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Kazaky is a Ukrainian music and dance group formed in Kyiv around 2009–2010 that gained international recognition through a combination of electronic pop music, complex choreography and a stage image built around male dancers performing in high heels. The group’s visual aesthetic quickly took it beyond the boundaries of a conventional pop act: Kazaky performed at fashion shows, toured internationally and appeared in Madonna’s Girl Gone Wild video in 2012.
Kazaky’s best-known songs include In the Middle, Love, I’m Just a Dancer, Dance and Change, Last Night, Crazy Law, Touch Me, The Sun, Pulse, What You Gonna Do, Milk-Choc, Push and Fucking Beautiful. Musically, the project lies at the intersection of synthpop, electro-pop and dance, although Kazaky’s identity was shaped equally by music, choreography, fashion and the carefully constructed physical language of each performance.
Formation of the group
The key figure in the creation of Kazaky was Ukrainian choreographer Oleg Zhezhel. The original lineup consisted of Zhezhel, Artur Gaspar, Kyrylo Fedorenko and Stas Pavlov.
All of the members had serious dance training, but came from different schools — from contemporary and stage choreography to classical and ballroom dance. This allowed the project from the very beginning to build its performances not around the conventional “lead singer and backing dancers” model, but around four equal performers.
The idea of dancing in stilettos gradually became the group’s main visual trademark. Their routines incorporated elements of waacking, club choreography, runway-inspired movement and acrobatics, while the athletic male physique was deliberately combined with footwear and movements traditionally associated with women’s fashion.
In the Middle and the first viral videos
Kazaky’s public breakthrough came after the release of the In the Middle video in 2010. At the beginning of the clip, the members appear in more conventional menswear before switching to their stage image with high heels.
The video quickly spread through YouTube and music blogs. For the early 2010s, it was an especially effective format: Kazaky needed almost no lengthy introduction — just a few seconds of synchronized choreography were enough to communicate the project’s visual concept.
Love and I’m Just a Dancer followed. These works firmly established the characteristic Kazaky formula: minimalist electronic music, repeated English-language phrases, a precise rhythm and choreography designed equally for a music video and a fashion shoot.
First lineup change
In 2011, Stas Pavlov left the group. He was replaced by Italian dancer and performer Francesco Borgato.
Borgato was therefore not part of Kazaky’s original four-member lineup, although the lineup featuring him became one of the best known to the international audience.
During this period, Dance and Change and Last Night were released, while the number of performances outside Ukraine increased significantly.
Kazaky and the fashion world
From the very beginning, the project was closer to the fashion industry than most Ukrainian pop groups of the time.
In June 2011, Kazaky performed at the Dsquared² Spring/Summer 2012 menswear show in Milan. The members closed the show with a dance performance in tight stage costumes and their signature high heels.
The appearance received notable coverage in the international fashion press. Vogue included Kazaky directly in its description of the show, while the Los Angeles Times separately highlighted the dance finale featuring the Ukrainian group.
For Kazaky, this episode was particularly important: it became clear that their visual language was being perceived not only as part of the music scene, but also as an independent element of fashion culture.
Madonna’s Girl Gone Wild
The group’s best-known international collaboration from its early period was its appearance in Madonna’s Girl Gone Wild video, released in 2012.
The video was directed by photographers and filmmakers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. Kazaky appear alongside Madonna and other dancers and models, performing their signature choreography, including routines in high heels.
The group was chosen specifically for its androgynous visual aesthetic and unusual movement style. After the release of Girl Gone Wild, the name Kazaky began appearing much more frequently in American and European coverage of fashion, club culture and contemporary choreography.
The Hills Chronicles
The debut studio album The Hills Chronicles was released on October 22, 2012.
It included the songs that formed the group’s early repertoire, including:
- In the Middle;
- Love;
- I’m Just a Dancer;
- Dance and Change;
- Last Night;
- I Can’t Stop.
The album’s music is based on synthesizer-driven dance-pop, electro and minimalist club rhythms. The vocal element is deliberately simple and often built around short repeated phrases, because the main dramatic dimension of the project existed not only in the recording itself, but also in its visual performance.
Stas Pavlov’s return and I Like It
At the beginning of 2013, Francesco Borgato left Kazaky, after which Stas Pavlov returned to the lineup.
The first notable work by the restored four-member lineup was Crazy Law. The same year saw the release of the I Like It project, divided into two parts.
I Like It (Part 1) appeared in the summer of 2013, while I Like It (Part 2) followed in December. The main songs from this period include Crazy Law, Touch Me, Doesn’t Matter, The Sun and Horizon.
Compared with The Hills Chronicles, the music became denser and more varied, but the principle of the project remained unchanged: an electronic track was developed together with its visual image and choreography rather than existing separately from them.
Oleg Zhezhel outside the performing lineup
In 2013, Oleg Zhezhel stopped performing regularly with Kazaky. Knee problems were among the reasons, although this did not mean a complete departure from the project.
Zhezhel retained his role in the creation of the music, choreography and overall artistic concept of the group. He continued to be described as a producer and one of the main creators of Kazaky’s aesthetic.
After another departure by Stas Pavlov, Artemiy Lazarev joined the group and took part in the next stage of its history.
2014–2015: The Hardkiss and new singles
In the mid-2010s, Kazaky continued releasing individual songs and videos. These included Magic Pie, The Sun, Pulse, What You Gonna Do, Milk-Choc and Your Style.
