Wuerzburg
Sexist, discriminatory? Excitement about party hit “Layla”
“Layla” will not be heard at the Kiliani folk festival in Würzburg. Photo: Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Summer time is party time: Whether on Mallorca or in the beer tent at home – Germany celebrates loudly and bawls along to the latest party hits. In Würzburg, the city has been listening more closely for some time and is now taking action.
Simple lyrics for everyone, always in rhyme, plus powerful beats and a lot of good humor: Whether in the pubs on the holiday islands or at home at the fire brigade festival: Germany celebrates itself through the summer.
Corona and the Ukraine war seem very far away at times. One party hit follows the next, in the marquee between north and south, many visitors sing along loudly to the often catchy lyrics.
DJ Robin & Schürze are very popular with many revelers with their summer song “Layla” and are currently number 1 in the German single charts. But the city of Würzburg, where the roughly two-week folk festival “Kiliani” is currently running, is upset with the hit in the Ballermann style. He is sexist.
decision of the city
“We can decide what we want to hear at the folk festival,” explains city spokesman Christian Weiß. “We don’t want to hear that anymore.” And so the marquee operator was asked not to play the song anymore. A media company had previously drawn Mainstadt’s attention to the text, and according to Weiss there had not been any public criticism to date.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (44) also spoke up in the sexism debate about the party song. “You don’t have to like hit lyrics. You can even find them goofy or tasteless. But to ban them officially, I think, is one too many,” wrote the FDP politician on Twitter on Tuesday evening.
The song says, among other things, about the rhythmic, electronic music: «I have a whorehouse and my whorehouse mom’s name is Layla. She is prettier, younger, hornier (…) Beautiful Layla, horny Layla. That bitch Layla, our Layla (…).»
reaction of the musicians
DJ Robin can’t understand the excitement, there is no sexism in the song. “People used to sing ‘scandal in the restricted area’ or ‘we’re going to the whorehouse in Barcelona’,” he was quoted as saying by the “Bild” newspaper. “So we can’t really understand the discussion. Everyone can have their opinion, but in every German rap song the lyrics are worse. Nobody gets upset about that.”
His music colleague, Michael Müller alias Schürze, said the “Heilbronner voice”: “Nowadays a pineapple is quickly made from a pea.” It sees that the people are behind them. He rejected the accusation of sexism. Recordings on social networks showed that the visitors to the marquee in Würzburg sang the song themselves several times – even without musical support.
Music expert: “Of course the song is sexist”
For music expert Michael Fischer from the University of Freiburg it is clear: “Of course the song is sexist.” In the song, a woman named Layla is described and “sung about in a sexist way, and the video of course also supports this in its visual language,” explains the director of the Center for Popular Culture and Music of the German Press Agency.
“It’s a party hit. People usually drank five beers beforehand.” Party hits are never about uplifting themes, says Fischer. “It’s often about sexual content, drinking, that’s what you do at some parties.” You have to pay attention to the framework, the setting, “so where are these things listed”.
Is that irony?
The fact that the protagonist of the video clip is obviously a man in high heels, a black mini skirt and a blond wig does not change the character of the song. This is beyond irony or trans aspects. “It’s just a sexist song,” the expert said.
Würzburg had decided last year to no longer allow racist and sexist songs at city folk festivals. This also applies to the controversial “Donaulied” – the text of which revolves around a rape.
Misogyny, discriminatory, glorifying violence, harmful to young people – some musicians repeatedly offend with their songs. Critics speak of tasteless exploitation of artistic freedom. However, media scientists point out that adolescents should independently deal with misogynistic or anti-Semitic content, understand the context and develop their own attitude.
“Forbidding songs is always the last resort,” says Fischer. Often it is rather the question: «What do we want as a society?» A song may be legally correct, but “I do think that the sponsor of an event like the city of Würzburg has the right or maybe even the duty to say: We don’t want that,” says the music expert. “It’s an ethical question. We don’t want women to be talked about like that.”