05 November 2025

The Holos (Voice) track by hatespeech, created in collaboration with the Crimea Platform, has been included in the longlist for the MEGOGO MUSIC AWARDS 2025

The Holos (Voice) track by the band hatespeech, created in collaboration with the Crimea Platform, has been included in the longlist for the MEGOGO Music Awards 2025 in the category “Best Collaboration.”

The song is based on the story of Crimean political prisoner Bohdan Ziza. In May 2022, as a protest against Russia, he poured yellow and blue paint on the building of the occupation administration in Yevpatoria and threw a Molotov cocktail at it.

The next day, he was detained by FSB officers. Later, the artist was sentenced to 15 years in a strict-regime penal colony.

During the trial, Bohdan Ziza openly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. He emphasized that his case was purely political and part of Russia’s repressive campaign against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Crimea. He went on hunger strike and demanded to be stripped of the Russian citizenship imposed on him, which eventually happened in September this year.

The song “Holos” was performed live for the first time on February 28 at the concert “QIRIM: Echo of Eleven,” dedicated to eleven years of resistance to the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula. The event was organized by the Crimea Platform and the media initiative Crimea Daily, with the support of the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the State Enterprise “Crimean House,” and TRO Media.

The song, along with 31 other musical works, has now entered the longlist for the MEGOGO Music Awards 2025. Only ten collaborations will make it to the shortlist — the results will be announced on November 10.

Bohdan Ziza is one of hundreds of people Russia is unlawfully holding behind bars. As of November 3, the occupiers have illegally imprisoned 224 people, including 133 Crimean Tatars.