In 2014, the group appeared in a collaboration with Ukrainian band The Hardkiss on the song and video Strange Moves. The project brought together two completely different visual schools of the Ukrainian pop scene: the rock-oriented aesthetic of The Hardkiss and the choreographic minimalism of Kazaky.
During this period, the group also continued its international performances and appearances at fashion and club events.
The 2016 hiatus
In 2016, the members of Kazaky announced that they were ending their joint activities. The decision was explained by the musicians’ and dancers’ desire to develop their own projects.
After several years of intensive touring and work within a strictly defined visual concept, the members began moving in different directions: solo music, choreography, teaching and other creative projects.
At the same time, the group did not declare its ending to be absolutely final, leaving open the possibility of a future return.
Return with Push
In 2019, after a three-year break, Kazaky returned with the song Push. The video was directed by Ukrainian filmmaker Alan Badoev.
At the time of the comeback, the performing lineup had been expanded to five members: Artur Gaspar, Kyrylo Fedorenko and Artemiy Lazarev were joined by Vlad Koval and Yevhen Honcharenko.
Oleg Zhezhel continued to participate in the project as producer and author of its artistic direction.
Push differed from the group’s early material not so much musically as thematically. Kazaky’s return was accompanied by open statements about freedom, tolerance, equality and the right to self-expression.
The video itself was dedicated in part to Kazaky’s audience and the LGBTQ+ community, which had formed a notable part of the group’s international fan base for many years.
Inside My Body and Fucking Beautiful
After Push, the new singles Inside My Body and We Should Be Like No One Else appeared in 2019.
In 2020, the group released Fucking Beautiful. The song became Kazaky’s last major original studio work before another extended period without new original singles.
Musically, the later recordings retained their connection to synthpop and club-oriented electronic music, although the production became more contemporary and denser than on the minimalist tracks of the early 2010s.
Kazaky discography
The Hills Chronicles — 2012
The first studio album and the foundation of the group’s early catalog.
Main songs: In the Middle, Love, I’m Just a Dancer, Dance and Change, Last Night, I Can’t Stop.
I Like It — 2013
The second studio project, released in two parts — I Like It (Part 1) and I Like It (Part 2).
Main songs: Crazy Law, Touch Me, Doesn’t Matter, The Sun, Horizon.
Compilations and later releases
- Greatest Songs — compilation, 2017;
- Music from Live Shows — live release, 2017;
- Push — 2019;
- Inside My Body — 2019;
- We Should Be Like No One Else — 2019;
- Fucking Beautiful — 2020;
- Kazaky Collaborative Remixes, Vol.1 — 2025;
- Collaborative Remixes, Vol.2 — 2026.
The two latest releases consist mainly of new remixes of material from different periods of the group’s career. They show that the Kazaky catalog continues to develop officially on digital platforms, although no new full-length studio albums of original material have appeared since Fucking Beautiful.
Musical style
Kazaky’s music is primarily based on synthpop, electro-pop and dance. Some songs also contain elements of house, electroclash and early-2010s club pop.
At the same time, evaluating Kazaky solely through their audio recordings is insufficient. The project was originally created as a combination of several disciplines:
- electronic pop music;
- contemporary choreography;
- fashion;
- music video;
- a theatrical stage image.
In this context, high heels were not simply a provocative accessory, but part of the movement technique. The members performed complex synchronized choreography while maintaining an athletic, angular and deliberately hard-edged physical style.
Androgyny and gender image
Kazaky’s visual language was built around the collision of traits that mass culture traditionally separates into “masculine” and “feminine.” Muscular physiques, short haircuts and sharp movements were combined with heels, tight clothing and elements of fashion choreography.
At the same time, during the early period the members themselves avoided turning the project into a direct statement about their own sexual orientation. In interviews, they emphasized the theatrical nature of the image and preferred not to discuss the private lives of individual members.
Later, the social dimension became expressed much more directly. The 2019 return with Push was openly associated with themes of freedom of love, equality, tolerance and the right to safe self-expression.
Fashion as part of Kazaky
The connection with fashion was not a secondary promotional element for Kazaky. Even the early videos resembled fashion films because of their minimalist sets, monochrome clothing, emphasized body geometry and the camera’s focus on movement.
The performance at Dsquared² in Milan firmly established this reputation. From then on, Kazaky were regularly covered not only by music publications, but also by fashion media.
This approach clearly distinguished Kazaky from most Ukrainian dance projects of the early 2010s: the musical composition, costume, movement and video imagery were developed as parts of a single visual system.
The significance of Kazaky
Kazaky emerged at a time when YouTube was simultaneously changing music promotion and fashion, club culture and pop video were increasingly blending together. The group used this moment unusually effectively: its early videos were understandable to an international audience even without knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian, because movement and visual image served as the main means of expression.
International performances, the appearance at the Dsquared² show and participation in Madonna’s Girl Gone Wild brought the Ukrainian project into the sphere of global pop and fashion culture, where groups from Ukraine still appeared relatively rarely in the early 2010s.
Kazaky’s most enduring legacy became the model of a music-and-choreography project in which male stage movement was not constrained by traditional ideas about which clothes or movements were considered appropriate for a performer.
Kazaky occupy a distinctive place in the history of Ukrainian pop music not so much because of the size of their discography as because of the recognizability of their own aesthetic. Just a few seconds of synchronized dancing in high heels made the project visually identifiable long before an international audience had time to remember the title of a song — a rare case in which choreography became as important an authorial language for the group as the music itself.
