New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Ukrainian President Zelensky, speaking at the Grammys, urged artists everywhere to use their music to draw attention to Ukraine in order to bring victory and peace to the country. Kelsie Kimberlin, a popular American-Ukrainian singer, took the President's words seriously by making the long and dangerous trip to Ukraine where she filmed three music videos, "Armageddon", "Turn Back", and "
Another Chance", each one to be released respectively in September, October, and November 2023.
Kelsie arrived in Kyiv to martial law, air raid sirens, and attacks by drones and missiles which were destroyed over her head by anti-missile batteries. Despite these terror attacks, she filmed "Armageddon" in Bucha, Irpin, and Kyiv at many of the places where the worst atrocities by the Russian army took place in February and March 2022. Because many of these locations were under military control, her team had to get permission to film there. Kelsie is the only foreign artist to be granted such permission. Following many days of arduous filming, she was given a commendation by a branch of the Armed forces for using her music to protect Ukraine. She was given a gift from an aide to President Zelensky in gratitude for her work. The Ukrainian Armed Forces media conducted an in-depth interview with her, the first interview with a foreign artist for its flagship publication.
"Although I was aware of the risks, I knew I had to visit Ukraine so I could see for myself the horrors inflicted on Ukraine. I knew that I could only film these videos at authentic locations in order to convey the gravity of the war and portray to the world the absolute importance of continued support for a complete victory for Ukraine to its rightful international borders. I knew that I had to hear the stories of those affected by the war in order to give voice to those stories. As I did, the hair on my body stood on end," said Kelsie.
While in Ukraine, Kelsie met with war refugees, visited a military hospital and displaced animal shelter, talked with many soldiers on duty in various locations, and listened to story after story of victims of the war, including women and children who were raped and tortured after their loved ones were brutally killed in the Kyiv suburbs. She saw many destroyed churches, a bombed cultural center, hundreds of decimated homes and apartments, dozens of mangled parks and playgrounds, and streets pockmarked with tens of thousands of mortar hits and shrapnel scars.
The song "Armageddon" is available on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/track/75pupniXKACFKAvAzSTwxL?si=41d85238e1304a8a and all major music platforms on August 31, 2023, and the video will be released on YouTube on
September 8th. The Kelsie Kimberlin Foundation will be collecting donations in conjunction with the release of all of the songs she filmed in Ukraine. Those donations will be used to help rebuild Ukraine, provide medical help and rehabilitation for those injured in the war, and garner further support for Ukraine.
