In 2024, the Ukrainian musicians Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil were selected to represent Ukraine at the annual Eurovision Song Contest with their song “Teresa & Maria,” a pop-rap anthem that emphasizes the everyday divinity of women. In the context of the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the song seeks to inspire ordinary people to remain hopeful through the darkest periods of life, reminding us that “all the divas were born as human beings.” Since beginning their musical collaboration in the aftermath of the Russian full-scale invasion, Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil have cultivated images of Ukrainian femininity in contradictory ways and engaged with discourses of feminism with marked ambivalence. Independently, both artists have adopted activist causes that center women: Jerry Heil has written songs to to raise awareness of Russia’s forced adoption of children, while Alyona Alyona speaks to issues of gender-based violence. And, while both artists challenge stereotypical archetypes of Ukrainian womanhood at times, their embrace of sentimental and domestic images of womanhood at other times seem to reinforce rigid gendered and sexual binaries.

While “ambivalent feminism” has been theorized in terms of the neoliberal cooptation of emancipatory social movements, and “celebrity” or “pop” feminism has been alternately criticized as opportunistic or celebrated as subversive, this talk will explore how ambivalent feminism is constructed and constrained in times of emergency, and more so when expressed by prominent culture workers from historically marginalized locations like Ukraine. Which genealogies of feminism are Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil delinking from, reifying, embracing, or rejecting, as they craft a musical message meant to appeal to the broadest possible audience in the world’s largest song competition?

Maria Sonevytsky is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Music at Bard College. She is author of the award-winning book Wild Music: Sound and Sovereignty in Ukraine (2019), and Vopli Vidopliassova’s Tantsi (2023), part of Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series. Professor Sonevytsky has published articles on folklore and nuclear experience after Chornobyl, epistemic imperialism after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Crimean Tatar Indigenous politics and expressive culture, among other subjects.  She is currently at work on her third book, tentatively titled Singing for Lenin in Soviet Ukraine: Children, Music, and the Communist Future. In addition to her scholarly writing, Prof. Sonevytsky is a singer and accordionist.