Nazarii Yaremchuk

Nazariy Nazarovych Yaremchuk (; 30 November 1951 – 30 June 1995) was a Ukrainian singer, born in the village of , Chernivtsi Oblast. He was posthumously named Hero of Ukraine in August 2021.

Until his death in 1995, Yaremchuk was one of the most-loved singers of Ukraine. He held on to the title People's Artist of Ukraine and was a posthumously recipient of the Shevchenko National Prize. In Ukraine, he was commonly nicknamed "the favourite of the country" and the "nightingale from the Bukovyna".

Yaremchuk was mostly known for his Ukrainian-language repertoire. Together with Vasyl Zinkevych and Volodymyr Ivasyuk, he was the first singer to sing in his native language at Pesnya goda. As part of VIA Smerichka, Yaremchuk first popularised songs such as "Chervona Ruta" and "Vodohray".

Yaremchuk's children became known in music as well. His two eldest sons and Nazariy Yaremchuk were both assigned the title People's Artist of Ukraine. Daughter Mariya Yaremchuk became a well-known recording artist and represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

Nazariy Yaremchuk was said to have a happy childhood and enjoyed music from a young age. That changed when his father died in 1963, when Yaremchuk was only twelve. This led to the decision of his mother to send him to a boarding school in Vyzhnytsia. There, he started to interest himself for choral music and mandolin. He eventually transferred to a secondary school to finish his education.

Career 1969-1974: Smerichka 1969-1971: First success and Chervona Ruta The Vyzhnytsia House of Culture, where Yaremchuk first rehearsed with Smerichka. In 1969, Yaremchuk finished secondary school and tried to enroll himself at the Faculty of Geography of Chernivtsi State University, but his attempt was unsuccessful. Instead of studying, he started working as a seismographer and was employed in the Army. Through his Army service, he could enroll himself in a driver's course at the House of Culture in his local Vyzhnytsia.

In September 1970, Yaremchuk successfully enrolled himself in the Faculty of Geography at the Chernivtsi State University after all and started studying. In the evening, he kept attending rehearsals of Smerichka in Vyzhnytsia while in the morning, he had to attend class in Chernivtsi. Because of the hassle, Yaremchuk sometimes stayed at Dutkivskiy's home.

Around the same time, Yaremchuk befriended Boryspil-based journalist Viktor Spivak of the Silski Visti newspaper. Spivak had only come to Vyzhnytsia by mere chance as he wanted to do a report in the Carpathians. There, he attended the rehearsal of Smerichka by accident as he was left bored in the small town. Spivak later recalled Yaremchuk's extreme musicality and very good pitch when they were hiking in the mountains during their encounters.

"Once, when I arrived in Vyzhnytsia, Nazariy found me and proposed me to take a walk in the mountains. It was a beautiful Carpathian Septembery Autumn. Nazariy took me on an unknown trail, I only saw unknown places around the mountains, and in the sky, God had spilt hundreds of stars. The stars were such large ones, there was such a serenity, it was such a warm evening that I just fell in love with the rich nature. At that time, Nazariy told of the mountains, of the local people. And then suddenly, Nazariy, stood still, and said silently:

"Viktor, a wedding."

"Where?" I asked.

"Listen, music is playing." He whispered.

"No," I said. "I don't hear it."

He had an amazing hearing, so it was not surprising, that he could hear music from several miles."|author=Viktor Spivak, 2004 The regional television station proposed to shoot a musical film with the group taking the main role. Plans however changed quickly and instead, several ensembles were incorporated in the film, including VIAs Karpaty, Evrika and young singer Sofia Rotaru, who had acclaimed regional fame at that point.

The eventual musical film was named Chervona Ruta, after the popular song with the same name by Volodymyr Ivasyuk. However, during the recording in August 1971 in Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, a personal tragedy hit Yaremchuk as his mother died, leaving Yaremchuk as an orphan at the age of 19. It was initially unclear whether Yaremchuk would complete filming because of Hutsul mourning customs. In the end, Yaremchuk stayed on. In this film, he eventually played a soloist of the ensemble that Ivasyuk leads and performed "Незрівнянний світ краси" (The uncomparable world of beauty). Next to that, Yaremchuk could be heard as a vocalist on the songs "Chervona ruta", "Mila moya" and "Vodohrai".

