PUSSY RIOT Releases 'Candy Dopamine' Single Featuring AVENGED SEVENFOLD

Protest and performance art collective PUSSY RIOT does not announce its debut album, "Cyka", with a cute Instagram carousel — instead the band launched it with an explosive protest at the Venice Biennale, the so-called "Olympics of the art world", timed deliberately to coincide with Russia's controversial return to the event. The stunt made headlines globally and sent exactly the message intended: we see you, we hate it, we brought cameras, and we declare "DISOBEY".

The official music video for the "Candy Dopamine" single from "Cyka" can be seen below. The track, featuring a guest appearance by AVENGED SEVENFOLD, is described in a press release as "a fever dream/panic attack collision of punk rage, pop hooks, and the kind of emotional honesty that makes you feel like you've been punched in the chest in the best possible way."

PUSSY RIOT's founder Nadya Tolokonnikova explains: "This song is kind of a love and hate song to prescription and designer drug culture. It started with my dependence on anti-depressants, but it's also looking at everyone now mentalhealthmaxxing and looksmaxxing via pills and injections. It's not a judgement; it's just an observation and my personal experience with these things is that I have to be in a long-term relationship with them for my PTSD and depression."

"Cyka" will arrive on Friday, June 12, Vladimir Putin is even listed as a contributor on the album (please check the DSP liner notes) and make of that what you will.

Next, PUSSY RIOT will bring the apocalypse live to Paris at the "Beyond The Streets" exhibit in Grande Halle de la Villette on Saturday, June 20. More live shows to be announced.

Tolokonnikova declares: "All these old men ruining the world right now act tough — but we see thru their fragile egos, and I'm not afraid to call them out. They are, in fact, pussies. While the world is waiting for the UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House, I challenge President Putin to a cage match. He thinks he's so tough, but afraid of a girl? Let's see. He loses? He gets the fuck out of Ukraine. The world can watch him lose to a girl, even with all his judo training. He can't even URA anymore, but he throws the world into despair. Just like Brener in 1995 when they bombed Chechnya, and he challenged Yeltsin, now they bomb Ukraine, and I challenge Putin. Putin! Come here!"

"Cyka" track listing:

01. Gods Left
02. Pain
03. Nothing To Lose
04. Cyka (featuring Vladimir Putin)
05. Murka
06. Gore (featuring B-Real)
07. Candy Dopamine (featuring AVENGED SEVENFOLD)
08. Faceless Pigs
09. Utopia (featuring Salem Ilese)
10. Disobey
11. God Loves The Fierce
12. Cancel Me
13. Blizzard
14. Outro

Tolokonnikova is a conceptual artist, musician, wanted criminal, and creator of the protest collective PUSSY RIOT. She spent two years in a Russian jail for her protest performance "Punk Prayer" (2012),which is widely considered one of the defining works of performance art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her 2023 performance "Putin's Ashes" and exhibition (Jeffrey Deitch, Dallas Contemporary, CONTAINER, OK Linz, Neue Nationalgalerie) landed her back on Russia's wanted list.

In 2025, "Police State" premiered at MOCA Warehouse Los Angeles, but was shut down due to the nearby National Guard and anti-ICE protests that erupted in a clash of life-imitates-art. The performance was listed as a Defining Artwork of 2025 by ARTNews and Best Art Shows Around the World by Hyperallergic. The performance was then shown at MCA Chicago in October 2025.

Among her accolades, including Time "Woman Of The Year", the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, LennonOno Grant for Peace, Woodie Guthrie Prize and an Honorary Doctorate from RISD, Nadya also wears as a badge of honor the 2025 designation of PUSSY RIOT as an extremist organization by the Russian Federation.

Tolokonnikova currently lives in exile and chooses to remain geographically anonymous.