Vasyl Yaroslavovych Slipak was a Ukrainian baritone opera singer. Born in 1974 in Lviv, Slipak had a passion for singing since childhood. The whole of Ukraine was proud of his charming voice.
Continuing to share that passion Slipak, at the age of 11, joined the Lviv children's choir group Dudarik. After that, he continued his education at the Lviv Conservatory. In the course of his education, he took part in a vocal contest in the French city of Clermont. Winning the contest had probably led to the beginning of his worldwide fame, and in 1996, Slipak received an invitation to perform at Opera Bastille. In 1997 Slipak graduated from the Lysenko Music Academy in Lviv. By 2011, he was at the top of his competition, winning the prize for the best male performer at the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary, for his role of the Toreador from the opera ‘Carmen’. Even though Slipak was a worldwide known star and a celebrity, he had never forgotten about his motherland.
During the revolution of dignity in Ukraine, Slipak was actively helping in various actions in France supporting the situation in Ukraine. He helped the Ukrainian army since the beginning of the war as a volunteer. Later on, he decided that help as a volunteer was not enough for him. He stated that he had to fight for the freedom of his homeland directly. In 2015 Slipak joined the fight against the Russian-backed separatists on the country’s eastern front as a member of the battalion of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps - The Right Sector. He took the military call-out sign mif (mit) alluding to his favourite aria Mephistopheles from the opera Faust. Sadly, most of his friends did not support his decision. They told him that he belonged to the stage, not to war. However, the desire to defend his homeland was greater than his fame for him. He was willing to end his whole almost lifelong carrier and sacrifice it.
Unfortunately, people started talking loudly about Slipak only after his tragic death. Some of his friends in the battalion had not even known that an opera star was fighting with them. On the morning of 29th June on Wednesday 2016 at around 6 a.m., a 12,7 millimetres cold steel sniper bullet shut eternally the majestic voice of Slipak. He was killed by a sniper shot near Luhanske.
Summing it up, Vasyl Yaroslavovych Slipak was an incredible patriot of Ukraine and he is a person to follow. Slipak sacrificed his carrier and his life to protect his motherland and let future generations be free. He can be a prime example proving that freedom is much more important than everything. He himself had everything a person could only dream of: popularity, money, and never having to worry about anything, but he still left it all in the past and fought for the freedom of his land. He will always be remembered in our hearts as a man of honour and an incredible patriot to the country.
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