An excluded Russian singer appeals to the Royal Family

Norway’s queen Sonja singing competition has banned all Russian participants, regardless of their views on the war. One singer is not laying her exclusion in silence. Maria Ostroukhova writes:

Dear Queen Sonja Singing Competition
I do hope that this email will be read, and I do expect to receive a reply.
My name is Maria Ostroukhova, and I am a Russian opera singer currently residing in the United Kingdom. When the war started, I was working in Germany and realised that my life – and the lives of my families in Russia and Ukraine were changed forever.
Initially, I kept silent when competitions such as Moniuszko Singing Competition or The Dublin Piano Competition banned Russians and Belarusians. I thought that such a life-changing, terrifying event invoked a visceral reaction from our European colleagues, a desire to do something that was based on emotions rather than common sense.
A year has passed. The organisers of the Queen Sonia Competition had plenty of time to make a well-informed decision based on facts: multiple testimonies by Russian artists denouncing the war and risking their careers, freedom, and life (
https://van-magazine.com/…/russian-musicians-putin…/); numerous anti-war protests in Russia and Belarus that resulted in detainment, beatings and torture (https://en.wikipedia.org/…/2022_anti-war_protests_in…).
Knowing it all, you still decided to go ahead and issue a xenophobic and discriminatory statement in which you said that “Together with the rest of the liberal world, Norway has strongly condemned Russia’s illegal and inhuman attacks on Ukraine. We fully support this condemnation, and we stand in strong solidarity with Ukraine and its citizens in defence of our mutual democratic values. Applications from singers with Russian and Belarusian citizenship will this year, therefore not be accepted. This regulation is set to exclude Russia and Belarus as nations, rather than the individual applicant.”
Surprisingly, you do not see how awful, condescending and illogical this statement is. Since when did the democratic values of the liberal world include discrimination based on nationality? How does this ban help Ukranian citizens? And lastly, do you think that two sociopaths that call themselves presidents of Russia and Belarus care if the artists who had the misfortune of being born in these countries are publicly humiliated by your institution (and such a ban is nothing but a twenty-first-century version of public floggings)?
You can not be aware that most Russian artists left or fled Russia. We receive no support, solidarity, or help, although we, unlike the “citizens of the liberal world”, did everything we could to voice our protest and stop this from happening. Instead, we have work contracts cancelled. Competitions ban us. Online hate is overwhelming, and we are targeted solely for our nationality.
I took part in political campaigns; I went to protests (that always looked like this: https://youtu.be/ifXOH-0VumY), and I volunteered and donated to charities, both Russian and Ukrainian. What else were I and artists like me supposed to do? In my passionate Facebook comment on the competition page, I mentioned self-immolation. But this already has happened – a woman named Irina Slavina committed self-immolation in front of the police headquarters as a last resort. Her name is unknown to those fortunate to be born in “the liberal world”. I will spare you the video link to that event; it is far too graphic.
And your stance is particularly upsetting because you proudly bear the name of Queen Sonia. As a resident of the United Kingdom, I know full well that the Royal Family is always above politics – this is one of the caveats of the existence of the constitutional monarchy in the twenty-first century. Therefore, either you consulted with the Royal Family of Norway on the matter, and they greenlighted you to ban Russian or Belarusian artists, or you did it without prior consultation. I don’t know about Norway, but in the UK, it is unthinkable for an institution under the patronage of the Royal Family to do something so political and controversial without the court’s full knowledge and consent.
All in all, this is how I see this situation being resolved graciously:
1. An immediate lift of the discriminatory ban on Russian and Belarusian artists.
2. A written apology from the organisation’s committee.
3. A substantial monetary donation to any of the Ukrainian opera theatres. I would propose the Odesa Opera Theatre (https://operahouse.od.ua/en/), one of the oldest theatres in Ukraine.
The third stipulation is to remind you and the organisers that true solidarity and true charity are expressed in physical or financial aid. Kicking defenceless and powerless Russian and Belarusian artists to the curb is free, simple and bears no consequences, but it is neither solidarity nor charity.
I do hope that you will take this matter seriously, and make the only right decision.
Sincerely,
Maria