Naviband

Naviband is a Belarusian duo, currently living in Poland. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Artem Lukyanenko and vocalist and keyboardist Ksenia Zhuk. The duo also collaborates with bassist Uladzislaŭ Čaščavik, guitarist Aliaksandr Taboĺski and drummer Uladzimir Biehier.

Lukyanenko was born in Glubokoye, graduated in journalism from the Belarusian State University and worked in the radio station Stalica. He was also the guitarist of the band Tim Erna. Zhuk was born in Minsk. She has been dealing with music since childhood, and her vocal talent was noticed when she was 11 years old. She herself teached children to sing in a music school. She was also the vocalist of the band Sonika. They both actively promote the Belarusian language.

The two met in 2013 and married on September 5, 2014 in Minsk.

In 2014, the Naviband released two studio albums: “Lovi” in January and “Soncam sahretyja in December”. Their song “Abdymi myane” received the Lira award for “the best Belarusian-language song of 2014”. In 2015, they won a competition for young Belarusian-speaking performers. 

In 2016, they took part in the national qualifiers for the 61st Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Heta ziamlya”. The duo took 4th place. In August of that year, they created the official song of the Belarusian football team. 

In 2017, they took part in the national Eurovision final again, this time with the song “Historyja majho žyccia”. They won and thus became the representatives of Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest. It was the first piece in the history of the competition performed in Belarusian. On the day of the Belarusian national final of the Belarusian qualifiers, i.e. January 20, 2017, they released another studio album, entitled “Illuminaciya”, which included, among others, the Eurovision song.

At the Eurovision Song Contest, the duo reached the final and became 17th there. 

In June 2017, they became the ambassadors of the Coca-Cola advertising campaign in Belarus. They created the Belarusian-language text of the song “Taste the Feeling” (used in the company’s advertisements around the world) and their own arrangement of this song. In October 2017, they announced the release of another album by the end of the year, “Adnoj darohaj”, which was released on December 8, 2017. On December 4, they presented a music video for the song “A dzie žyvieš ty?”, in which they announced that they are expecting a child . Their son, Maciej, was born on May 1, 2018.

In March 2018, they became ambassadors of the Easter advertising campaign of the Jewroopt chain of stores. In September 2018 they published a song in Ukrainian, “Sumne more” . On December 5, 2019, the band released their fifth album, “Naviband”.

In 2020, during protests in Belarus, the duo released two songs to support the protesters, “Inshymi” and “Diewoczka w biełom”, which is dedicated to the protesting women. The first one was sung live during one of the protests. In November of that year, they released another song dedicated to the protesters, “Milyon smutku”. In 2021, on the occasion of Freedom Day, they released the song “Volnyja sny”.together with the band Val .