenny and Gutsulyak studied in 2017. One doesn’t have much to do in such a local city, as the majority of cultural life in the Ukraine is concentrated around capital city Kyiv. So the guys locked themselves in their home studio to “cook up” some nice music together.

The first single ‘Slow’ was born in a matter of minutes, but impressed enough  to grab a release on merican label AIA (Artist Intelligence Agency) and put the band’s name on the cultural map in Ukraine. The first video, for single “Молодість” (“youth” in Ukrainian), released in 2018, was an experiment for the band. They were still trying to find their style, and Kenny even sang in Ukrainian, which is still a challenge for him. Despite that, the track garnered  the attention of the national music media and attracted plenty of fans to the newly-minted electronic project.

The next year was a big turning point for the duo. At the end of 2019 they auditioned to be the Ukranian national selection for  Eurovision 2020, and went on to make it to  the contest’s finale. As a result, they gained a significant amount of attention. Because of a technical error, Jeffery couldn’t hear the music during the performance and was slightly out of tune. Judges cut a few points for that, but music fans united in support of the band, and even claimed that the national TV channel was too afraid that TVORCHI would win and did it on purpose.

The band are not only about Jeffery’s sweet vocals and Andriy’s perfect production, though. They’re also about the magical connection between these two. Each of them considers their bandmate a brother from another mother and it shows in their output. Lockdown and quarantine couldn’t destroy that connection, either. In September 2020 they released their 3rd album ‘13 waves’, organized an album premiere on Zoom, were nominated for numerous local music awards, and even topped Deezer. Their track ‘Bonfire’ became the most streamed song by a Ukrainian artist in 2020 on the whole platform.

It seems like these two benefit from the technological shift like no one else. Expect plenty more to come.