"Hate is fun." Kazhanna discusses "pointless formats," Ermak's posts, TikTok hate, a mini-scandal, and her first solo concert.

About Myself

I don't like calling myself "a singer"; I really dislike labeling myself. It feels like an unpleasant stigma.

I am an artist. I create music and much more. My gift and purpose are to deeply feel this world and help people reflect through my content, music, art, and whatever else I create.

About Yermak's Posts

I check his Telegram channel, and it says something like "we are in a meeting," some negotiations, and then there's "Dupa Hohirka". I was stunned. I reposted Yermak's posts not because "wow, that's cool, someone from the President's Office mentioned me." But because it's interesting that a 40-year-old listens to me. It's just that this isn't primarily my audience.

About Colleagues

In general, I have a coexistence position with everyone in the industry—I love everyone; I am a fan of all. If I like someone, I always share, even if they are lesser-known artists.

We are all just such quiet ones. There is a topic about "quiet donations"—"I will donate and remain silent"—and there is "quiet donation" in our culture, when someone likes a certain artist, but "they are not well-known, no one knows or listens to them, I won't talk about them."

But I am the opposite. I find someone with three thousand listeners, but their music is just amazing. And people who are more popular than I am follow me; they repost, others, and so on—this way, we can grow. Because it feels like we have two worlds. There are those who have established themselves before the full-scale conflict, and there are some new ones who can't break through the ceiling of media visibility and rise up at all.

What Happened Before the Song "Dupa Hohirka"

I have been writing my whole life, but it was just for myself because I didn't know how, where, and what to do. I always thought I should go on a talent show like X-Factor, but when I grew up, X-Factors ended. And I was like, "God, what to do?" Then the war started. I was finishing university and thought—well, that's it, off to the factory.

Now I am writing an album. I want everyone to finally forget about the song "Dupa Hohirka" because it was just a joke. So far, I haven't had any solo concerts, so I will still sing it at the first one, but after that—no more.

I often think that I would like to have something else alongside my creativity. For example, I listen to a podcast from OTOY, and he says: "When I have nothing to say in music, I go into IT, work, and return to music when I have something to say." I would like to do that too.

But I worked a lot at low-wage jobs. I did night shifts, rolled some shawarma at the train station. So as soon as my career started, I immediately left the shopping mall. I thought—let's starve, but we won't go back.

About Vocals and Commercial Voices

I have been doing vocals my entire life. By myself at home. I like to go the intuitive way. I don't trust coaches. I always come in, and they sing poorly.

In others' vocals, I primarily pay attention to the timbre, so it sticks in your mind; that's important. By the way, it really annoys me in the industry that the most respected is this so-called high-pitched female voice. And many top singers, not only ours, suppress their natural timbre. There are many examples of artists who have good voices but just meow and that’s it.

About Social Media

I have the most toxic relationship with TikTok. I think I've been banned ten times. For hate speech. Everything there is hate speech. It's trash.

I don't believe that TikTok can promote anything in the long term. It can give a one-time push, the first one. I think the secret to success is to keep proving that you're interesting again and again.

You just need time to build your personal strategy for TikTok, social media, and everything else. The main thing is not to write, "Did you think Ukrainian music is complete garbage? Now I'll show you my new song," and then have "jumping llamas" and just some trash.

About Criticism and Hate

I constantly face complaints. Mostly not because of my creativity, but because I am a woman. I will always be "not like that." I can't recall a single release where I wasn't criticized just for existing.

Most of the hate comes from TikTok. Sometimes it reaches absurdity. When I performed at the Atlas Weekend festival, I wore gray fishnet tights, and there was a shot from afar. And the comments were like: "Oh my God, do you have hairy legs, what the hell". I laughed so hard at that. Even if it were true, okay, but it wasn't even like that. It's trash.

Hate differs from criticism in that it is unjustified by anything. A person just writes: "You're trash." And I always like that, like, it’s funny to me.

But there is a line that should not be crossed. I recently got into a mini-scandal. I was passing by TsUM, looked very casual, even poorly, because I was recovering from an illness and was swollen from allergies. And then there was this "How much does your outfit cost?" I was wearing a t-shirt from a second-hand shop with "Rock Style" written on it, it’s about seven years old, and some worn jeans. And I said: "I really have no brands on, honestly, I didn’t even bother to think up something."

And I was also in a bad psychological state, and my allergy made my eye swollen. My body was still fighting the coronavirus. In short, I felt awful. And this thing went viral, now it has about two million views or something like that.

I check this video, and in the comments: "Why do you look so swollen, are you an alcoholic?" And at that moment, it hurt so much. How can anyone write something like that? It affected me; I recorded stories—and it spread even more. Someone reposted my reaction; people kind of fed off it.

I think many people feel this pain. I am really outraged by these stupid formats "How much does your outfit cost?". What difference does it make? What does that change?

About Acting Experience

I can't call myself an actress because that was during my student years. I can't call myself a professional, but it provided a foundation.

We had performances at the "Golden Gates" theater. I always played various comedic characters, grandmothers. I am really a joker; I can't play those heroines who sigh heavily. That's very boring. And in music too.

We have amazing actors in Ukraine, but it’s a very sad story with the environment and the conditions surrounding them. Theater actors are the most undervalued profession among artists. They are unreal people who can do everything: ride a unicycle, play a flute, and dance or rap simultaneously.

But these stupid stereotypes still exist. Even when I applied in 2018, they were there. Height 170-180 cm, light long hair. Or you should be a typical girl. And that just irritates me.

I feel like this environment really constrains actors. The theater needs innovators who will push this environment forward. But that’s not my thing. I’m not that passionate about it.

About the First Solo Concert

It will be at the "Atlas" club on December 7. It will be an introduction to me and an attempt to understand myself and everyone around. I will tell my story about how the songs were created. It will be very interesting in both form and content. I really hope I have enough time and that everything goes as I want.