A Spanish orchestra sang Serduchka in Ukrainian — and the internet lost it

An orchestra and choir from Madrid have performed a medley of four Ukrainian Eurovision songs — from Стефанія to Verka Serduchka's Dancing Lasha Tumbai. Footage of the performance has spread across Ukrainian social media over the past few days.

The recording was posted by the performers themselves — the Grupo Talía ensemble, on their own channel.

This wasn't a standalone Ukrainian concert or a charity event. It's “Eurocanción Sinfónica” — a project that reworks Eurovision hits from across the years in a symphonic, choral format. The Ukrainian medley was one segment of a wider programme.

What they actually played

The medley “Душа степу” gathers four winning and near-winning songs: Стефанія by Kalush Orchestra, Дикі танці by Ruslana, Шум by Go_A and Dancing Lasha Tumbai by Serduchka. The arrangement is the work of Spanish composer Alejandro Vivas Puch.

The players were the Madrid Metropolitan Orchestra and the Talía Choir — more than a hundred voices in all, under the baton of Silvia Sanz Torre. The performance took place at Madrid's National Auditorium, one of the most prestigious in Europe.

“We're sharing this arrangement of the Ukrainian songs that triumphed at Eurovision, performed by the Madrid Metropolitan Orchestra and the Talía Choir,” Grupo Talía wrote.

What hit the Ukrainian audience wasn't the arrangement itself, but who was singing it. Not a single Ukrainian on stage: the conductor, the orchestra and the choir are all Spanish, and yet the lyrics ring out in Ukrainian.

In other words, a hundred and fifty Spanish musicians learned and sang our songs in the original language — from the intricate folk piece “Шум” to the carnivalesque, surzhyk-flecked Serduchka. It is exactly this contrast that made the video go viral.

Why it's more than a novelty

Ukraine's Eurovision has long lived a life of its own, separate from Ukraine itself: Дикі танці won back in 2004, Стефанія in 2022, and all of them became recognisable far beyond the contest.

When a classical orchestra in the main hall of another country takes these songs and sets them alongside the Eurovision classics, it is no longer just a retrospective, but a sign that Ukrainian music has been written into the pan-European canon.

Earlier we looked at how Ukrainian electronic music travelled from squats to Coachella in thirty-five years.