On September 2, one of the most popular Belarusian performers Max Korzh gave a solo concert in Riga. During this, he encouraged his fans to chant “No to war” in what appears to be the musician’s most unequivocal statement of his political stance in a long time.
During his career, Max Korzh did not speak out on the topic of politics. Moreover, for about eight years the musician has not given any interviews – even the famous Russian video blogger Yuri Dud was refused. The last big conversation with Korzh was published by Onliner in 2015. In it, the musician spoke about concerts and corporate parties, the metropolitan area of Grushevka and his hometown of Luninets, as well as sexism in his songs.
Korzh’s most striking “political” statement was an Instagram post published on August 11, 2020, after mass protests that began over disagreement with the results of the presidential election two days earlier. However, not everyone liked the content of the post.
– Boys. For today, you have won. Slow down today. (I’m only talking about today). You have shown that you can fight back. Made noise all over the world. There will be enough hard video materials for a month in advance, so as not to go out. This topic (direct collisions) will not work in a plus today, ”the musician wrote then. His words have become a meme still quote Belarusians.
After that, Korzh continued to live in Belarus, also not speaking out about politics, and even began planning concerts in Russia and the EU for 2021. However, after the start of the war in Ukraine, he released several tracks in which the musician’s fans considered hidden references to his possible views on this situation.
In the early summer of 2022, Korzh released the track “Own House”, which is considered anti-war: at least after this premiere, the Belarusian tour in Russia was canceled. However, after that, the musician said that there would be no concerts in Belarus and Ukraine either. And, for example, in the song “Our Way” released this summer, there is a line “From time immemorial, he is right who defends his home.”
Yesterday, the musician also posted a video on YouTube in which he talked about life. It turned out, rather, about everything and nothing – everyone could find their own truth in Korzh’s reasoning. For example, about the war, he said: “The world strived only for the best. We lived too well in the world. Have fun. Who pulled us back? A? How did they manage to bring us back to the animal kingdom? How did they manage to return us to a place where being a scum is legal, where being a bad person is encouraging? Well, where did they come from? They were always there.”
However, if after his veiled statements in songs and videos, Korzh could still live in Belarus and feel safe, then after today’s concert in Riga, this remains in question.