"Стук коханних сердець" (Heartbeats of People We Love). Released!

Official Video, on Spotify, and elsewhere

Music, vocals, instruments: Dmitry Gorodnichy (Дмитро Городнiчий)
Lyrics: Oлександр Скубак, Дмитро Городнiчий, Юрій Власішен
Production: Algion & IVIM
Ottawa - Chernivtsi - Odesa - Kharkiv, 2023

All proceedings from this song will go to the “Come Back Alive” Fund.

Enjoy the beautiful scenary of Ukraine before it was hit by the War.

Translations in English and French are provided in subtitles, also in my songbook.

Official Lyrics Video:

On Soundcloud:

Two versions of this songs are available on Soundcloud - with two different audio mixing charactertistics: with louder accompaniment (first one) and louder vocal (second one)

On Spotify, Apple Music and Elsewhere:

https://share.amuse.io/track/dmitry-gorodnichy-stuk-kokhanikh-serdets
(or click on the image below)

Story:

This is my first release in Ukrainian. All proceeds from this song will go to the “Come Back Alive” Fund. It was produced in collaboration with three of my friends in Ukraine.

One of them is my cousin, a physics teacher whose original poetry, originally written in Russian, served as the inspiration for this song. He resides in Chernivtsi, located in eastern Ukraine near the border with Romania. Despite his desire to serve in the army, he cannot due to age restrictions. He expressed his intention to fight against the Russian aggression and Putin if given the opportunity. Thankfully, Chernivtsi remains untouched by the ravages of war and stands as one of many beautiful cities in Ukraine.

The second friend is an electrical engineer and poet. He assisted in translating the lyrics into Ukrainian. Like many men in Ukraine, he serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine now and has been separated from his wife and children for an extended period. It was his idea to create Ukrainian versions of my songs to support the courageous countrymen defending Ukraine. He resides in Odesa, another beautify city in the south of Ukraine. The city faces constant threat due to the non-stop possibility of Russian missile strikes. Much of the city's infrastructure has been damaged.

The third friend is a software engineer, as well as a music and video producer. He lives in Kharkiv, a city where Russian was commonly spoken. Kharkiv, yet another beatiful Ukrainian city with its three million inhabitants, has been one of the hardest-hit areas in the war, suffering brutal damage from Russian missile attacks. They live in constant fear of another missile strike and rely on God and the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as they say. They are deeply appreciative of the support from the US and Canada, especially the American Patriot anti-missile system, which intercepts most (about 90%, or 9 out of 10) of the missiles out of the 20-40 fired into Eastern Ukraine daily. They use a phone app that sounds alarms, sometimes every two hours throughout the day, to signal when they need to evacuate.

When I called my friend last week to congratulate him on the song's release on Spotify (which took longer this time due to copyright issues with Spotify, as they noticed it was released on YouTube before being submitted to Spotify), he couldn't speak to me. He was emotionally shaken by one of the worst missile strikes in the past six months that occurred that morning. This strike hit a residential area, one of the rare instances (10%, or 1 in 10) where the Patriot system failed to intercept the missile. It demolished two multi-story residential buildings and damaged the windows in 28 other residential buildings in the vicinity of this entirely residential district in the city. It's crucial to remember that the Russians will always claim they never fire into residential areas, only into military zones.