Ukrainian artists’ abroad tour organiser: «The money raised by concerts are used to buy drones, rehabilitate warfighters. Should comments from “armchair patriots” bother me?»

Since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many Ukrainian musicians have been performing abroad, not only entertaining the local diaspora but also raising significant amounts for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Mind spoke with an organiser of such tours, Igor Golubchik.

His concert agency, Resilience Entertainment, based in Chicago, arranges for concerts (including charitable ones) for over 40 artists from Ukraine.

Over the past 24 years, they have organised and held over 1000 concerts of Ukrainian artists in North America. Among them are Verka Serduchka, Monatik, Boombox, The Hardkiss, Serhiy Babkin, Tina Karol, Shumei, Kola, Jerry Heil, Alyona Alyona, Kalush Orchestra, Okean Elzy, and more.

Golubchik talks about how and when the idea of ​​creating the agency was born, about cooperation with russians, why it became noticeably harder with the spirit of unity and donations from mid-2023, how much it costs to launch a tour for a promising artist, and also shares some mishaps during his time in the entertainment industry.

– How and when did the idea of establishing Resilience Entertainment come about? Why did you choose this niche?

– It all came together organically. Since my young age, I have worked in the entertainment industry, starting as a DJ in school and organising parties. Later, I got into radio, then opened a news website (where we sold the first electronic tickets to concerts in 2000). We later expanded to include our own radio stations, newspapers, magazines, events, and concerts. Of course, my main desire back then was simply to do positive things, to spread kindness and good vibes. But it turned out to be not as simple, there were mistakes and failures, experiments, and successful as well as failed projects over many years. Generally, by taking hard knocks, I achieved good results. Since then, my life has always been filled with colourful stories, adventures, encounters, and friendships with interesting, talented, and unusual people. 

However, the naive desire to "do good to everyone, and everything will be good" was replaced by realising that it doesn't work that way because there will always be those standing in your way, betraying you, finding reasons to be against you, so you need to focus on what you're doing and on the people who get joy from it.

Showbusiness, despite its glamorous appearance, is full of hard work, incredible stress, emotional roller coasters, and constant overcoming of obstacles.

Somewhere around 2016 or 2017, after an exhausting tour (physically and psychologically – artists can be different), on my return home, I went straight from the airport to a tattoo salon and got the word "Resilience" inked on my arm. For me, it’s an ability to withstand adversity and recover from difficult life events. I marked it as a psychological anchor, a reminder that everything can be overcome and endured. Then I thought it would be good to name our company like that. And when everything stopped during the pandemic and the most difficult moment for the industry came, we rebranded and changed the name to Resilience Entertainment Group. This was a year before the start of the major war.

– How many people are on your team and what positions do they hold?

– Currently, we have 12 people in our company. These include managers: PR, SMM, digital specialists, tour managers, production managers, and designers.

– What was the most challenging and most interesting as you were just starting this business?

– In my case, since I started at a very young age, I wasn't afraid or burdened, except perhaps by minor concerns like whether we would gather enough people, for example. At that age, I didn't fully understand the weight of responsibility, especially financial responsibility. I simply believed in my abilities, and back then it could hardly be called business. Now we calculate our steps and plan meticulously, relying on experience and recalling some decisions from twenty years ago.

I'm amazed at how I used to take risks and charge ahead recklessly. Of course, the most interesting part was meeting and interacting with creative and interesting people in this industry. I've always been drawn to unconventional characters; it was easy to communicate with them, while other people’s knees would tremble when meeting celebrities.

– There are mentions in the media that you are now involved in IT while also organising tours for Ukrainian (and not only) artists in America. Which brings more profit – IT or the music industry?

– I've been involved in IT for about as long as I've been in show business, so it's at least half of my resources and time.

– What is the competition like in the niche of arranging tours for artists in the US? How many actors are currently in this market in North America?

– There is competition in any field. That's a good thing. Speaking specifically about arranging concerts in America, there are dozens of large, hundreds of medium-sized, and thousands of small companies, as well as countless individual promoters. In a country with a 350 million population, entertainment occupies a huge niche.

