Taras Petrynenko is a Ukrainian singer, pianist, and composer whose work became a musical symbol of the struggle for Ukrainian identity and freedom. His songs combine melody, deep poetic meaning, and a powerful civic pathos.
The most famous of them is “Ukraino” (“Ukraino, Ukraino, after the winters it is yours to bloom…”), a true song-prayer for the fate of the homeland, which became an unofficial anthem of the national revival of the late 1980s. No less popular are “Hospody, pomyluy nas” and “Pisnia pro pisniu.” In the Soviet era Petrynenko suffered pressure for his Ukrainian-language patriotic work. His sincere, penetrating voice and civic stance made him one of the moral authorities of Ukrainian popular music — an artist whose songs call to dignity and love for the native land.
