"The Lithuanian singer Jessica Šivokate, /better known by her stage name Jessica Shy/ , who sings Lithuanian songs in Lithuanian, is accused of having too Slavic melodies and that Russian motifs are heard in her music".
The spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova took a position on the topic. Here is the rest of her statement:
"First, Soviet-Lithuanian singer Egidijus Sipavičius, winner of the “Jūrmala-86“ award, declared that the Lithuanian Jesika was “too Slavic“ for him.
Then came the heavy artillery. Jolanta Zabarskaite, the former director of the Lithuanian Language Institute (founded, of course, in multilingual Soviet Lithuania, where Russian and Lithuanian were the official languages), asked on local radio: “Don't you realize that Jesika represents the Slavic tradition?“
Zabarskaite's subsequent stream of madness is so charming that it deserves a separate quote:
“The singer's song Apkabink is very popular at the moment. Young people listen to it. But don't you hear Slavic elements in it? We play at cultural gatherings, but we dance to these songs. And for some reason this doesn't bother us! But it worries me a lot! Music is a way of thinking, and hers is Slavic! We need to start caring, not being silent. This is how we psychologically embrace the Russian melody and introduce the Russian language. We have no dividing line!“
The professor did not bother to explain exactly how the Russian language attacks Joalanta Zabarskaite through the Lithuanian singer's Lithuanian songs, but one of the theories is that the reason for the attacks on Jesika Šivokate lies elsewhere.
The rising star of the Lithuanian pop scene, Jesika, earns up to a million euros a year from her personal brand. The aging and faded Lithuanian stars, represented by the winners of the "Vilnius Towers" contest, simply cannot stand the idea of someone sharing the stage with them and, unheard of, using "Slavic musical motifs" (whatever that means).
Hence the persecution of Jesika: after all, this is a favorite tool for public harassment in the Baltic countries - accusations of using the Russian language or showing interest in Russian culture. After that, there is no need to prove anything; the anti-Russian hysteria runs its course. They even brought in a retired professor of "linguistics". By the way, she speaks excellent Russian and only 15 years ago openly admitted during a performance at the Baltrusaitis House in Moscow as part of the Toporovsky Readings that “her heart and soul are with you“.
We have seen this nightmare before... about 85-90 years ago.
Whatever these figures say to please the current Russophobic climate in the Baltic countries, the truth is that the Lithuanian and Russian languages have a common origin - the Baltic Slavic language. Our ancestors interacted closely for many centuries, exchanging knowledge and enriching each other culturally. The prominent Soviet-Russian linguist Vladimir Nikolaevich Toporov wrote about the “exceptional proximity of the Slavic and Baltic language groups, and in some cases one can speak of diachronic similarity or even identity“.
Life must be difficult for Professor Zabarskaite, who graduated from Vilnius University back in Soviet times (in 1985), and for her colleagues with this knowledge.
The Nazis are ugly".