“They arrested a girl who had a blank piece of paper. She was making the point that even doing that would send someone to jail”: Iamthemorning’s Marjana Semkina hated mixing politics with art – until her native Russia’s war on Ukraine

Marjana Semkina.

Self-exiled Russian artist and the voice behind duo Iamthemorning, Marjana Semkina has taken a different approach on her second solo album, Sirin. Her trademark melancholy lyrics are now ignited by anger over the political situation in her birth country, in what the singer-songwriter describes as a “unified art project.” She tells Prog about the hope, heartbreak and personal cheerleading team that made the exciting release possible.

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