When news spread that Xavier Naidoo had been nominated for the European Song Contest by public broadcaster NDR – represented by Thomas Schreiber (responsible for Fiction & Entertainment) – , we meant to cover this. Like many others in the internet, we had already written a blog article on Naidoo’s strange views some time ago. The issue was hot again now. It became even hotter with many blogs and comments covering it – including (although it’s hard to believe) Germany’s largest tabloid, also known as the Four-Letter Rag. There isn’t much more publicity to be had.
It’s almost apt to feel pity for Naidoo who doesn’t quite seem to be the sharpest knife in the kitchen. After all, one doesn’t exactly need to tell a tabloid in an interview one smokes lots of grass and then be utterly surprised one’s flat gets raided. Well, the raid even found enough dope stashed away that he should have counted his blessings to get away on probation – particularly when repeated driving without a licence came on top of that little stash problem. Anyways, we don’t mean to rub it in. Remaining strictly acoustic, at least he is a good singer [Please take due note that author and translator hold slightly diverging views as far as this marginality is concerned], even if his religious bombasticalness poses a serious challenge to some people’s tolerance. Still, the world is round, and if a Grönemeyer – sometimes fondly called ‚Grölemeyer‘ [ ~ Bawlmeyer] – draws large audiences, there will also be a place for a Naidoo.
But Naidoo apparently shares views usually spread in the Reich Citizen’s movement, and he has taken part in some of their protests. Did we already happen to mention sharp knives and kitchens? In a hasty attempt of damage control, however, Naidoo even renounced his formerly best friends, or probably „Kameraden“, within a few hours when an excremental hurricane broke lose as soon as news about his ESC participation got published. Have we already mused about the characteristics of certain cutlery items?
Anyways, since meanwhile also English-language media have reported, e.g. Haaretz, and since Naidoo does not seem to have been covered sufficiently in the English-speaking world, we did what we do best: gather information to create a sensible basis to understand this German phenomenon:
Xavier Naidoo, english article
It would, however, be somewhat more interesting to learn what makes people like NDR’s Thomas Schreiber tick, so that he did not dismiss such an idea right after it popped up. One may think about this ESC event whatever one likes – it’s a contest of countries, and this means it is more than a matter of not giving a flying one when the person representing one’s country firmly believes this country does not exist at all.
