According to the Interfax-Ukraine Culture project, the 15th anniversary ceremony of the YUNA-2026 National Music Award took place on April 15 at the Ukraine National Palace of Arts, during which the winners were announced, reports a journalist from the “Culture” department of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“Fifteen years is not enough. We plan to continue at least until the ‘golden’ anniversary—50 years. It’s expensive, and we’re actually losing money, but we’re supporting Ukrainian music,” said the award’s founder, Mohammad Zahur, in an exclusive comment to the agency.
According to him, the award focuses exclusively on Ukrainian music released after 2014, and especially after 2022, having completely abandoned Russian-language content.
“We focus only on Ukrainian music. There used to be Russian-language music as well, but we’ve moved away from that,” he added.
Jamala opened the ceremony. The Armed Forces of Ukraine Ensemble also performed on stage with a medley of the year’s hits, and Tina Karol presented a special performance. Additionally, there was a premiere—Anna Trincher performed her new track “Your Mom.”
The event was interrupted by an air raid alert that lasted 1 hour and 33 minutes, prompting the audience and participants to evacuate the venue in accordance with safety protocols.
Among the winners were Artem Pivovarov, ADAM & Sasha Norova, Alena Omargalieva, The Maneken, Jerry Heil, MONATIK, TVORCHI, Ziferblat, and others.
The YUNA Award was established in 2011 and annually recognizes the achievements of Ukrainian artists and representatives of the music industry.
https://interfax.com.ua/news/culture/1159581.html