As for our specialisation, there are probably about a dozen different small promotional companies or individuals. Some do more, some do less, some are better, and some are worse. There are often "one-off" providers as well.

– What criteria do you use to select the musicians to tour with? And could you elaborate more on both the business aspect (how recognizable an artist should be and how you measure this success) and the ethical aspect – whether an artist must have a clear civic position, etc.?

– Honestly speaking, the criteria have changed and continue to change periodically. For example, if long ago, at the beginning of the journey, I could seize any opportunity and take risks, for the past 15 years, we have been planning and calculating the business component of how profitable would be bringing this or that band or artist, where exactly, to what cities, when would be the best time, and so on. We tried to choose the most popular artists. However, it's essential to mention that this is a very unpredictable industry, where the results can be affected by any action or event related to artists, even weather conditions. Sometimes, despite our experience, we plan one thing and end up with something different.

Furthermore, public sentiment toward musicians can change in a heartbeat from love to hatred, or vice versa.

With the onset of the major war in Ukraine, we joined the Сultural Front and started bringing, among others, the ‘new wave’ young artists. We began to visit many more cities and even work in places where only 200–300 people might attend a concert. We do this for several reasons.

First, our task is to constantly keep Ukraine on the agenda, to help promote Ukrainian culture in America. Second, to support unity within the Ukrainian diaspora and artists in their cause. And third, it's direct assistance and donations for both the Armed Forces of Ukraine and humanitarian and medical needs. From 2022 until mid-2023, this worked out better for us than it does now. Honestly speaking, the spirit of unity and donations are depleting, no matter how hard we work. This doesn't mean we'll stop, but it has become noticeably more difficult. The diaspora here, as well as society in Ukraine itself, from what I see at least, have shifted towards internal strife and conflicts. It's sad. Because this is what the enemy and aggressor want. But we will continue to perform our utmost to support Ukraine. In today's conditions, a clear and firm civic position plays a very important role.

– What musicians will you never collaborate with? Who has already heard a refusal from you and why?

– There have been a couple or so artists with whom we don't work due to personal reasons stemming from past working experiences. This could be due to misconduct, personal animosity, or a combination of factors. It happens because life is diverse, and people are different. I won't mention any names… I'm sure some people haven't liked us at some point.

Of course, after February 2022, dozens of russian artists, unfortunately, have taken a dark turn, openly supporting the war or remaining silent. Yes, we once worked and were friends with people whom we now wouldn't shake hands with. It may be shameful now, but it's better not to delete or hide it, but to accept it and move forward.

– In addition to setting up concerts for Ukrainian performers, your Instagram also features performance announcements by Zemfira, Liya Akhedzhakova, and Laima Vaikule. On one hand, Zemfira has been delivering anti-war speeches during her concerts, condemning russia after the full-scale invasion began. On the other hand, we remember how, even before the full-scale war, in the concert in 2016, she disdainfully asked Ukrainian fans remove Ukrainian flags. Moreover, Zemfira has been friends with the ideologist of russian nationalism, Vladimir Medinsky, for quite some time. This is why so-called russian liberals often turn out to be hypocrites, as they still consider us "minor brothers." What do you think about all this? About the term "good russian" and cancel culture in particular.

– This is a very good and important question. Russia has been a terrifying country both before 2014 and now. The government and the system are awful. Propaganda is a terrible thing. The people have long been irreversibly deluded. That's all true. There's a huge number of people who disagree with this and have left the country. Just ordinary people. They shouldn't be oppressed. And there are certain well-known individuals, opinion leaders, who firmly stand against it, whom the authorities fear and persecute. Some of these people left, some didn't.

In my opinion, we shouldn't judge anyone, even if they didn't leave, because we don't know everything. I know details about some persons, so I definitely can't judge them for this. Nor can we judge who someone used to be friends with; I know this from personal experience. There are artists whom we worked with and were friends with for years, and whom I won't shake hands with after February 24, 2022. Each case should be considered individually.

