The Hardkiss

Biography and creative work

The Hardkiss is a music project by Yulia Sanina and Valerii Bebko

Year of creation: 2011

Participants: 4

Albums: 6

Songs: 62

Videos: 38

Country: Ukraine

Sanina and Bebko - the story of how the founders of The Hardkiss met

Yulia Sanina 

Date of birth: 11 October 1990

Occupation: singer, composer, actress

Valerii Bebko

Date of birth: 9 July 1984

Occupation: musician, director, producer

Yulia and Valerii are married. They are raising their son Danylo. Their family history is intertwined with the history of the band. In 2009, the future vocalist of The Hardkiss  tried her hand at journalism and came to Valerii for an interview - at that time he was working for “MTV Ukraine”. The conversation lasted for 4 hours, and Valerii had to cancel a date with another girl scheduled for the same day.

Yulia "inherited" her passion for music as she was born into a family of musicians. She first sang with an ensemble when she was three years old. She went on to join children's show bands, a jazz big band, a children's music school of jazz and pop art, and folklore studies at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Valerii, also known as “Val”, is a director, producer, music video maker and guitarist. He studied contemporary art in London at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. At the same time, he made a number of short films: " Реінкарнація”, “Never Born” and Autoscopy”. Upon his return, he made music videos for Ukrainian artists and short films.

Their joint creativity manifested itself not only in music: in 2012, Yulia and Valerii created a short film Lost in the City, one of eight in the series of short films In Love with Kyiv. Valerii directed the film, and Yulia co-authored the script.

Yulia's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest as a presenter.

As Ukraine won the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, the contest was supposed to be held in The Hardkiss ' home country, but due to the war, the country was unable to host the contest. Eurovision 2023 was held in the United Kingdom, the country that came second in the contest, but Ukraine took part in the organisation of the contest. The co-host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the lead singer of Harkdkis Yulia Sanina, and she coped with this task 100%. During the live broadcast of the contest, the artist performed the symbolic song Mayak, and the band's bassist Valerii Bebko also appeared on stage with a guitar solo. Also in 2023, Yulia Sanina became a coach in TV-show “The Voice”.

History of the band

The legendary band was founded in 2011, and in 2021, they celebrated their 10th anniversary on stage. The musicians literally burst into the music information space - a week after its release, the debut video "Babylon" garnered thousands of views on Youtube. The band's first concert took place in September at the Serebro club.

The first "version" of the band was called Val & Sanina, and the artists recorded several songs in Russian. Then there was hesitation between the current name and "Планета поні". Who knows, if the choice had been different back then, the history of "Hard Kiss" might have developed differently.

Creativity of The Hardkiss 

The musicians perform in two languages - Ukrainian and English - and therefore are listened to all over the world. Stylists Vitaliy Datsyuk and Slava Chaika help to create quirky and always unexpected images.

During their musical career, the band has released 4 studio albums, 1 mini-album and 1 acoustic album. They have more than 60 songs to their credit.

The band's first studio album is "Stones and Honey", which was released in 2014. One of the music videos for this album, titled "Stones", was filmed in the free Crimea. The album, in addition to the song "Stones", includes such tracks as: "Babylon", "Make Up", "Dance with Me",“Прірва” and others.

In 2015, the band released the EP "Cold Altair", which included, among others, the songs "Tony, Talk!", "Hammer", "Doctor Thomases". The same year, the band was nominated in five categories for the Ukrainian music award Yuna and won two awards: Best Song ("Stones") and Best Album.

The following year, the band decided to take part in the national selection for Eurovision 2016. They performed the song "Helpless", but then the singer Jamala went to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "1944" and won the contest.

The band's creativity did not stop, and in 2017, the world saw the release of their second studio album, with the meaningful title "Perfection Is a Lie". It includes the songs: "Antarctica", "Perfection", "Closer" and others. This disc became the final one for the last years for The The Hardkiss , because most of the tracks were previously presented as singles.

The Hardkiss released their third studio album “Залізна Ластівка” , in 2018, and this album includes more Ukrainian-language songs: “Хто, як не ти”, “Серце”, “Журавлі”, “Андромеда”, “Бувай”, “Море”, “Коханці” and others. This year, they were once again nominated for many Yuna awards and won two of them: Best Rock Band and Best Song in the Ukrainian Language ("Журавлі"), and for the same song, the band received the “Золота Жар-птиця” award. In 2019, The Hardkiss visited the cities of Ukraine and neighbour countries as part of the “Акустика” tour. In 2020, the band released the album “Акустика. Live”, which includes acoustic versions of the band's songs from 2012-2019.

The band's fourth studio album was released in 2021 and is titled " Жива і не залізна", and the work on it lasted two years. This musical work consists of 10 songs in Ukrainian, including a duet with MONATIK - " Кобра". At the Yuna Awards (2021), the work won the Best Album nomination. The The Hardkiss  latest creative work is the track " Мрійники", created together with the band Tvorchi.

After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the band visited the United States of America to perform charity concerts in support of Ukrainian defenders and war victims.

The Hardkiss  is much more than music, more than a mixture of rock, pop and electro. These are whole universes where high-quality sound, modern digital technologies, light play, and phantasmagoric images that Yulia Sanina and Valery Bebko create in their videos and concerts are intertwined. Each of these universes catches the eye, evoking a series of flashes of associations that sometimes resemble memories from a past life.

Склад гурту:

• Yulia Sanina – vocalist, songwriter

• Valerii Bebko – guitar 

• Klim Lysiuk – bass guitar

• Yevhen Kibelev - drums

Awards:

• "Best Rock Band", YUNA 2022;

• "Best Album", YUNA 2022;

• “Best Artist Management”, YUNA 2021;

• "Best concert show", YUNA 2021;

• "Best Rock Band", YUNA 2021;

• "Video of the Year", Золота жар-птиця 2020;

• "Best Album", YUNA 2019;

• "Best concert show",  YUNA 2019;

• "Best Rock Band", YUNA 2019;

• "Ballad of the Year", Золота жар-птиця 2019;

• "Best Rock Band", YUNA 2018;

• “Best Song in the Ukrainian Language”, YUNA 2018;

• "Alternative", M1 Music Awards 2017;

• "Show of the Year", M1 Music Awards 2017;

• "Best Rock Band", YUNA 2017;

• "Alternative", M1 Music Awards 2016;

• "Song of the Year", YUNA 2015;

• "Album of the Year", YUNA 2015;

• "Discovery of the Year", YUNA 2013;

• "Video of the year" («Make-up»), YUNA 2013.

Albums:

● 2014 - Stones and Honey

● 2015 - Cold Altair

● 2017 - Perfection is a Lie

● 2018 - Залізна ластівка

● 2020 - Акустика. Live

● 2021 - Жива і не залізна