Ivan Dorn is a Ukrainian singer, musician, songwriter, producer, DJ, actor, and TV host of Russian origin. Founder and director of the Masterskaya cultural center and music publishing house. Former member of the duo "Para Normalnykh". Born on 17 October 1988 in Chelyabinsk, RSFSR, but holds Ukrainian citizenship. At the age of two, he moved to the Ukrainian city of Slavutych due to his father's work at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
Video: "I will be a warrior on stage": Ivan Dorn on the war in Ukraine, music as salvation, and Russian roots (20 May 2022)
In the summer of 2014, Dorn took part in the "New Wave" festival in Jurmala, Latvia, where he performed the Ukrainian-language song "Tanets pihvina" ("Penguin Dance") by the band Skryabin, dressed in a sweatshirt displaying the Ukrainian trident (Tryzub). This act received widespread praise in Ukraine, while in Russia there were calls to ban the artist. Later, in an April 2017 interview with Yury Dud, when asked about his pro-Ukrainian performance in Jurmala in 2014, he stated that "...that performance was called 'avoiding embarrassment'. I thought that one had to go with a Ukrainian song to promote culture, and one had to come out with a trident so that no one would cause a stink about the costume" (Wikipedia).
Dorn's stance on the war in Ukraine
After the outbreak of war in 2014, he continued performing in Russia, but in February 2022 he explicitly spoke out against the war in Ukraine and announced the termination of collaboration with Russian artists. In March 2022, Dorn's label Masterskaya shut down its music catalog for Russia and Belarus.
Dorn declared a pro-Ukrainian stance and affirmed that he supports the Ukrainian military with donations and participation in charitable events.
Video: Ivan Dorn. I urge you not to participate in this murderous war!
Regarding so-called "good Russians", the artist remarked:
I believe that sensible Russians do exist. Unfortunately, they are not the majority. If you look at Noize MC, Monetochka, or that family who left Russia and organized schools for Ukrainian children in Budapest. There are many such citizens of the Russian Federation, perhaps former ones, and they help. In no way am I justifying Russia now, because the majority remains behind the curtain of propaganda and cannot pierce that layer on their own. At the very least, they need to stop the war or make some moves in that direction. At least voice disagreement.
Because of his anti-war statements, Dorn was banned from entering Russia for 50 years. In an interview with Fakty ICTV, the singer commented on the ban:
Maybe we'll visit when Moscow is under the Ukrainian flag. We'll start with Krasnodar Krai, take it back, Taganrog, everything else, and then we'll reach Moscow and raise the flag. We'll say: We don't need to visit you, now you will be visiting us
On New Year's Eve, 1 January 2024, he performed for Russians on the island of Bali at the "KLAPA Beach Club", owned by Russian national Nikolai Nechunaev, who resides in Indonesia. The venue also regularly invites celebrities from Russia who openly support the war in Ukraine.
On 6 February 2024, in an interview on the Esquire Kazakhstan YouTube channel, the artist explained that he was not in Ukraine at the time of the full-scale invasion and cannot judge all Russians so harshly:
For most of my fellow citizens, that fear and all those emotions brought very serious consequences. They cannot judge from a place of understanding or, perhaps, distinguish more or less decent people. They cannot afford that; they hold a radical stance, and I understand them completely. But at the same time, I was very fortunate not to have experienced all of that firsthand. Everyone knows who I am, what I am, and after 24 February we dotted the 'i's once more. I am very happy that I had the luck not to witness that horror personally, because God only knows how I would be behaving now, how I would be thinking, and what would have changed inside me
Where Ivan Dorn is now
In his interview on the Esquire Kazakhstan YouTube channel on 6 February 2024, Ivan shared that he is currently living in Paris in a rented apartment. Prior to that, Dorn's family stayed in Spain, where they faced difficulties with residency documents and rental housing.
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