Early years

Composer and musician Levko Dutkivsky started a VIA named Smerichka in 1967 in that same cultural centre as in which Zinkevych danced. However, the group's main lead singer moved away from Vyzhnytsia in 1966, leaving Dutkivsky to find a new singer. When Dutkivsky struggled to find a replacement, Vasyl Vaskov, the leader of the dance ensemble Smerchina, suggested Zinkevych.^[5]

Dutkivsky taught Zinkevych to sing, and found himself pleasantly surprised by Zinkevych perseverance. However, when a local television station wanted to use a recorded version of Smerichka's song "Snizhynki padayut'", Zinkevych failed to deliver the version that Dutkivsky had desired. Television producer Vasyl Strihovych asked Dutkivsky to find another singer.^[6]

"Zinkevych was supposed to sing solo, and the girls would sing in unison. Vasyl, not having the experience of recording in a studio, did not sing like he needed. Strihovych proposed to me to find someone else. I remembered the student of the medical institute, Volodya Ivasyuk, who during the dances at the House of the Officers had sung my song "Bazhannya". Volodya arrived. Having a musical background, a violinist-to-be, he recorded the song in a few takes. Zinkevych was hurt in his pride then. He was offended, he was strudding the hallways of the studio, humming and humming something, and then requested me, to let him do just one more take. Having gotten his act together, this time, Vasyl sang better."

— Levko Dutkivsky, ^[7]

Eventually, this last version by Zinkevych was chosen over the version that Ivasyuk sang, with Ivasyuk also preferring Zinkevych's version to his own.^[8]

In 1969, Zinkevych proposed that Nazariy Yaremchuk should join the group, to which Dutkivsky agreed upon hearing the latter's singing voice.^[9]

Chervona Ruta and international recognition

In 1970, Zinkevych, without having any prior acting experience, was cast as the lead role of Boris in Chervona Ruta, one of the first Soviet television musicals. He played opposite to Sofia Rotaru, who played the female lead role Oksana. The film was debuted in 1971 and was a widespread success throughout the whole Soviet Union, but especially in Ukraine. In the film, Zinkevych sang several songs that became hits throughout Ukraine and most of the wider Soviet Union, such as "Myla moia" and "Chervona Ruta".^[10] For a long time, Zinkevych and Rotaru were miscredited to have sung "Vodohray" in the film, but the version that was played in the background was sung by Yaremchuk and Maria Isak.

Due to the group's growing popularity, Smerichka was asked to perform a song during the first annual Pesnya goda in Moscow in 1971, alongside already established names such as Iosif Kobzon, Eduard Khil and Muslim Magomayev.^[11] In their Hutsul attire, Zinkevych and Yaremchuk looked very out of place in the Russian capital. The performance however was well-received by the audience and the clear confusion of the group, who was miscredited as "Semerichka", led to humour as well.^[12]

For most of the early 1970s, Yaremchuk and Zinkevych performed as a duet and as shared lead singers of Smerichka, with sometimes Yaremchuk and other times Zinkevych taking the lead vocals. Despite Yaremchuk's growing popularity, Zinkevych was not left hurt in his pride this time. According to a fellow Smerichka singer, Zinkevych treated Yaremchuk, who had already lost both his parents by age of 20 in 1971, as a younger brother.^[13]