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Silver moon in front of the Brandenburg Gate: inherent paradox of an entertainment-versus-the-bad event
Photo: CHRISTIAN MANG / REUTERS
In the end, there are individual, clear images that remain from a good ten hours of the "Sound of Peace" peace event and a Sunday in front of the television.
The Ukrainian folklore-pop band Selo i Ludy, which is connected via an Internet link from a bunker below Kharkiv, where they played a defiant, suddenly lyrically meaningful version of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life", on their energetic, sloppy Middle-in-the-face-cheerfulness you will have to think from now on and forever when the comparatively shelly original is blaring at you on the car radio.
One will remember the Ukrainian elementary school teacher Katharina, who comes on stage when Clueso performs and, with a straight back and remarkable naturalness, sings a Ukrainian folk song about love for her homeland - she fled the war with her children and now lives in Clueso's apartment, who has taken up residence in his studio.
The Russian musician Noize MC, who dedicates a song to all people who have to leave their homes and says these sentences so confidently and confidently that one really wants to believe him: »But they will come back.
They will return."
And in the end, although so much was sung and said on this long day, the minute's silence resonates most clearly, which Michael Patrick Kelly sent before his performance: »Perhaps our silence is the loudest thing we can offer today«.
Too bad about the facet force
The organizers wanted to organize "Europe's largest musical rally" against the war in the Ukraine in front of the Brandenburg Gate as quickly as possible.
Around 15,000 people came to the stage, in addition to the uncut YouTube live stream, the event could also be followed at home from 3 p.m. to around 10:20 p.m. on Sat.1 and ProSieben - albeit in a separate, evented version, moderated by Rebecca Mir and Daniel Boschmann, who, in addition to short interviews, prioritized the supposed musical highlights, i.e. the acts most suitable for the mainstream: Sarah Connor is coming soon, stay tuned for Adel Tawil!
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One would feel tasteless: visitors to the solidarity concert
Photo: Carsten Koall / Getty Images
That was a pity, because the concept of "Sound of Peace" was filleted, this musical as well as spoken multifaceted force, but probably plausible if you consider this exaggeration as an optimization in the service of fundraising.
Maybe a bit like an accompanying cheerleading event for the actual rally-concert-melange, which with its appeals for donations reminded us again and again that emotion alone at best helps the affected person for a moment and nobody else - and in the end over 12 million euros collected.
Because even if someone kept speaking hopefully of a "sign" that "the whole world should see" only the most naive or the most cynical person could actually believe that such an event would seriously and sincerely aim to bring about a change in direction even if it is of course a wonderful idea that the otherwise untouchable Putin could be emotionally dealt with with old Pur-Schmonzetten (no joke, Hartmut Engler really sang "Brüder").
The "oh what" reflex is easy
Of course, such an event must first and foremost be about collecting donations, if you don’t want to get stuck in a pacifist swaying performance and comfortingly swaying self-assurance that you’re on the right side in this war and that you’re meeting your target to have.
And one would also feel like piefig taste snobbery to judge the individual contributions in this context with regard to their artistic quality or the appropriateness of their dose of pathos (which is of course not very easy when Marius Müller-Westernhagen actually intones »freedom«, including »So wie we're here tonight!«-Reinvüller), because, considering the occasion, one already felt inappropriate when one had to laugh briefly,
But you can definitely see the large program space granted to the ProSieben family of stations as a good gesture, appreciate the 12 million euros collected there as a remarkable result, and at the same time find it inappropriate how extensively the program parts shown were chopped up by advertising blocks.
And all the backstage interviews annoyingly inflationary because they almost exclusively got stuck in suggestive feelings: "How moved are you?", "How do you feel about the crowd?", "Can you let us look into your soul what it means today standing here?”, “The solidarity here, how do you feel about it?” the musicians were asked, and how should they answer that other than: We are very touched, and war is bad.
»What do you wish for the people of Ukraine?«,
finally a few more people in the crowd are asked.
"Peace," they answer, and then the "Oh, what" reflex is very loose.
Showing that touch is better than talking about it.
When Silbermond singer Stefanie Kloß is close to tears during her performance and openly addresses the paradox that is inherent in such an entertainment-against-the-bad event: Every word that she can say now is actually too much , but saying nothing would also feel wrong.
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Patent free of pathos: Sarah Connor
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
Sarah Connor struck a good note, patently pathos-free: One should never forget how important our freedom is and how little it can be taken for granted, she said, and just because one may already know it oneself, one should never underestimate the effect it has on other people, when Sarah Connor says something like that on a big stage.
"This isn't a concert," Mark Forster announced his songs: "We're all here to show something."
Helplessness and being overwhelmed are acceptable
This point would certainly have become clearer during the TV processing if all the spoken contributions had not been cut, which, alongside the music acts, were an equally important part of the event and actually made it the planned rally: You could hear them in the uncut live stream, a pushed together, unfinished piecemeal work of very different approaches and attempts at coping, which is therefore so appropriate for this time.
The actresses Jasna Fritzi Bauer and Jella Haase read poems from their literary project »Today I write«.
When asked what was lost in war, journalist Alexandra Rojkov said: »The certainty of not dying«.
The Ukrainian Alexandra turned to the German government with a Ukrainian flag knotted as a cape: »Stop this double standard: please close the skies over Ukraine!«.
“Putin, you are a liar and you will never win.
You've already lost, and the whole world knows it," said Oliver Kalkofe in his speech.
In these reports there was always room for the reference that the war in Ukraine is not the only one in the world, for helplessness and excessive demands, which – if not in their entirety, then at least as a selection – could also have been expected of the television audience and should.
As a supplement to the solidarity video snippets by Ross Antony and Sven Hannawald broadcast on ProSieben, because in combination, every form of address ideally finds its audience and its benefit.
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It was about the "sign," it was said again and again: cell phone flashlight lights in front of the stage
Photo: Carsten Koall / Getty Images
To ensure that the lasting effect of this event should not end with the jointly tuned final "Imagine", that it is about attitude, but also about action, Klaas Heufer-Umlauf finally found a picture, also one of those that hang after ten hours remain: If you don't know exactly what you can do yourself, you should simply imagine a row of people throwing sandbags at each other in their chain - "and then just see where you fit in best."