“We are all winners here”

“Wait until they record their take,” a guard told people who gathered at the entrance, waiting to be allowed to take their seats, just as the song was being recorded that would be played before the Children’s Voice of the Country’s finale. “Mommy, what is a take?” asked a little girl who came to the show with her parents. The final preparations were ongoing for the live broadcast. Young spectators, making up the bulk of the audience, were taking their seats and looking forward to the show. Above the crowd, a camera went forward on an operator’s crane, and laughing children tried to touch it and waved their hands to get into the video. Finally, the lights went out, and smiling hosts Kateryna Osadcha and Yurii Horbunov made their appearance. “Are you ready to the finale?” he asked coaches, but it was children’s voices that responded with a drawn-out “Yes.” They had a special holiday on that date.

The finale’s participants included: young rocker Bohdan Temchenko and Mykhailo Tsar who overcame his fear of cameras (Natalia Mohylevska’s team), “little red-haired angel” Anastasia Bahinska and Ivan Lisny who lost 12 kilograms to participate in the singing show (Potap’s team), fiery Ruslan Aslanov who took to stage like a duck to water, and shy Roman Sasanchyn (Tina Karol’s team). Interestingly, most of the songs performed by children were in Ukrainian, but coaches, except Tina Karol, mostly talked with them in Russian for some reason... Still, it did not prevent young and adult singers from befriending each other, so all hugged like one family, both on- and off-camera. We could see the kids changing their coaches. After Roman Sasanchyn’s performance of “One Viburnum,” excited Potap even switched to Ukrainian and quoted the national anthem: “And we will show that we, brothers, are of the Cossack nation!”

Kids won the audience by their openness and sincerity. “I thank the musicians for their patience, because I kept erring all the time,” Lisny said live when he learned that he failed to enter the super final. The title of the Children’s Voice of the Country was contested by Bahinska, Tsar, and Sasanchyn. When presenters announced that the latter, a 12-year-old boy from the village of Sadky, Ternopil region, won the title, neither the young singer, nor his coach Tina Karol, nor the boy’s mother who was present in the hall, believed at once in their incredible luck.

“For me it is like a dream, like a fairy tale,” Sasanchyn’s mother Yevhenia told The Day in between constantly getting calls and SMS on her old phone and replying emotionally: “Yes, he has won.” “I am still unable to believe that he has won. I knew that my son could do well, but never thought he would do so well. Nonetheless, I always said to myself: ‘Maybe God can help him.’ He was here two years ago at an audition for the Voice of the Country. Nobody supported him then, but he really wanted to try again. After that broadcast, the culture minister who saw him called me and invited my boy to study in Lviv. The school there enjoys a lot of sponsorship, allowing my son to travel to Europe, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary, but he has not seen America so far [all participants of the super final are entitled to study at the American Academy of Vocal Arts. – Ed.]. At first we did not want to let him live so far because he is a delicate and homely kid and he was so young then as well. Still, all people know what the countryside is... It feeds the humankind, but he has nothing to do in the countryside with his talent. He draws, knits, writes poetry, and even wrote a song about God.”

It was Tina Karol who told the nation in a live broadcast that the winner of the Children’s Voice of the Country was a knitter as well. She took to the stage the scarf which her student presented to her and it looked very touching. It was a completely different show with altogether different relationships emerging between coaches and vocalists. Many adults were tearful as they listened to these little talents singing.

“My sincere thanks go to everyone who voted for me! The main thing is not my victory, but our common experience here. We are all winners!” Sasanchyn said in his closing remarks. They hugged each other and were visibly happy, boys often picked up the little Anastasia, who performed wearing a simple blue dress and heelless shoes, looking like a butterfly. They did not compete for the victory, like participants of adult talent shows clearly do – no, these kids were just expressing their sincere souls through songs. “Two Colors,” “I Look at the Sky” – both words and emotional performances made the audience cry. A particularly striking difference was seen when the finale’s guests performed their songs: Marlen Karimov’s latest “Love or Deception” and Nikita Aleksieiev’s well-known hit “To Do All in Time.” Yes, these were beautifully crafted concert act and clip, quality pop music products with simple words. Children’s performances, on the other hand, woke far deeper feelings, these were really the Country’s Voices.