Slovenian band Laibach have announced a very special concert at the Bel Etage Music Hall in Kyiv, Ukraine on March 31st, 2023 where they are set to be the first foreign band to perform a full show in the capital since the beginning of the war in February 2022.
While the rest of Europe prepares to celebrate The Eurovision Song Contest on May 9th in Liverpool, Laibach will carry their own singular brand of their “Eurovision” concert program back to Ukraine.
“Eurovision” is the name of their unique concert program where they will present some of their most anthemic songs alongside “The Engine of Survival”, a brand new track set for release in 2023.
With anthems and marches at the core of many of their compositions, Laibach have compared themselves to military marching bands. With this concert in Kyiv, Laibach supports Ukraine and Ukrainians in their fight against Russia and any other aggression.
All proceeds raised from the Kyiv concert will be donated to charity and animal aid working in Ukraine.
Laibach initially formed in the then-Yugoslavian industrial town of Trbovlje. The band rose to prominence as one of the most internationally-known acts to have come out of the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe, recently becoming one of the first bands to perform in North Korea.
In 2019 they released a Laibachian interpretation of The Sound of Music, conceived during their trip to North Korea and in 2020 they celebrated four decades of activity with Laibach Revisited.
An album of music from the theatrical production Wir sind das Volk (ein Musical aus Deutschland), based on the writings of Heiner Müller (1929-1995), was released in 2022 and the band announced recently that diplomatic negotiations are underway for a performance in Tehran of Alamut, an original symphonic work composed in collaboration with Iranian composers and performers.
Laibach recently paid tribute to Leonard Cohen with a reinterpretation of his pre-apocalyptic track, “The Future” which was originally released on Cohen’s 1992 studio album of the same name.
LAIBACH – LOVE IS STILL ALIVE TOUR – 2023
4/14/2023 – Zagreb, Tvornica Kulture, HR
4/21/2023 – Ljubljana, Kino Šiška, SI
5/20/2023 – Klagenfurt, Burghof, Klagenfurt Festival, AT
7/14/2023 – Bolków, Castle Party Festival 2023, PL
