On the eve of the New Year's concert of the "Kvartal 95" studio, a number of artists announced their refusal to participate. The reason was the circumstances surrounding the co-owner of the studio, Timur Mindich, who is involved in a major corruption scandal in the state-owned company "Energoatom".
One of the first to refuse was the popular singer Kola. The Lviv choir “Homin” and singer Nadia Dorofeeva also announced that they would not participate in the concert on December 6-7. Other invited artists – Monatic, Antitila, Pozitiv, Iryna Bilyk and Drevo – have not yet made official statements.
After the first refusals, the studio updated the concert poster, removing mentions of all the artists so as not to create “information pressure” on them. Information about the line-up of participants was preserved on the ticket operators' websites.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko publicly called on the artists not to participate in the concert, emphasizing that the studio's fees come from "funds that caused the suffering of Ukrainians." The studio responded by stating that it would not allow itself to be drawn into political games and emphasized that the events surrounding Mindich do not concern the team's work and creativity.
“Kvartal 95” also noted that it will continue its activities and that at the concert the audience will see the studio's position expressed in the language of creativity and humor. Despite the scandal, tickets for two New Year's concerts at the Palace “Ukraine” are actively selling.
The Kvartal 95 studio was founded by Volodymyr Zelensky before his presidency and regularly found itself in scandals due to its sharp humor. However, the situation is different now in that the reason for the artists' refusals was not jokes, but a corruption scandal among the studio's shareholders.
