Amidst the awful stories of the war in Ukraine, it’s wonderful to remember the beauty, talent and spirit that exist there. Meet the COLOR MUSIC children’s choir from Dnipro whose performance of “You Raise Me Up” has gone viral on YouTube hitting 35M views.
The group captioned their performance of “You Raise Me Up” with, “WAR in Ukraine! This is our Motherland! All our singers were born and live in Ukraine. Now civilians are dying, children are dying! The COLOR MUSIC children’s choir can no longer sing inspiring music and create beautiful videos! The smiles on our children’s faces are gone. There are tears in our children’s eyes. We are in great danger! World, stop the aggressor! Stay with Ukraine! NO WAR!”. Watch their beautiful performance below.
The group was founded by Olena and Oleksandr Petrykov and is part of a program to teach children vocal and other musical skills including reading music, breath control, and even recording in a studio. Their website states that the directors believe every child has talent.
For many years they have worked hard to bring it out and have “ignited in children’s hearts a love of music, accompanying them in the world of creativity and inspiration.” Below is another viral video from the choir, this time of The Chainsmokers and Coldplay “Something Just Like This”.
You only need to look at their YouTube channel to see this philosophy shining through. Over the last seven years, they have showcased the talent of countless children and the children are obviously loving every second of it. The videos contain a mixture of Ukrainian songs and covers of international hits. We even have a budding Elton John in a young boy named Ilya.
It’s no wonder that their channels now have 1.16 million subscribers and their Something Just Like This performance has been viewed over 82 million times! Since it was uploaded on Christmas Day, 2018, the choir’s popularity has exploded. The directors have had to increase the choir’s size four times to fit in the hugely talented children who wished to join.
It’s an adorable performance. The members of the choir are beautifully dressed, the boys in black shirt and trousers with a gold tie and the girls in black dresses with gold belts. The girls all have their hair up neatly in perfect buns and they look amazingly sophisticated considering they’re not even ten years old. The singing is also incredible but the singing and outfits are not what make this performance special. The enthusiasm and joy in the face of every child would melt the hardest of hearts.
They put everything they have into the performance and some of the girls can’t help moving to the music, waving their hands and throwing in an occasional shimmy. It’s spontaneous and beautiful, and as with the best performances, it makes you want to join in. The camera never cuts to the audience but they clearly loved it as they go wild stamping, cheering and applauding when the song ends.
It is a sad truth that this talent, joy and exuberance is currently under threat. The choir’s performances have had to take on extra responsibility in recent months. Take time to watch this video where they appear at a concert in Berlin to raise money for aid for Ukraine. It’s a sombre mission but one man helped make it a time of joy for Color Music. Coldplay frontman Chris Martin asked them to perform Something Just Like This with him live on stage.
It must have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but the boys and girls handled it like pros. They were obviously blown away to be singing with such a famous musician and they loved every second. Watch it now and be ready to smile. If you would like to see more from Color Music, you can subscribe to their <a href=”https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4DjF6VrQnZ8cKnjM_R7OFQ”>YouTube channel</a>.