Kulturkamarilla | Xaver Naidoo: Resurrection with disclaimer

The return of aging pop and German pop starlets to the stages that mean the world to them is a pathetic spectacle that seems almost inevitable in the final stages of modern capitalism. Financially battered, they stagger back into the ring like aging boxers to escape the threat of old-age poverty.

In the last two years, another pop-cultural phenomenon emerged: musicians who completely lost their minds during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing government measures during the pandemic with the persecution of Jews under National Socialism completely derailed some music stars' career plans.

As is typical of the industry, these fallen starlets were quickly resurrected, stumbling across the stage like zombies. Michael Wendler's return to the Ballermann this summer was inevitable, because the slick conspiracy theorist has long been part of the furniture on Germany's most popular drinking and partying island. Nena's comeback was equally inevitable, because the longing for comfort through melodic insignificance is so great in Germany that the 80s are suddenly considered a paradise of bliss here, even though at that time – during the Cold War – nuclear death was a constant threat.

The German people’s longing for musical comfort is completed by soul singer and soul catcher Xavier Naidoo.

Completing the German longing for musical comfort through the three apocalyptic musicians is soul singer and soul-catcher Xavier Naidoo. The announcement that the native of Mannheim is planning two concerts in Cologne in December under the motto "Bei meiner Seele 2026" came as no surprise. After the first performance together with the "little lousy guy" (quote Harald Schmidt) Oliver Pocher last year, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.

The resurrection of those presumed dead is an important part of the music business. This also applies to singers who were considered completely dead. The Böhsen Onkelz fill entire stadiums these days, whereas in the halcyon 80s, they were still belting out lyrics against Jews and foreigners in Nazi bunkers.

In recent years, Xavier Naidoo has provided the accompaniment to mass vaccine refusal and a nationalist radicalization on the instant messaging service Telegram. The 55-year-old spoke with Holocaust deniers and sang alongside well-known right-wing extremists. This shift to the extreme right came as a surprise to most music lovers. In fact, Naidoo has been making crude statements for decades: In June 1999, he admitted in an interview with "Musikexpress" that he was a racist: "But a racist regardless of skin color," Naidoo continued.

In 2011, Naidoo declared on ARD's "Morgenmagazin" that "Germany is not a real country." Six years later, he claimed again on the magazine "Stern" that the Federal Republic of Germany was "not a sovereign country" because "the Americans are allowed to monitor us."

After his performance in front of 300 Reich Citizens and the NDR's rejection of sending him as Germany's representative to the Eurovision Song Contest, the assembled German cultural elite, despite all the statements, sought to defend the conspiracy theorist and published an ad in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" with the cozy title "People for Xavier Naidoo." Til Schweiger, Tim Mälzer, and even Mario Adorf signed the declaration of solidarity to help save the reputation of one of their own.

That this ad is now far more likely to serve as evidence of the collusion of the German cultural clique with a reactionary who expressed racist and anti-Semitic views should have been obvious even back then. Nevertheless, concert promoter Marek Lieberberg, whose agency, according to "Spiegel," handles "not only Naidoo, but also many other signatories," managed to make the message of solidarity so prominent. The manager once paid for the ad, even though the statements made by his client at the time "fit just as well with the canon of Pegida, AfD, and the like," as author Christian Stöcker notes in the Hamburg news magazine.

Xavier Naidoo's comeback this year is receiving far less support. After distancing himself from conspiracy theories in a video three years ago "without ifs, ands, or buts," the singer found few supporters for his resurrection. Quite the opposite: Further guests for the 15 announced concerts have not yet been announced. And the venue, Olympiapark, has added a disclaimer to the concert announcement for Munich. In it, the company "expressly distances itself from the artist's statements" and "commits itself to diversity and tolerance and condemns anti-Semitism, racism, and homophobia." Despite this, or perhaps precisely because of this, the first concerts have long since sold out.