Jamala premieres official video of her song "1944"

"This video was the hardest to shoot to date!" said Jamala. "It was showering all the time and there was a fog so thick, that even a strong wind could not dispel it... It was also FREEZING! The day before we started shooting the sun was shining bright. Nature gave us big challenges but once we saw the finished piece it was so worth it and actually aided with the feel and atmosphere!"

The location for the video was an abandoned military base, Pamir, on top of the Tomatik mountain, 1565 metres about sea level. "It took us 2 hours to climb up Tomatik mountain, and it took even longer to descend", Jamala explained. "The cold rain was pouring on us, and we took any chance to get warm by the oven and dry our clothes. It felt like a luxury to have a nice hot meal, as we had to make our own fire up there, like prehistoric people, which the weather made close to impossible! The lovely local people brought us some honey and herbal tea. People from the whole area came to see us and what we were filming".

Despite the poor weather on the day, Jamala and her team were able to work together. "The dancers were really great, nobody complained, they just kept going and danced at full force. The ordeal of rain and cold made us closer, like one tribe!"

"When Anatoliy presented his vision of the new video for 1944, we didn’t hesitate to work with them again. Sonia Soltes who created the style of the characters was a fantastic contributor! Her unique and independent styling was perfect for the project. It was a pleasure to work with Anatoliy Sachivko and Nikita Kuzmenko again following the success of our last collaboration, Confused", added Jamala. 

In June Jamala released her album, also called 1944, with the Universal Music Group. It included 12 songs in total, eight in English and three in Ukrainian. In the United States it was released by Republic Records (a division of Universal Music Group), which works with Ariana Grande, Drake, Florence+The Machine, John Newman, Nickelback and Nicki Minaj, to name a few.

Check out some of the photos from the video shoot below: