Singer Laima Vaikule spoke out against the war and took to the stage with the Ukrainian flag during a concert in the Lithuanian resort town of Palanga on July 31. A video of the concert was posted on Instagram.
The singer herself, in a conversation with the Delfi portal, explained that she is definitely on the side of Ukraine:
"How else? What else could you expect from me? We live in Latvia, I am a citizen of Latvia, our policy and position are clear... I think that there are no people in Latvia who are for the war. Here we are looking at the blue sky, and rockets are launched across Ukraine, killing all life.”
When asked if she allowed the opportunity to perform in Russia again, Vaikule replied: “Not yet. I don't even know how this can happen emotionally! But I don't want people to hate."
Earlier, Fontanka published an unofficial “list of banned artists” with 37 names, which is distributed in the internal chats of promoters and concert organizers on Telegram and WhatsApp. All of the listed singers or groups spoke out against the war or were silent about Russia's actions in Ukraine. Among the "banned" artists and groups are "DDT", Zemfira, Noize MC, "Oksimiron", "Time Machine", "Aquarium", "Casta", "Bi-2", "Accident", Valery Meladze and other performers .