From Odesa to the West End: Golda the musical

When the war hit, Amirova was well on her way to stardom, having, in 2019, reached the final of Ukraine’s The Voice with a rendition of her grandmother’s favourite Yiddish song Bei Mir Bist Du Shein. Her music blends, she says, Ukrainian, English, Hebrew, Russian, and Yiddish melodies with Odesa humour.

Golda Amirova in Golda the musical (Photo: Annabel Moeller)[Missing Credit]

Born to an Ashkenazi mother and a Mountain Jew father, she changed her first name from Tetyana to the more Jewish-sounding Golda at the age of 22.

After Putin’s invasion, some of her family moved to Ashdod, in Israel. She also spent time in Israel, but then came to London and after four months with a host family now flatshares in St John’s Wood where she attends the local shul. She has also forged close ties with Chabad Belgravia.

The musical has been in development for a year and premiered at Notting Hill’s Tabernacle Theatre in November.

One day, she hopes to take her show that “spans love, loss and resilience” to the land of her birth. “My dream would be to perform at the opera house in Odesa.” In the meantime, she is already in conversation with a theatre in Tel Aviv about staging Golda in the Jewish state.

GOLDA: A Musical Story of Love, Loss and Resilience will be at the Theatre Royal Haymarket Sunday 17 March trh.co.uk