Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova, better known as Jamala (born August 27, 1983 in Osh, Kyrgyz SSR), a Ukrainian singer, actress and songwriter of Crimean Tatar and Armenian descent.
Jamala is perhaps best known for winning the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, giving Ukraine their second-ever victory with "1944". The song, which she wrote about her Tatar ancestors being forcefully resettled from Crimea by Josef Stalin in the year 1944, obviously rustled certain feathers, with some arguing it went against the contest's (supposedly) apolitical nature.note
In spite of —or because of?— the controversy, Jamala narrowly beat out entries by Australia and Russia (biblically-appropriately enough), giving Ukraine the privilege to host 2017's contest in Kyiv. "1944" is also the first winning song of the contest to not be sung entirely in English note since the 2007 Serbian entry "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović.
On the heels of her Eurovision win, Jamala joined Holos Krainy as a coach in 2017, which Ukraine's previous Eurovision victor Ruslana also coached in its first season, as well as the jury panel of Vidbir - Ukraine's national selection for Eurovision.
Discography:
- For Every Heart (2011)
- All or Nothing (2013)
- Thank You EP (2014)
- Подих note (2015)
- 1944 (2016)
- Крила note (2018)
- Ми note (2021)
- 5:45 EP (2021)
- Поклик EP note (2022)
- Qırım note (2023)
Selected filmography:
- Holos Krainy (2017 — present) as herself
- Vidbir (Ukraine Eurovision selection) (2017 — present) as herself
Jamala provides examples of the following tropes:
- Darker and Edgier: Jamala's most recent music has taken this tone, wildly contrasting with her earlier work — just look at her original attempt at representing Ukraine at Eurovision from 2011!
- However, her subsequent single "I Believe in U" charters back into Lighter and Softer territory.
- However, her subsequent single "I Believe in U"
- Early-Installment Weirdness: One of her earliest singles, "It's Me, Jamala". She doesn't talk about it very often.
- "I Am" Song: "It's Me, Jamala".
- Irony:
- During the interval act of the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest final, host Mans Zelmerlow jokingly advises against winning with a song about war, like ABBA did with "Waterloo" in 1974. Of course, Jamala ended up taking home the trophy with a song about a tragic event which took place during World War II.
- One year later, Jamala performed her new song "I Believe in U" during the final of the 2017 contest. The promotional video for the song, which premiered some days after but had already been shot, is set in Portugal. That evening, she left the trophy in the hands of Salvador Sobral, the first win ever for the Iberian nation.
- Pep-Talk Song: "I Believe in U".
- Shout-Out:
