Proceeds from listening to the album “She” will be sent to the “Sisters” crisis center

A collection of songs “She” has been published, the proceeds from the listening of which will be sent to the “Sisters” crisis center. She talks about how effective the help of young singers participating in the project is. Igor Gavrilov.

The acoustic collection “She” is the first case in Russian musical practice when many performers simultaneously address the topic of sexual violence within the framework of one project. The album contains 21 songs. Mostly the songwriters are young indie singers, of whom Zhenya Lyubich, Masha Khima, Ekaterina Yashnikova and an artist performing under the pseudonym Mayak are more or less familiar to a wide audience. However, the project participants do not sing on a given topic. These are quite comfortable, sometimes even carefree lyrics, songs for youthful gatherings and cozy kitchens. Essentially, this is a collection of quality acoustic folk with female voices.

“This is an album about women and what they experience and feel,” says album producer Ekaterina Yashnikova about “Her.” In her song “We will build a house”, if you wish, you can hear the experience of violence experienced in the past: “The years flew by quickly, like a shot, I came out of the fire new and clean. She survived everything, leaving it in the past. Let it still hurt in places.” However, such a song can also be about unhappy love, which many pop artists sing about.

The topic of a woman’s experience of being the object of sexual violence is rarely raised in Russian art. The concept of “violence” is described in different ways, opinions on it change, and the topic of decriminalization of domestic violence is actively discussed. Recently, primary cases of domestic battery were transferred from the category of criminal offenses to administrative ones. And the law “On the Prevention of Domestic Violence in the Russian Federation,” which was submitted to the State Duma in the late 2010s, has not yet been adopted.

Proceeds from the sale of the album “She” will be donated to the Sisters charity, which since 1994 has been helping survivors of rape, sexual assault and harassment. The “Sisters” team not only helps in specific situations, but also pays a lot of attention to the formation of the language itself that describes violence and can support victims. They work on the verge of feminist and woke agendas, about which there is no agreement in society.

Most of the participants in the “She” project are very young girls, and it is easy to assume that there were no episodes of sexual or sexualized violence in their own lives, or that they are in no hurry to make them public. It’s much easier to write another verse in the spirit of “I hurt myself so much to become the strongest princess” (Gilava “The Strongest Princess”) or even “I love, and I really want to be loved” (Anya from St. Petersburg “I want to go home”). “Yesterday there are seas, and tomorrow there is cold. It’s time to drop anchors and go ashore,” singer dmtrevna sings. The strongest track on the album is an acoustic version of the old song by the most popular Russian rapper Masha Khima, “St. Petersburg Grunge,” with an amazing vocal attack and witty lyrics. But that’s not what he’s talking about at all.

There is no doubt that the “Sisters” could have provided the performers with real stories, on the basis of which songs with a much more clear message would have been formed. Artists of the older generation could tell a lot about the problem of domestic violence. Valeria once spoke a lot on this topic. Kristina Orbakaite also has something to tell, whose problems in her marriage with Ruslan Baysarov even provoked hearings in the State Duma. However, the compilers of the collection focused on youth and a rather narrow musical genre.

“Instead of multiplying aggression, this album works as a medicine,” says the author of the song “Random Turn” Zhenya Lyubich. “Each of the girls probably has the experience of pain, because without pain there is no creativity. But we found the strength to talk not about what hurts, but about what gives support.”