Learn Hardcore Russian: Премьера показала, что этот жанр всё ещё популярен среди молодёжи. - The premiere showed that this genre is still popular among young people.

The subject here is премьера (premiere), which is grammatically feminine.
The verb показать (perfective “to show”) in the past tense has:
- он показал (masc.)
- она показала (fem.)
- оно показало (neut.)
- они показали (pl.)

Since премьера is feminine singular, the correct form is показала.

Why is there a comma before что in показала, что этот жанр…?

In Russian, you usually put a comma before что when it introduces a subordinate clause.

Премьера показала – main clause (“The premiere showed”)
что этот жанр всё ещё популярен среди молодёжи – subordinate clause (what exactly it showed)

So the comma marks the boundary: [main clause], что [subordinate clause].
This is similar to English “The premiere showed, that this genre is still popular…”, except in English the comma is usually omitted, while in Russian it’s required.

What is что doing here? Is it a pronoun or a conjunction?

In this sentence, что is a conjunction, not a pronoun.

It works like English “that” in “showed that this genre is still popular”.
It does not have its own case or meaning like “what/which”; it just links the main clause with the content clause.

So: показала, что… = “showed that…”, with что as a conjunction.

Why is этот жанр in the nominative case, not accusative?

Inside the subordinate clause что этот жанр всё ещё популярен среди молодёжи, the phrase этот жанр is the subject of that clause.

The verb (or, more precisely, the predicate) in that clause is популярен.
So этот жанр is “the thing that is popular”.

Subjects in Russian are in the nominative case, so этот жанр stays nominative:

этот жанр (есть) популярен – “this genre is popular”

What is the difference between всё ещё and just ещё?

Both can translate as “still”, but всё ещё is more clearly and explicitly “still (continuing up to now)”.

всё ещё популярен – strongly emphasizes “still, even now, up to this moment”.
ещё популярен – can also mean “still popular”, but depending on context it may sound a bit more neutral or be interpreted as “not yet no longer popular”.

You can also say:

до сих пор популярен
по-прежнему популярен

All mean roughly “still popular”, but всё ещё is very common and slightly emphasizes the continuation.

Why is it популярен and not популярный?

Популярен is the short form adjective of популярный. In Russian, many adjectives have:

a full form: популярный
a short form: популярен (masc.), популярна (fem.), популярно (neut.), популярны (pl.)

In predicate position (“X is Y”), the short form is very common, especially for qualities like “famous”, “known”, “possible”, “necessary”, “ready”:

жанр популярен – “the genre is popular”
фильм известен – “the film is famous”
он готов – “he is ready”

Using the full form in predicate position is also possible but changes nuance:

Этот жанр популярный.
Sounds more like “It’s a popular genre (as a characteristic / type)”, often with contrast or emphasis (e.g. “not obscure, but a popular one”).

Here, stating a factual state “is still popular”, the short form популярен is the most natural choice.

Could we say этот жанр всё ещё популярный instead? How would that sound?

You can say этот жанр всё ещё популярный, and it’s grammatically correct, but the nuance changes:

этот жанр всё ещё популярен – neutral statement of fact: “this genre is still popular.”
этот жанр всё ещё популярный – sounds more like stressing the type/characteristic:
“this genre is still a popular one (not some niche thing).”

The version with популярен is more standard and stylistically neutral here.
The full form in the predicate often adds a bit of emphasis or contrast.

Why is it среди молодёжи? What case is молодёжи and why?

Среди (“among”) requires the genitive case.

The noun молодёжь (“youth, young people (as a group)”) is feminine singular.
Its genitive singular form is молодёжи.

So:

nominative: молодёжь
genitive: молодёжи

The pattern is common for many feminine nouns ending in -жь:
молодёжь – молодёжи, рожь – ржи, etc.

Среди молодёжи literally = “among (the) youth / young people”.

Could we use у молодёжи instead of среди молодёжи?

У молодёжи is possible in some contexts, but it is not a direct synonym of среди молодёжи.

среди молодёжи – “among young people”, focusing on distribution inside the group.
- Этот жанр популярен среди молодёжи. – “This genre is popular among young people.”
у молодёжи – literally “by/at the youth”, more like “young people have it” or “with young people”.
- У молодёжи сейчас много свободного времени. – “Young people now have a lot of free time.”

So in this sentence, среди молодёжи is the natural and idiomatic choice.

What exactly does молодёжь mean? Is it singular or plural?

Молодёжь is grammatically singular, feminine.

It refers to “young people” as a collective group: “youth”.
You use singular verb agreement with it:
Молодёжь любит такие фильмы. – “Young people like such films.”

In this sentence, it appears in the genitive singular: молодёжи after среди.

Why do we write ё in всё and молодёжи? Is ё always written?

In standard spelling, ё can often be replaced by е, and many printed texts do that. However:

The sound is always [yo], regardless of whether it’s written ё or е.
In careful or pedagogical texts (like for learners), ё is usually written to show pronunciation clearly.

In this sentence:

всё – pronounced [vsyo]
молодёжи – pronounced [malodyozhi]

You might also see them written as все and молодежи in ordinary Russian texts, but the pronunciation doesn’t change.