You mentioned Lіya Akhedzhakova. She's 85 years old, she firmly spoke out against the war and for Ukraine, and she was expelled from the theatre and got persecuted. Now she performs plays in Europe and America; she supports us, and we support her.

Laima Vaikule has been actively and firmly advocating for Ukraine since the first days of the war. There are also Bi-2, Oxxymiron, Spleen, Noize MC, Boris Grebenshchikov, Alla Pugacheva, Maxim Galkin, Boris Akunin, Artur Smolyaninov, and many others. They all firmly oppose the war and stand for Ukraine. They are all persecuted by the russian regime, and we also know that they are being targeted outside of russia (recall the recent story with the arrest of Bi-2 in Thailand).

People from Kyiv travel to Zemfira's concert in New York. So you can't judge by passport or language. It's better to judge by words and actions today. In terms of your position, I find the term "turn-coat" very unpleasant. I think those who throw it around do so not out of great wisdom. If there are changes in beliefs, new information has arrived, if you've seen the light and changed your mind, that's good and right. That's what intelligent people do. We did work, do work, and will work with worthy people, without discriminating based on nationality or place of birth.

There's a lot of hate and cancel culture now. This is the modern world, multiplied by social media and technology. Are you a person, an individual with a mind of your own and freedom of thought, or are you part of a murky biomass?

I see how much hatred there is now among Ukrainians on social media. They're figuring out among themselves who is the stronger patriot, who is the stronger Ukrainian. Hatred. All this plays into the hands of the enemy. This doesn't bring victory closer.

People write to me on social media: "You're a pro-russian, you used to bring russians here, you work with russians, you've turned your coat, we'll never go to a Ukrainian artist's concert just because you organise it. Here we are – true patriots of Ukraine from Ternopil." Even though they live in Chicago or Toronto now...

Then there's a sold-out Ukrainian concert, and people who come up to me and say, "Thank you for everything you do, for what you bring, for what you collect for aid... We're from Lviv, Ternopil, Odesa, Kyiv, Mariupol, Donetsk."

Then, the money collected from concerts is used to buy drones, vehicles, and medicines, and to rehabilitate Ukrainian soldiers. Do you think the comments of armchair patriots should somehow bother me? Should I react to them in any way? I absolutely don't care. The only time I can react is when they target my team or artists. That's when I can respond and involve lawyers if necessary.

You previously asked about competition... Periodically, we see comments like: "Hey, folks, don't go to this concert, it's organised by russophile vatniks. What are the artists thinking? Do they care only about money? There are normal Ukrainian companies that organise concerts." We check who wrote these comments, where they're from, and who they're associated with. In just one or two clicks, we find that it’s our competitors. We see that the comments go from their employee, or a friend of the employee, or just close friends. It's like they don't know how to do good work, so they resort to mischief. Overall, I have many stories about how Ukrainians "help" their own, it’s kind of sad.

Here's another one for you: recently, I've been sitting at the airport, waiting to board. Three guys, aged 25-27, sit down next to me. They're wearing Prada shoes, GUCCI clothes, Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton bags, and bracelets. They're speaking Ukrainian. I pretend not to understand. An American woman sits opposite and strikes up a conversation with them. They willingly respond in broken English. They've been in the States for a year, living in Miami (while there's a war in Ukraine). Then the standard questions: "What do you do, did you like New York?" They say: "We had a great time, but Miami is better, there are nice cars, and parties." The conversation gradually died down, and the guys continued whispering to each other in Ukrainian. Over the next half hour of my involuntary eavesdropping, I learned things that made my emotional reaction like this: "Who are we struggling for here, who are we helping? What are these same guys dying on the front lines for? Is it for this? They stole, fled, now live in sunny Miami, and continue to steal in Ukraine, and now they're stealing here in America too? What the hell?"

The answer is still the same: you can't lump everyone together. You can't judge everyone based on specific scumbags. You need to focus on the good and right, gather, support, help, win, and not pay attention to individual fools and armchair patriots.

– What is the cost of organising a tour, for example, for Alyona Alyona or Skofka?

