Anastasia Prikhodko about how she sang to fighters in the east of Ukraine and got lost in New York

Singer Anastasia Prikhodko arrived in the US with charity tour "Songs of the world." The money earned on tickets, she will give in favor of war victims in the east of Ukraine.

Anastasia represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 in Moscow. During the protests last winter, she refused all Russian awards and concerts in Russia. After the concert in New York and Washington, the singer told the Forum how she cried when she got lost in Manhattan and remembered how she went to the front line with the Ukrainian military.

Tickets for your concerts cost from 60 to 380 dollars. How much do you plan to earn in the US?

We didn’t do any calculations, the main thing is that every penny earned will go to help the victims in the ATO zone. I will do everything in my power to ensure that the amount is as large as possible, this is my mission now. I travel a lot, I help, I collect money for children, for fighters. Everything is transparent.

You collect funds for victims in the east. And they themselves were on the front line. How do you feel?

I was not mentally prepared to see so much trouble. Watching this horror in person is not for the faint of heart.

When I first went to the east of Ukraine, I was simply scared. I was afraid of shots, I was afraid to say something wrong to the guys, because they are all a complete tense nerve. But there comes a limit when you stop being afraid. This happened to me in Lisichansk, when there were fierce battles there.

We arrived at 24-th checkpoint and were right in crater of war. But there are our guys, some also have 22's, no, they are scared. For themselves, too, it was a surprise that patriotism, love for the country and the desire to protect every inch of their native land could do with a person. We have no right to be afraid while there are people like them.

How did your repertoire change? Maybe you included some patriotic war songs?

If the guys ask and I know this song, then I will surely perform it. But I didn’t change anything to please. I just sing, it comes from the heart, from the heart, and not for PR. I have a song “Heroes do not die,” she definitely has at concerts these days. This is a tribute to the heroes of the Heavenly hundreds and an eternal reminder of what happened to them. There are several new songs, something from the old one is translated into Ukrainian. But I don’t think that military songs are needed now, people always need just songs about feelings.

What is your first impression of America? And do you have a favorite place in New York?

I have already been to New York and Chicago before. I once got lost in Manhattan and wandered for over an hour looking for my hotel. My English wasn’t very good, I couldn’t even ask how I could get to my hotel. I was so confused that I even cried. This time I would like to take a walk without such thrills. I want to see the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of New York. By the way, it was in this city - the city of fashion - that I bought my first beautiful stage dress. But it was so long ago that I don’t even remember what kind of store it was.

You can go to the singer's concert in the following cities:

March 8th— Бостон

March 13th— Chicago

March 14th— Minneapolis

15 march - San Francisco

20 march - Los Angeles

March 21th— Seattle