Belarusian Folk Song - Kupalinka

Жыве Беларусь, жыве вечна!

The rendition by ChorBasel

"Купалінка" (Kupalinka) is a popular Belarusian song described as a “musical business card of Belarus”.
The song's lyrical heroine, the Kupala Night Maiden is “weeding a rose, piercing her white hands” and “plucking flowers, weaving wreaths, and shedding tears”.
It is considered that the song has become “the national personification of Belarus as a country with a beautiful and sad woman’s face”.
Kupalinka was written as a part of a musical play titled “On Kupala Night” (Belarusian: На Купальле) produced by Belarusian poet Michaś Čarot, who poetically reframed the lyrics of the folk song. Based on folk motives, it was set to music by Uladzimier Teraŭski, Belarusian composer, in 1921.
During Stalin's purges of the late 1930s both Teraŭski and Čarot were arrested and executed. Until recently, their names had been largely forgotten and the song's lyrics and music had been described as “folk” without identifiable authors—despite Teraŭski's and Čarot's posthumous exoneration.
Despite its lyrical nature, the song has become a protest song during the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, alongside patriotic songs such as Pahonia and Mahutny Boža.

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