Sweet People

"Sweet People" is a song by Ukrainian singer Alyosha. It was the Ukrainian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway. At first, a song performed by Vasyl Lazarovich was intended to represent Ukraine at Eurovision, but a new national final was held due to the broadcasting network's internal selection of Lazarovich. Alyosha won the new final with "To Be Free", but it was disqualified since it had previously been released. "Sweet People" was then chosen to represent Ukraine. The song finished tenth in the Eurovision final, receiving 108 points.

"Sweet People"
Single by Alyosha
Released2010
Recorded2010
GenreAlternative rock, post-grunge
Length3:00
Songwriter(s)
"Sweet People"
Eurovision Song Contest 2010 entry
Country
Artist(s)
Language
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s)
Olena Kucher
Finals performance
Semi-final result
7th
Semi-final points
77
Final result
10th
Final points
108
Entry chronology
◄ "Be My Valentine!" (2009)   
"Angel" (2011) ►

Writing and inspiration

"Sweet People" is written by Alyosha, and composed by Alyosha, Borys Kukoba and Vadim Lisitsa.[1] Alyosha chose the environmental topic because she wanted to "talk to a big audience about saving our planet."[2] Alyosha is "convinced that world leaders are capable of solving most global environmental problems but lack political will."[3] She hopes that her song and the music video will reach out to policy and decision makers, and will "prompt them to take action on global environment."[3]

Alyosha started a program called Ecovision, and she hoped that the program would remind world leaders about the environment and "their duty to not only talk the environmental talk, but also to walk the environmental walk".[3] Alyosha was born two weeks after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and she considers the disaster being "one of the darkest pages in the history" of Ukraine.[3]

Eurovision

In December 2009, Ukrainian broadcasting company National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) announced that Vasyl Lazarovych had been selected to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010.[4] In March 2010, a new national final was held due to complaints over the broadcaster's internal selection of Lazarovych.[5] The final was held two days before the deadline to enter songs for Eurovision.[6] Alyosha won the final with the song "To Be Free", but one day before the deadline, it was discovered that the song had been available for purchase since 2008.[6] Eventually, "Sweet People" was chosen as the Ukrainian entry.[7]

At Eurovision Song Contest 2010, Alyosha performed "Sweet People" during the second semi-final on May 27, 2010 in Telenor Arena in Oslo, Norway.[8] The ten best-placed countries qualified for the final and Alyosha received 77 points overall and finished in seventh place, thus qualifying for the final.[1] In the final, she performed seventeenth of the twenty-five participants.[9] She finished in tenth place with 108 points.[10] She did not receive twelve points from any country, but received ten points from Azerbaijan and Belarus.[9]

During the Eurovision performances, Alyosha was alone on stage.[11] At the beginning, she wore a black leather coat hood. A wind machine was used and she had no backing vocals.[11] Alyosha talked about her performance, stating: "My song is very self-sufficient, it doesn't need any dancers or special effects or backing vocalists."[12]

Chart performance

On the week ending June 13, 2010, "Sweet People" debuted at number 73 on the Swiss Singles Chart and stayed there for one week before dropping out of the chart.[13] It was also featured at number 15 on the Ukrainian–Russian chart provided by FDR on March 28, 2010.[14]

Music video

The music video was shot in the abandoned city of Pripyat, Ukraine from April 19 to April 21, 2010.[2] The director, Victor Skuratovsky, said that there would be no special effects and no artificial set in the video, "everything will be shot in the abandoned city of Pripyat".[3] During the Eurovision press conference, Alyosha stated:

"It was emotionally hard to stay in this dead city, but it was not dangerous to be there for a day. We just had to shoot one part of the clip in Kyiv, as it features a small child and we did not take her to Chernobyl. But everything in the video is real, nothing was shot in an artificial set."[15]

Parts of the video was shot in an abandoned high school, and she thought "It look[ed] as if the kids left their classes in a hurry and turning over their desks ran outside."[2] The music video premiered on May 10, 2010 at the Eurovision website.[2]

Charts
Chart (2010) Peak
position
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[16] 73

References
  1. "Alyosha - Sweet People". Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  2. "Alyosha Mission: Projects". AlyoshaMission.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
  3. Mourinho, Daniel (2010-04-27). ""Sweet People" - Alyosha's true message to represent Ukraine". ESCRadio. Tellytec MMT. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
  4. Hondal, Víctor (2009-12-29). "Vasiliy Lazarovich, 2010 Ukrainian representative". ESCToday. UK Fast. Retrieved 29 December 2009.
  5. Murray, Gavin (2010-03-17). "Ukraine: National Final on March 20th". ESCToday. UK Fast. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  6. Siim, Jarmo (2010-05-05). "Ukraine: Alyosha's long way to Oslo". Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  7. "Alyosha to represent Ukraine at Eurovision with 'Sweet People' as her song". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 2010-06-03.
  8. "Second Semi-Final: The qualifiers are..." Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. 2010-05-27. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
  9. Marco, Brey. "Eurovision Song Contest 2010 Final". Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  10. "Ukrainian singer Alyosha takes 10th place on Eurovision 2010 song contest In Norway". Kyiv Post. 2010-05-30. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
  11. Brey, Marco (2010-05-26). "Preview the Second Semi-Final: The First Dress Rehearsal". Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  12. Brey, Marco (2010-05-22). "A dress change in the wind for Ukraine". Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  13. "Alyosha - Sweet People - swisscharts.com". Media Control Charts. Hung Medien. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
  14. "FDR: URK-RUS - 28 Березня - 4 Квітня 2010". FDR (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2010-11-23. Retrieved 2010-10-22.
  15. Brey, Marco (2010-05-18). "Alyosha rocks the stage for Ukraine". Eurovision. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2010-06-04.
  16. "Swisscharts.com – Alyosha – Sweet People". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
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