48 Facts About Nazariy Yaremchuk

Nazariy Nazarovych Yaremchuk was a Hutsul Ukrainian singer, born in the village of Rivnya, Chernivtsi Oblast.

Nazariy Yaremchuk was posthumously named Hero of Ukraine in August 2021.

Until his death in 1995, Yaremchuk was one of the most-loved singers of Ukraine.

Nazariy Yaremchuk held on to the title People's Artist of Ukraine and was a posthumously recipient of the Shevchenko National Prize.

Daughter Mariya Nazariy Yaremchuk became a well-known recording artist and represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

Nazariy Yaremchuk was born as the youngest and third child of Nazariy Tarasovych Yaremchuk and Mariya "Marichka" Dariyivna in the village of Rivnya on the banks of the Cheremosh river.

Nazariy Yaremchuk's father was thirty-four years his mother's senior and was therefore already 64 when Nazariy was born.

Young Nazariy Yaremchuk grew up with his older brother Bohdan and older sister Kateryna "Katryusha", and their father's grandson, Stepan.

Nazariy Yaremchuk's half-brother Dmytro was born on 1924 and then resided in Winnipeg, Canada, after he had fled there at the end of World War II due to his activities the UPA.

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 Nazariy Yaremchuk was only twelve.

Nazariy Yaremchuk eventually transferred to a secondary school to finish his education.

In 1969, Nazariy Yaremchuk finished secondary school and tried to enroll himself at the Faculty of Geography of Chernivtsi State University, but his attempt was unsuccessful.

In September 1970, Nazariy Yaremchuk successfully enrolled himself in the Faculty of Geography at the Chernivtsi State University after all and started studying.

Around the same time, Nazariy Yaremchuk befriended Boryspil-based journalist Viktor Spivak of the Silski Visti newspaper.

Nazariy Yaremchuk took me on an unknown trail, I only saw unknown places around the mountains, and in the sky, God had spilt hundreds of stars.

At that time, Nazariy Yaremchuk told of the mountains, of the local people.

Nazariy Yaremchuk had an amazing hearing, so it was not surprising, that he could hear music from several miles.

At the age of twenty, Nazariy Yaremchuk was the youngest soloist of the night.

Smerichka started to tour extensively throughout the Soviet Union and even performed at the Mariinskyi Palace in Kyiv in front of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who was wrongly convinced that Nazariy Yaremchuk wrote "Chervona ruta".

Zinkevych left for Lutsk, while Nazariy Yaremchuk was thrown out of his apartment in Chernivtsi.

Around the same time in 1975, Nazariy Yaremchuk graduated within the Department of Economical Geography of the Chernivtsi University.

Nazariy Yaremchuk returned to Smerichka, while Vasyl Zinkevych was initially replaced with David Stepanovskiy.

However, the ensemble's composition constantly changed and the popularity of the group declined whereas Nazariy Yaremchuk became more popular as a soloist.

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

Not thinking about the potential consequences for his career, Nazariy Yaremchuk attended the protests around Ivasyuk funeral in Lviv and were among the first to lay flowers.

In 1979, Nazariy Yaremchuk asked Dvorsky to create a song for him.

In 1981, Nazariy Yaremchuk starred in the film Chervonta ruta: Ten years since with Vasyl Zinkevych and Sofia Rotaru.

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

Meanwhile, Nazariy Yaremchuk became acquainted with several new composers and lyricists, which shifted his style slightly in the 1980s.

Nazariy Yaremchuk played in the 1982 Soviet television film Usmishky Nechyporivkky, portraying a sailor.

One of the songs in this film, "Hay, zelenyy hay", written by Zlotnyk and Rybchynskyy, became one of Nazariy Yaremchuk's most known songs.

In 1987, Nazariy Yaremchuk was awarded the title People's Artist of Ukraine.

In May 1986, Nazariy Yaremchuk visited the disaster side of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster three times to perform for those who had been assigned to cleaning the site.

From his trip, Nazariy Yaremchuk brought his protective clothing home, not knowing the dangers of radiation.

However, Smerichka and Nazariy Yaremchuk ended up in a few life-threatening war situations.

Nazariy Yaremchuk returned home from Afghanistan with a form of acute stress disorder.

On 19 August 1991, Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union, which Nazariy Yaremchuk later referred to as "the happiest day of his life".

Between 1991 and 1993, Nazariy Yaremchuk performed for the Ukrainian diaspora in North America and Latin America.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Nazariy Yaremchuk got acquainted with American-Ukrainian singer Kvitka Cisyk.

In late 1994, Nazariy Yaremchuk, who was said to be never ill, started feel "not very well".

Friend and composer Yuriy Rybchynskyy noticed that Nazariy Yaremchuk was ill during a concert in early 1995 when appeared weak and thin.

Nazariy Yaremchuk was quickly admitted to a hospital, where they found him to suffer from stomach cancer.

In March 1995, Nazariy Yaremchuk underwent an operation and was told the known cancer had been removed, although the operation was at a too late stage to be sure of its effectiveness.

Back in Ukraine, Nazariy Yaremchuk performed at several stages and he recorded his last song, an honour to Volodymyr Ivasyuk.

Nazariy Yaremchuk's last recorded performances was at an evening dedicated to the work of Yuriy Rybchynskyy, where he sat down on the stage for half the song he performed.

Two weeks after that, Nazariy Yaremchuk performed for the last time at a small corporate event.

On 30 June 1995, Nazariy Yaremchuk died in his home in Chernivtsi.