1971-1975: Height of fame, television contests and second film Chernivtsi Philharmonic Hall, where Yaremchuk worked from 1973 onwards. The release of Chervona Rute threw Smerichka in country-wide fame. Quickly after that, "Chervona Ruta" composer Ivasyuk was invited to present the song at the first edition of Pesnya goda in Moscow. Ivasyuk found that Yaremchuk and Zinkevych had to come with him to the capital. Dressed in Hutsul-inspired attire, Yaremchuk performed the song together with Zinkevych and Ivasyuk. At the age of twenty, Yaremchuk was the youngest soloist of the night.

However, Smerichka became "too popular" in Ukraine and the Soviet authorities renounced Smerichka at party meetings. The group started to receive threats and there were attempts to create a fight between Yaremchuk and Zinkevych. In 1975, after an Estonian television company shot a television film with Smerichka in Ivano-Frankivsk, the threats became the duet too much. The film, Vistupaye ansamble "SMERICHKA" Levka Dutkovkskoho, was banned until the end of the Soviet Union for being too nationalistic. Zinkevych left for Lutsk, while Yaremchuk was thrown out of his apartment in Chernivtsi.

1975-1981: Solo success "We had to leave the Philharmonic and Smerichka. (...) But here in the regional committee of the party, they started to see that they had gone a little too far and wanted Nazariy to return to the Philharmonic. I was offered to create an ensemble at Chernivtsi University. I agreed, but set a condition: that Nazariy should be given a dormitory, because he had just married and he had been thrown out of his apartment at the Philharmonic. But he could not get at the dormitory at the university, because they said that the room that was to be given to Nazariy was given to the cooks instead. And then I said to the university, "Let the cooks then sing for you!". I called the regional committee of the party and say: “Did you want Nazariy to believe you are serious? He only will return on condition that you give him an apartment.". They promised it would be solved within six months, but after three months, it was already solved." — Levko Dutkivskiy, 2017

Nazariy Yaremchuk returned to Smerichka, while Vasyl Zinkevych was initially replaced with David Stepanovskiy. In this formation, Smerichka released an EP with Dutkivskiy's songs in 1977. However, the ensemble's composition constantly changed and the popularity of the group declined whereas Yaremchuk became more popular as a soloist.

In 1978, Yaremchuk received the title Merited Artist of Ukraine.

Noticing that the group needed better musical direction, Yaremchuk requested Dutkivskiy to return to the Philharmonic. A year later, Yaremchuk released his first full-length LP Nezrivyannyy svit krasy, titled after the same song he sang in Chervona ruta. In 1981, Yaremchuk starred in the film Chervonta ruta: Ten years since with Vasyl Zinkevych and Sofia Rotaru.

1982-1991: Musical director of Smerichka

In 1982, Yaremchuk became the new musical director of Smerichka after Dutkivskiy left over quarrels on the future direction of the group.

The local television broadcaster of Lviv shot several music videos and performances for Yaremchuk throughout that time. Via that broadcaster, Yaremchuk and Smerichka were portrayed in the film Poyot VIA "Smerichka" in 1984. In 1990, that same television station broadcast a musical film with solely Yaremchuk.

In 1987, Yaremchuk was awarded the title People's Artist of Ukraine. During one of these visits, Yaremchuk went to the very core of the nuclear disaster. From his trip, Yaremchuk brought his protective clothing home, not knowing the dangers of radiation. When dosimetrists were checking on his house a year later, they found that protective suit hanging on the wall was heavily contaminated with radiation and had to be removed.

In March 1987, Yaremchuk and Smerichka director Vasyl Kosman were summoned to go to Moscow. There, they were told that Smerichka had been chosen to perform in Kabul, Afghanistan in lieu of the Soviet-Afghan War to entertain those who were employed in the war zone. Prior to Smerichka, Iosif Kobzon and Lyudmila Zykina had been sent. In May 1987, Smerichka gave a series of concerts for high officials and soldiers. However, Smerichka and Yaremchuk ended up in a few life-threatening war situations. During a domestic flight, their plane was taken under fire and was left severely damaged. At another occasion, the group was isolated by enemy snipers. Due to the local conditions, Yaremchuk lost his voice, for the first and only time in his life. On their way back to Tashkent, where they were going to change flights back to Moscow, the plane was under fire twice, but was left mostly undamaged this time.

During one of his concerts in Canada, Yaremchuk first met his older half-brother Dmytro, who had been living in Winnipeg for half a century already at that time. Meanwhile, in the United States, Nazariy Yaremchuk got acquainted with American-Ukrainian singer Kvitka Cisyk.

Yaremchuk's songs featured in the soundtrack of 2024 film U Are the Universe.