Yagódy

The ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has provided a new international spotlight for the country’s independent heritage and culture, separating its food, language, and music from that of its combatants in the public eye. Yagódy has been a crucial part of that tale: In 2014, Zoriana Dybovska fled her home in Donetsk after the Russian invasion of the Donbas. She had been playing in a band modernizing Ukrainian folk music there, an idea she subsequently imported to her new home in Lviv. She founded Yagódy in 2016. “Most of our repertoire is songs that our mothers and grandmothers used to sing to us,” she told a journalist last year during the band’s first North American tour. “We don’t look for them on folklore expeditions.”

Indeed, Dybovska and her bandmates reanimate their heritage, not only rearranging standards with bits of hip-hop might and rock extravagance but also writing new ones that even use techno to turn old kernels of folklore into fresh national anthems. Yagódy’s 2025 single, “BramaYA,” is a powerhouse of erupting horns, enormous beats, and gang vocals, “a musical ode to those who fight for the truth.” It conveys the gusto of a fight song. Cloaked in elaborate costumes that likewise update Ukrainian traditions and backed by a relentless three-piece rhythm section, Yagódy brings that energy to the stage, too, putting the culture of their country on offense.