Shum (song)

The lyrics of this song is a variation of Ukrainian folk songs which were sung in the Shum folk ritual. The ritual involved a game and was performed in spring. According to some ethnographers, Shum refers to the god Etymologically, the name of the ritual probably comes from Proto-Slavic words ' ("noise") or ' ("forest"). Lead singer Kateryna Pavlenko grew up in Northern Ukraine, and the song is inspired by the folklore of that region. ==Music video==

On 22 January 2021, Go_A presented a music video for the song on the band's YouTube channel. Less than three weeks later, it reached 1 million views. Pavlenko commented that the video was made with a phone camera and, despite the apparent pandemic theme, their intent was to just experiment and "shoot some funny video". ==Eurovision Song Contest==

The song was selected to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 on 4 February 2021, after Go_A was internally selected by the national broadcaster UA:PBC. The previous year, they had won Vidbir 2020, Ukraine's televised national selection. The semi-finals of the featured the same line-up of countries as determined by the draw for the 's semi-finals. Ukraine was placed into the first semi-final, held on 18 May 2021, and performed in the second half of the show. Eurovision version In March, a new version of the song was released with a new music video. The original version was too long and borrowed lyrics from existing traditional songs, which is prohibited under Eurovision rules. The new version of the song was adapted for Eurovision and is based on vesnianka folk songs. In Pavlenko's words, it was intended to have "more positive energy", since the original version, which is based on the folk ritual, is "a bit tense". == Track listing ==

Digital download/streaming – Original version • "Шум" – 3:59 Digital download/streaming – Radio edit • "Шум" (radio edit) – 3:03 Digital download/streaming – Eurovision version • "Shum" – 2:53 Digital download/streaming – DJ Nana remix • "Shum" (DJ Nana remix) – 2:33 Digital download/streaming – Billx remix • "Shum" (Billx remix) – 4:24 ==Charts==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==