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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Philip Oltermann in Berlin

Scorpions say they changed Wind of Change lyrics as song ‘romanticised Russia’

Scorpions Klaus Meine United States Russia Die Zeit Gerhard Schröder Vladimir Putin Ukraine
Klaus Meine performing during a Scorpions concert in Budapest, Hungary.
Klaus Meine said it wasn’t right to continue singing the song’s original lyrics in light of Putin’s war. Photograph: Balázs Mohai/EPA

The lead singer of the German hard rockers Scorpions has revealed he changed the lyrics of Wind of Change because he no longer wanted to “romanticise Russia” with his chart-topping perestroika power ballad, after Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.

“To sing Wind of Change as we have always sung it, that’s not something I could imagine any more,” Klaus Meine told Die Zeit. “It simply isn’t right to romanticise Russia with lyrics like: ‘I follow the Moskva / Down to Gorky Park … Let your balalaika sing’”.

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