– I cannot disclose how much each person earns, just as I can't disclose how much each person donates from their earnings. That's all personal and confidential. As for how much it costs to organise a tour for a particular artist, it depends on many factors. This includes the size of the band, the number of cities, the duration of the tour (it can be done for two weeks, a month, or longer), the specific show, technical aspects, venues, advertising needs, and many other factors. So, there's no fixed price like in a store. I can say that in the USA, it costs several times more than in Ukraine or Europe. 

The basic expenses for each concert on the tour for the artists you mentioned can range from $20,000 to $25,000 on average, considering all the specifics I listed earlier. With all the factors considered, these expenses can reach $40,000 to $45,000 per concert.

Then you can multiply the number of concerts in the tour. The amounts add up significantly. We've had concert tours with budgets of $200,000, and others with budgets of up to a million dollars.

The target audience for Ukrainian artists in the US and Canada traditionally has been about 95% diaspora and up to 5% Americans who were brought along by Ukrainian friends. However, over the past two years, it has shifted to about 80-85% diaspora and 15-20% Americans who come on their own to show support, or who are also brought by Ukrainian friends. We actively promote Ukrainian artists beyond the diaspora.

– The press release stated that Resilience Entertainment has organised and carried out 1000 concerts in 35 cities over the past 24 years. Share the brightest moments and mishaps from the entire period. Has your approach to arrangement changed, and if so, how and to what extent? And what are you most proud of?

– I think it's already much more than 1000. There are plenty of stories and mishaps, both ours and others. There's not enough time to describe them all. We always joke that we should record everything immediately because there's no way to remember it all. Often, the most outstanding stories can't be disclosed for various reasons.

But I can share a recent story, for example, when Andriy Danylko, Inna Bilokon, Andriy Urenov, and I were flying to Verka Serduchka's concert in New York. The entire team was already in New York, having arrived several hours earlier, preparing for the concert. We were planning to fly a bit later to coincide with the rehearsal. Unexpectedly, the plane landed due to a storm in a small town in the neighbouring state, a three-and-a-half-hour drive away from New York.

At first, we were kept on the plane for a long time, then finally let out, with a promise to announce boarding and depart for New York soon. After an hour and a half, we were told that no one would be flying anywhere. All flights from this tiny airport were cancelled until the next day. Cancelling the flight means retrieving the luggage. We had only a few hours left until the concert, and we needed to find a way to get to New York. Perhaps someone else would have started to panic heavily, but not us. While we were collecting our luggage, a strong storm started. During a storm, they don't unload the plane due to the threat of lightning. According to the forecast, we couldn't expect the weather to improve anytime soon. We wait, but we're already getting nervous. In the luggage are costumes and the star hat. Without the costumes, there's no concert. They refuse to unload and hand over the luggage. The storm doesn't stop. Rehearsal before the concert in New York is already over. But there are no trains or buses from this town to New York. Instead, there's Uber. We call Uber to the nearest local destination and inform the driver, who arrives, that we need to go to New York. It's a 3.5-hour drive. The driver laughs and refuses. Then another. Then a third. The downpour doesn't stop, and they don't give out the luggage. An empty airport. I'm soaking wet, trying to negotiate with drivers on the street. I gave all the cash I had in my pocket to the fourth and fifth drivers, promising the same amount upon arrival in New York. They agree. We send one car with Andriy Danylko and Inna Bilokon without luggage. If everything goes well on the way, they'll just make it in time for the start of the concert. But without costumes.

The second car stayed behind to wait. Andriy Urenov and I waited for the luggage, which they still didn't give us. The storm didn't stop for a minute. I'll spare you all the details of dealing with airline and airport staff during all those hours, but believe me, they were quite dramatic. All we could do was hope for some luck. After some time, the storm stopped literally for 15 minutes. That was enough time to retrieve the priceless costumes and rush after the artists. The downpour continued, so for most of the 3.5-hour journey, we were driving in a downpour. The rehearsal ended, and they started letting the audience into the hall.

