Portland-based Pihcintu makes music video to encourage aid for Ukrainians

When Natalia Mbadu heard “Song for Ukraine” for the first time last year at a rehearsal with the Pihcintu Multicultural Chorus, she believed it could be powerful.

“We are with you we will be there / We are with you stay strong and take care,” the chorus says. “We are with you and will always be / Until every single soul in Ukraine is free”

“It’s hope for the people,” said Mbadu, who is a rising sophomore at Deering High School in Portland. “It really made me feel like I was going to be a big part of something that was going to be remembered.”

The song was written by Con Fullam, the founder and director of Pihcintu. The choir of immigrant and refugee girls has become nationally recognized since it began in 2006 and performs 30 or more concerts across the country every year, and their venues have included the United Nations in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. The group started including “Song for Ukraine” in their concerts, and Fullam said the singers wanted to spread awareness about the challenges of war that many of them know all too well.

“They’ve all experienced what so many of these young Ukrainian girls and boys are experiencing,” Fullam said. “They have a great empathy for others who are experiencing the kind of horrors they went through in getting to the U.S. Every time they feel as though they can do something for others that alleviates some of the pain that they’ve gone through, they want to do it.”

Now, Pihcintu has released a music video for the song in collaboration with the Tacoma Refugee Chorus in Washington State to benefit the United Help Ukraine. The nonprofit is based in the United States and started in 2014 to provide humanitarian, medical and other assistance to the people of Ukraine affected by Russian interference. It plans to share the video its email list and on its social media on Ukraine’s upcoming Independence Day on Aug. 24 and hopes the song will inspire contributions to their cause. The video ends with a call for donations to United Help Ukraine.

“It’s very special not just because it’s a song for Ukraine, but because people and girls who are singing that song are refugees,” said Maryna Baydyuk, president of United Help Ukraine. “They put in their voices a very special meaning. They understand the pain and suffering that Ukrainians are going through right now.”

The partnership seemed a natural one. In June, the choir performed at the One Journey Festival at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., an annual event that features performances by refugees and other displaced people from around the world. This year, the lineup also included a rock band from Afghanistan, an all-women Afro-Brazilian drum band, a Cambodian hip-hop dancer and other performances.

Between sets, Fullam was walking around the festival and spotted a table for United Help Ukraine. Pihcintu has performed and made music videos in the past in partnership with the United Nations and other organizations, and Fullam saw a perfect opportunity for collaboration.

“Working together with the Tacoma Refugee Choir, we have refugee singers from sea to shining sea united in spirit to raise their voices for all Ukrainians everywhere who have suffered from this horrid assault on their country and its people,” he said.

Baydyuk said she also plans to share the video with media outlets in Ukraine because she believes it will touch people who are struggling there. These two choirs show “the resilience of refugees,” she said. The video shows clips of the two choirs singing “Song for Ukraine,” wearing blue and yellow scarves and holding bright yellow sunflowers. It also includes footage of crumbing and burned buildings from the Russian attacks on Ukraine, as well as volunteers from the nonprofit assembling and distributing medical supplies for the front lines.

“No gun can stop the will to be free / No bomb can ever blow hope away / No tank can ever silence the song of love / So we stand with you today,” they sing.

Mbadu joined Pihcintu in 2019 when she and her friend gave a viral performance of Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire” at the inauguration for Gov. Janet Mills. Now 15, she said music is her “escape outlet” and she likes to write her own songs in her free time. Mbadu is originally from Angola and said she came to the United States when she was 7 years old because of political conflict in her home country.

She said members of the chorus have also experienced war like the one going on in Ukraine, but many people are not as aware of the conflicts that have prompted African refugees to flee to the United States. So this song is also “healing,” she said, because it can help people learn about those stories too.

“It’s really important for us because it also feels like we’re being heard, our wars that people never knew about are actually being heard and people care about us too,” she said.