Yevhen Halych Євген Галич
Yevhen Halych at the 2018 MRPL City Festival
Background information
Born	(1984-04-29) 29 April 1984 Bila Tserkva, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine
Origin	Ukraine
Genres	pop rock, pop punk
Occupation(s)	musician, tv host, dj
Instrument(s)	vocal, electric guitar, acoustic guitar
Years active	1999–present
Website	o-torvald.com

Yevhen Halych (Ukrainian: Євген Андрійович Галич, Yevhen Andriyovitch Halych; born 29 April 1984) is a Ukrainian rock musician, TV host, DJ and the frontman of Ukrainian rock band O.Torvald.

Biography

Yevhen Halych was born in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv Oblast on 29 April 1984, but the first eight years of his life he spent in Kazakhstan, where his father served in the Soviet Army. In 1992 his family, including his brother Andriy, moved to Poltava, where he has lived long since.^[1] Yevhen started attending musical classes when he was five years old. In 1994 he met Denys Miziuk, who was his neighbour and who would later become the guitarist of O.Torvald and the best friend of Yevhen Halych. From 1999 to 2005 they played together in the band "Kruty! Pedali", then they started the band O.Torvald.^[2]

Halych studied in Poltava Institute of Military Telecommunications (now he is a lieutenant of reserve, engineer of telecommunication systems and networks). During his last years in the institute, he worked on the radio station. While working there he felt that the music was the only thing he wanted to do in his life.

Soon after graduating from the institute in 2006, he and his band moved to Kyiv, where they rented a house. From 2006 to 2010 they lived in that house all together, and it also acted as their studio. At the beginning they did not receive much money from producing music, so everyone worked for other jobs, leaving not much time for music.

In 2008 they recorded their first album "O.Torvald" and the popularity of their band started to increase, especially since 2011. In the past Halych was the only composer and lyrics writer, but now Mykola "DJ Polyarnyk" Rayda, who is a friend and former groupmate of Yevhen, is helping him. Apart from O.Torvald, Yevhen Halych also participates in the band "NUDLY" with rapper Andriy Shostakov.

While living in Kyiv, Yevhen worked for a number of television channels, including the music TV-channel M1 (at the invitation of Oleksandr Asaulyuk), entertainment TV-channel NLO TV and, from 2018, a channel playing alternative music called Megogo Live. ^[3]

In addition to his television work, Yevhen also worked for the radio station "Prosto Radi.O". He stated about his work on the radio:

I worked on radio yet back in Poltava. Being a radio host was considered extremely cool, so cool, that even all problems in institute, with traffic policemen and with city administration, were resolved by passing greetings to a wife or mother-in-law on the radio. Airing in the morning means waking up early, which can seem hell for much people. But I am a lark, so such regime is okay for me.^[4]

Yevhen Halych has a wife, Valeriya, who gave birth to a daughter in 2013. Yevhen dedicated a song "Нас двоє" ("Two of us") to his wife. She also took part in several videos of O.Torvald.

In April 2022, following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Halych joined the Ukrainian Army.^[5]

Participation in Eurovision

On 25 February 2017, O.Torvald won national selection for Eurovision, so Yevhen Halych represented Ukraine with the song "Time" on Eurovision Song Contest 2017 as a member of O.Torvald.^[6]

Quotes

I was born to a Russian-speaking family and studied in Russian-language school. I did not have much opportunity to speak Ukrainian. But now I am trying to speak the language of the country I am living in and am proud of. It is important. Although I think mostly in Russian.

In a country there must be its language: Ukrainian in Ukraine, Russian in Russia, English in Great Britain. There can not be two state languages, this is nonsense. Thit is just proffitable for some assholes. They are not able to learn the language. And the country will not develop without language. No way. This is my radical position. Although I did not speak Ukrainian for a long time in my life, could not connect two words together. But now it is easier for me to write in Ukrainian, because it is more melodious. So singing in that language is easier for me. That is why most of our songs are in Ukrainian.

During 10-year we have been trying to attract attention of some media to promote our music. And every time we hit the closed door, because we were not interesting. I remember all of you. I have a blacklist of TV-channels, radio stations and other media, which refused us. But the next day [after the victory on the national selection to Eurovision Song Contest 2017] they called us and proposed cooperation. Guys, that is not done this way – this is not right and this is unfair. You will be punished [laughs]. So, do not behave with the next nonwinners of Eurovision the same way, please. Ukrainian music needs your support. The future of Ukrainian music depends on you.^[7]

When we were growing up we listened to Tartak, TNMK, Druha Rika, Dymna Sumish, Krykhitka Tsakhes, Okean Elzy, BoomBox. If talking about examples to follow, Andriy Hlyvniuk was no doubt an authority for us. And we strongly respect his as an author, musician and frontman. Svyatoslav Vakarchuk shows on his example that this is possible to remain popular for 20 years. That is very wonderful. I like the band SINOPTIK, which on its example also shows that they keep in step with the world music.
...
The biggest authority and mentor, a man, with whom I wanted to keep on working, listen to the advices and always talk to, was Andriy Kuzmenko from the band Skryabin.^[8]

References