Three thousand people took their seats in the magnificent hall, and it was time for the concert. The first car was still just arriving, while our car with the outfits was still half an hour behind. People started to complain. They were already suspecting foul play. Then, like in a movie, jumping out of the car, applying makeup, and putting on costumes practically on the run, albeit with a delay, New York was conquered. Danylko was fantastic. The audience screamed with joy. After such a flight and transfer, as well as a two-hour concert, Andriy practically had to be carried from the stage to the dressing rooms; he couldn't stand on his feet anymore.

This is just one small episode. Such unpredictable moments happen at least a few times in every tour. Now I remember how recently we left one of the musicians in the hotel only to realise it at the airport. That is, he went down with everyone else but then left, and we drove off. Or, for example, one dancer losing her passport, and we having to fly to the next concert without her. The passport was found a few days later. And once, an artist got a stomachache right at the concert. The song was long, so the artist elegantly left the stage, continuing the song from the restroom to the dressing room. Eventually, he returned to the stage. The song didn't stop for a moment. And it was a live concert, not a playback.

And there were times when an artist or performer would say, "Listen, you have a full house, give me more money right now, or I won't go on stage."

Of course, there's a big difference between how we worked 20 years ago and how we work now. Now we have a wealth of experience, and years of built trust with most top artists, and our resources and team are excellent: smart, precise, experienced, professional, with good hearts, who care about art, artists, quality, and the audience.

– Which artists are the most comfortable to work with?

– Speaking about the combination of personal and professional relationships with artists and their bands together, I could list them for a long time. But the long story short, among Ukrainians, these are: Verka Serduchka, Monatik, Boombox, The Hardkiss, Sergiy Babkin, Tina Karol, Shumei, Kola, Jerry Heil, Alyona Alyona, Kalush Orchestra, Nervy, and many others. I hope I didn't forget to mention anyone.

– Nowadays, there's this concept of "bayraktarism" in modern Ukrainian music.  It's a bunch of songs about, hypothetically, "we'll beat the russkies and live well," "Victory is virtually tomorrow." These songs are usually not of very high quality, and furthermore, they are rarely sincere, rather opportunistic. What do you think about this?

– What can I say? These are the times we live in. I think some people do it sincerely, and emotionally, while others do it for hype. Well, and, perhaps, like any art, it comes from the inner world of the artist themselves and accordingly reflects their level.

– Speaking about the charitable component, how much money have you already donated for the needs of Ukraine and which funds do you cooperate with?

– Since the beginning of the war, we have worked and continue to work with funds such as Revived Soldiers Ukraine, Help Heroes Of Ukraine, United24, Stand With Ukraine Foundation, Kind Deeds, UA Resistance Foundation, Andriy Khlyvnyuk Foundation, Gate To Ukraine, and others. Some of these funds support the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while others focus on humanitarian aid and medical rehabilitation for soldiers. Overall, through our assistance, approximately $1.5 million has been raised from private charity events, donations, public charity tours, and concerts.

– What songs are in your personal playlist? Name approximately 10 songs or albums that you often listen to now,  both international and Ukrainian.

– Typically, it's a mix of various genres. Most often, it's the Ukrainian Beat playlist on Spotify, curated by our team, as well as my own playlists, which can include NF, Wu-Tang Clan, Linkin Park, Solomun, Okean Elzy, Manu Chao, Oxxymiron, Boombox, Bi-2, Arctic Monkeys, Glass Animals, Jay Z, Max Korzh, Bebe.

– What music has shaped you, and you can't imagine yourself without it?

– I can't say specifically because as soon as I got into music, I listened to lots of different things at different times in my lifetime. Like everyone else, I would sometimes get stuck on one album for a long time. I can say that I periodically return to albums by Wu-Tang Clan, Linkin Park, Manu Chao, Okean Elzy, Max Korzh.

– Your three recent discoveries among Ukrainian artists.

– I try to listen to and keep track of everyone as soon as they appear. Recently, I've noticed Klavdiya Petrivna, Lely45, and Pislya Doschu (After the Rain).