rock band
Scorpions no longer count on concerts in Russia
The Scorpions don’t know if they will perform again in Russia. photo
© Leo Correa/AP/dpa
Performing in Russia doesn’t feel right for the Scorpions – a disappointment for the many Russian fans. During the Soviet Union, the band made history in the country.
End of a decade-long friendship: The German hard rock band Scorpions will probably no longer play in Russia because of the Ukraine war.
“I don’t see us performing again in Russia,” Scorpions guitarist Matthias Jabs (67) told the Mannheimer Morgen newspaper. He emphasized: “Not because of the fans. Of course they regret it. But because of the external circumstances, it just doesn’t feel right.” Instead, he would wish to play in Ukraine soon after the war ends.
“Our generation rubs their eyes in amazement every morning. We wake up, hear the news – and go to bed with the terrible pictures from Ukraine,” said Klaus Meine (74), singer and frontman of the world-famous band from Hanover. “Of course we would never have thought it possible that something like this could happen in the heart of Europe after such a long period of peace.”
When asked if he could understand ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s advocacy for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, Meine said only briefly: “No.” The rock star and the politician know each other from Hanover.
The Scorpions have been popular in Russia since they were the first western hard rock group allowed to perform there in 1988, back in Soviet times. Their 1991 hit “Wind of Change” became the anthem of upheaval in Eastern Europe. The musicians were received in the Kremlin by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In the meantime, Meine has reworded the lines dedicated to Moscow in “Wind of Change”; they are now about Ukraine. On Putin’s orders, the Russian army invaded the neighboring country a year ago.