Oleksandr Ivanovych Bilash[a] (6 March 1931 – 6 May 2003) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer and the author of popular lyric songs, ballads, operas, operettas, oratorios and music for films.

His father, Ivan Panasovych Bilash, played balalaika and guitar; his mother, Yevdokiya Andriyivna, was a solo singer at rural gatherings.

Already Bilash had emerged as a pre-eminent and prolific Ukrainian composer who had contributed immensely to variety of musical genres and styles.

[2] He composed the opera "Haydamaky" (1965), "The Ballad of War" (1971), "The Grooms" (1985), operetta "The Legend of Kyiv", "The Bells of Russia".

At the time of Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986, the popular lyric song "Dva kolyory" (Two colors) composed by Oleksandr Bilash sounded like a revelation.