Slavic

IOWA is an indie-pop group from Mogilev, Belarus, who sing in Russian. A relatively young band, they have only released one album since their inception in 2009, Export (2014; no Russian or Belarusian title). The band’s moniker contains several references, namely the US state, an American acronym—Idiots Out Wandering About—and an album by the metal […]

Gogol Bordello is a self-styled “gypsy punk” band that formed in Manhattan, NY, in 1999. The band’s unique fusion of influences is largely the brainchild of frontman Eugene Hütz’s own unconventional history. Hütz, born Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Nikolayev-Simonov (Евгений Александрович Николаев-Симонов), is a Ukrainian-born expat whose Romani heritage (his mother is partially of Servitka ancestry) inspired […]

Ivan Dorn (Іван Дорн in Ukrainian; Иван Дорн in Russian) is a Ukrainian, Russian-speaking performer.Known primarily today through his career as a pop musician, Dorn has also found success as a TV personality in Ukraine, and in a handful of acting roles—most famously as Kostya in Happy Guys (Весёлые Ребята, 2014). Dorn was born in Chelyabinsk, […]

Tantsy Minus (Танцы Минус) is a Russian rock band from St. Petersburg. Officially formed in 1995 by frontman Vyacheslav Petkun (Вячеслав Петкун), the band has released five full-length albums and developed a loyal fanbase during its long career. They have also been recognized for their contributions to Russian music, receiving the prestigious Golden Gramophone award […]

Bartosz (Bartas) Szymoniak is a Polish solo singer. For many years he was also the vocalist for Sztywny Pal Azji, a Polish classic rock band that has been around since the mid-1980s. Szymoniak was born in Kalisz, Poland, toward the tail end of the Communist era. He has become a musical figure with a range of […]

Okean Elzi (Океан Ельзи—note that this is the Ukrainian spelling) is a prolific Ukrainian rock band from Lviv. Formed in 1994, they have released nine studio albums since 1998, toured extensively throughout Ukraine, Russia, the majority of Europe, and North America, and are heralded today as one of the greatest rock bands of the former Soviet […]

Organek (also known as Ørganek) is a Polish contemporary classic-style rock band. It was started in 2013 in the Polish city Torun by singer Tomasz Organek. Organek, who grew up in Suwałki, is a composer and songwriter in addition to a singer—and he studied English philology at university. Organek’s music education was at the Katowice Music […]

Quest Pistols Show (simply Quest Pistols until 2014) is a unique and unusual Russian/Ukrainian … band, for lack of a better word. They often refer to themselves as a “show” (шоу) instead, and in their own words have, over the course of their existence, transformed from an “amateur ballet and freak boy band to a […]