“War – huh yeah – what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!” (Edwin Starr, War), “The horror… the horror…” (Colonel Kurtz, Apocalypse Now), “Love is the only engine of survival.” (Leonard Cohen, The Future) – three quotes that just came in at the top of a L;aibach press release andyes, of course they’re the first band to annouce they’re going to play in Kyiv, of course they are! Well the first big foreign band, Deathpill, Terrorscum and their hardcore punk mates have probably been playing in basements all year
“LAIBACH have announced a very special concert at the Bel Etage Music Hall in Kyiv, Ukraine on 31 March 2023 where they are set to be the first foreign band to perform a full show in the capital since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
While the rest of Europe prepares to celebrate its idea of freedom and solidarity on 9 May in Liverpool, Laibach will be taking Eurovision back to Ukraine – where it belongs and where the only true and real vision of Europe is taking place right now.
‘Eurovision’ is the name of the special concert programme by the renowned Slovenian band, and they will present some of their most anthemic songs alongside ‘The Engine of Survival’, a brand new track set for release in 2023.
With anthems and marches at the core of many of their compositions, Laibach have long compared themselves to military marching bands created to maintain high morale on the battlefield, and with this concert in Kyiv, Laibach supports Ukraine and Ukrainians in their fight against Russian, and any other, aggression.
All proceeds raised from the Kyiv concert will be donated to charity and animal aid working in Ukraine, full details to follow”.
LAIBACH – EUROVISION 31st March – Kyiv, Bel Etage Music Hall
More from the press release….
“Laibach formed in the then-Yugoslavian industrial town Trbovlje. Founded in the year that the country’s founding father Tito died, the band rose to fame to become one of the most internationally acclaimed bands to have come out of the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, recently becoming one of the first bands to perform in North Korea. In 2019 they released a Laibachian interpretation of The Sound of Music, conceived during their trip to North Korea and in 2020 celebrated four decades with Laibach Revisited. An album of music from the acclaimed theatrical production Wir sind das Volk (ein Musical aus Deutschland) based on the writings of Heiner Müller (1929-1995) followed in 2022 and the band announced recently that diplomatic negotiations are underway for a performance in Tehran of Alamut, an original symphonic work composed in collaboration with Iranian composers and performers.
LAIBACH recently paid tribute to Leonard Cohen with a reinterpretation of his pre-apocalyptic track, ‘The Future’. Described by MOJO as “Leonard Cohen’s mordant ’92 alarm bell, reframed in ice-vault techno rock”, this Laibachian version of ‘The Future’, originally on Cohen’s 1992 studio album of the same name, makes it abundantly clear that the future Cohen predicted is very much our present”.
Listen to Laibach’s Eurovision playlist
Current dates:
LAIBACH – EUROVISION
31 March – Kyiv, Bel Etage Music Hall
LAIBACH – LOVE IS STILL ALIVE TOUR – 2023
14 April – Zagreb, Tvornica Kulture, HR
21 April – Ljubljana, Kino Šiška SI
20 May – Klagenfurt, Burghof, Klagenfurt Festival, AT
14 July – Bolków, Castle Party Festival 2023, PL
Tickets and further information
THE ORGAN 