| 01 Щедрик [Shchedryk--Carol of the Bells] 02 Добрий вечір тобі, пане господарю [Good Evening To You, My Lord] 03 Небо і Земля нині торжествують [Heaven and Earth Rejoice] 04 Ой, хто, хто Миколая любить [Oh, Who Loves St. Nicholas] 05 Нова радість стала [New Joy Has Come] 06 Тиха ніч [Silent Night] 07 Во Вифлеємі нині новина [In Bethlehem Now News] 08 Ой сивая та і зозуленька [Oh, The Gray Cuckoo] 09 Роди, Боже [Born, God] 10 Намалюю тобі зорі [I'm Painting You Stars] 11 Україна - це ти [Ukraine Is You] 12 Віра, надія, любов [Faith, Hope, Love] |  |
I became aware of Tina Karol watching YouTube clips of assorted international iterations of the American reality show The Voice (she's also been on their version of Dancing With The Stars). Tina is one of the judges on the Ukrainian Voice and, let's face it, she's very attractive. And that got me curious about whether she'd ever recorded any Christmas music. As it happens, she recorded "Silent Night" for her very first album, "Show Me Your Love", in 2006. "Show Me Your Love" (co-written by Karol) was the Ukrainian entry in Eurovision 2006 and finished 7th in that contest, guaranteeing the Ukraine a spot in the competition the following year. Tina's Christmas album, "Kolyadki", was released (as near as I can determine) in 2015 and has since been made into a musical stage production and a television special, "The Christmas Story" (both starring Karol, herself). The nice thing about that, from our perspective, is that there are YouTube clips for all of these holiday songs from Tina Karol. (Indeed, there's a YouTube video of the entirety of "The Christmas Story", though I haven't watched the full 109 minutes of it.)
Probably the best known and most popular artist in Ukraine, Tina Karol is very much a contemporary Pop artist (though she's demonstrated quite a range over the years, covering genres from standards Jazz to Electro Pop). She's sort of a Ukrainian cross between Christina Aguilera and Shakira. But, as is true of many American artists, Tina's Christmas album hews closely to the traditional and, as such, is less representative of her overall body of work. Most of these songs are ancient Ukrainian carols that you may not have heard before. There is, of course, The Ukrainian Bell Carol (which we know as "Carol of the Bells") and "Silent Night". Beyond that, I do own one other Ukrainian Christmas album and so I recognized "Нова радість стала" (track 5) straight away.
Probably the best known and most popular artist in Ukraine, Tina Karol is very much a contemporary Pop artist (though she's demonstrated quite a range over the years, covering genres from standards Jazz to Electro Pop). She's sort of a Ukrainian cross between Christina Aguilera and Shakira. But, as is true of many American artists, Tina's Christmas album hews closely to the traditional and, as such, is less representative of her overall body of work. Most of these songs are ancient Ukrainian carols that you may not have heard before. There is, of course, The Ukrainian Bell Carol (which we know as "Carol of the Bells") and "Silent Night". Beyond that, I do own one other Ukrainian Christmas album and so I recognized "Нова радість стала" (track 5) straight away.
Ukrainian Christmas music might not be everyone's cup of borscht, but I kinda dig it. For one thing, it's different. I like different. For another, well, you know how competitive some Christmas music collectors can get. "Hey, wanna hear my Ukrainian Christmas albums?" And Tina being beautiful doesn't cost her any points, either. Want another song? OK. One more.
While most of "Kolyadki" features traditional Ukrainian carols, the album does have two new Tina Karol songs. "Faith, Hope, Love" was the single from the album. But I'm partial to Tina's original, the tender ballad "I'm Painting You Stars".
RSS Feed
