« As humanity, we were already more adverse »

Hello Mr. Wartke, we get in with an icebreaker question: Which tongue breaker is spontaneously on your tongue this morning?
Bodo Wartke (laughs): Uh! There is someone with whom I went to bed yesterday. Because my topics still employ me in my sleep. Because I'm always on the file and tinkering because I think that is even better! The original version of the colleague Dominik Artefex from Frankfurt comes from yesterday's tongue breaker. I had written it down whether I could take it over and infer a beat. Dominik has agreed with a kiss, and now we have already recorded a common tongue breaker. The current is about the roller shutter loading roll.

For over a year they have been conquering the Internet with their rapped interpretations of German tongue breakers. They may have been streamed over 100 million times. When and at what opportunity did you have this mad idea?
Waiting: It started with the most famous tongue breaker by Fischers Fritz. Then I asked myself what he did with fish after fishing her. At the same time, I was looking for something that is suitable for social media. Because all my songs are longer than the common format. Then I had this idea. So it is not a shortened form of my other pieces and is also not a trivial nonsense to film like his food. No, the tongue breakers fit like the fist on the eye, because the pieces are short and crisp. I never thought that this would be so successful internationally.

Like many barbaras actually because of theirs Hits « Barbaras rhubarb » registered with you?
Waiting: Very many – still. Most are happy that there is a song about their name.

What do the fans write to you?
Waiting: The most delightful story was when a woman wrote to me, who doesn't called Barbara at all. But her last name is Bonadona, she apparently comes from the English -speaking area. She said on Tiktok that she would get married soon and was called her future Bartlebaugh. And the value of a double name. And if you get married, you would be called Bonadona-Bartlebaugh, which sounds similar to Aberakadabera from our Barbaras rhubarb.

And then?
Waiting: Then she called on her followers that they should say that these types of tongue from Germany should say that they want to put a video online in which we say Bonadonna Badebar. That has achieved us and we switched it down to them directly and tells that they get married and what they will be called. The woman was incredibly happy! And now she has a song that she will dance to at her wedding.

Social media shows the best side.
Waiting: Yes, I think the Internet was originally invented to bring people together.

Barbara Schöneberger was also among the well -wishers?
Waiting: Yes, of couse! (He laughs) For you we listed it at the awarding of the German TV Award. I also danced to this song in her talk show.

What you ask yourself as a layperson: you can also earn money on the Internet with so many streams
Waiting: Mein, I'll say. In any case, not as much as in the times when people still bought physical sound carriers. They imagined that the 100 million people had bought a CD from me …

.. then they could have rested.
Waiting: Maybe, but I don't want to stop. However, we would not have reached as many people with the song without a social media as today. It is idle to think about it. However, you get about 2,86 euros per 1000 streams from Spotify, for example. My partner Marti Fischer and I have about 24 million streams there. There was almost 70,000 euros for this, which we also share. This is for an involuntary world hit that was in front of Beyoncé in some streaming charts, rather well! The other way to make money through advertising is again not my thing. I prefer to sing songs that I find advertising stupid. I hope that more people will get into my concerts.

Does that work?
Waiting: Yes, but not to the extent that you could think. My concerts are full again after Corona. I am very relieved about it. But there are only relatively few at the concerts that I didn't know me before. The far larger part is people who have rediscovered me through the tongue breakers. I think I have regained a large audience.

I read, with up to 100 appearances annually you can also reach an audience of over 80,000 people. It's not quite as much as Beyoncé, but I'll say that it is not bad for a small artist.
Wartke (laughs): True. I am lucky enough to make enough money with things that I enjoy. And I don't have to do things that I don't enjoy, but would bring a lot of money. It is a privilege to be able to say.

In addition to tongue brokers on the Internet, they are also on the road analogously – for example with their piano cabaret program « What, if? ». What does the audience expect?
Waiting: The program title is the counter question: What if it doesn't work? With this line, a song ends in which a utopia of another society is designed than the one we have. The fact that things can fail is only one of two options. And I mean, although we are now surrounded by crises and crisis -like scenarios, there is always a chance that things will go well. As humanity we were already in more adverse locations. There is always a prospect of optimism, although I do not close my eyes to the adversities of life. Or to put it another way: I look at the heavy things with the greatest possible lightness. In any case, you experience an entertaining evening with me.

They also ask such existential questions as to why we act more out of fear and love. And I also wonder: yes, why?
WARTKE (considered): Ideally, fear ensures that we stay alive. Now we have actually overcome many life -threatening situations from the Stone Age. That means: A lot of fear is unjustified today. Things seem more threatening to us than they actually are. Even if you look back. Processes that we accepted that we would now all die from it have not occurred. A good example is the ozone hole. In fact, humanity has succeeded in constructively meeting this danger. I think: we are already doing it! The fear and curiosity are two poles in us, no matter which political party we sympathize with. So now I got away quite far from the original question.

Yes, it was: Why are we doing more out of fear than for love?
Waiting: If I knew that. I can only take note of this and counter my song. But what I know is that things often only work when we failed long enough. I say that because I often failed on stage. The highest accident of a total textual failure has happened to me several times. I would like to be sunk into the ground, but I'm still there. That means, even if the occurrence that you are really afraid of, that's not bad. Because failure is often the most important thing about the whole show. Because it is human.

And yet the fear drives us. This can be seen from the election successes of the populist parties who play with this fear?
Waiting: Yes, unfortunately. But there is also too little good news in the media. Therefore, a lot seems more threatening than it actually is. During the energy transition, it is the case that a large part of the electricity requirement via environmentally friendly energies is now generated. And with us people have the impression that everything goes down the stream!

What else I wanted to ask: You are managed in Wikipedia as a German music cabaret artist, songwriter, actor and rapper. What do you prefer?
Wartke (laughs): I prefer to be the cross -border commuter between all genres. I find it exciting if you don't let yourself be sorted into a drawer. I am happy to say: If you want to put me in a drawer, you need a chest of drawers. I like to surprise people and spontaneously change the genres, for example to do things on a classic concert stage that normally do not take place there.

Actually, they shouldn't even take place on stage as a pianist. But they have also become pretty good piano players, although at the age of eight they lost their left fingers' fingertips through the part of a train. You said that this loss has motivated you to play piano professionally. How was that?
Waiting: I had piano lessons before. But the loss of the fingertip was very painful, especially for me as a child. Today two centimeters from the left ring finger are missing. When that was healed at the time, I actually had such a now-right-law effect. And lo and behold: I can play the piano without any problems. I can use it myself to grab octaves and play as if nothing is missing. Incidentally, my piano teacher had exactly the same problem. This was missing part of the right ring finger. You can also tell: more is more than you think. There are even people who play with their feet guitar.

And one more old misfortune: if you can believe the press release, your hobbies are kitesurfing and snowboarding. This is rather atypical for a small artist. They even suffered a break on the slopes 20 years ago. Have you now switched to chess or do you always love the great freedom on the slopes and world's oceans?
Waiting: Well, I have severely restricted both hobbies since I became a father. Neither of them can be operated at my place of residence in Berlin, because there are neither slopes nor a sea. What I still like to do is dancing. That is also far more harmless. I haven't been kiting for a long time and I now wear helmet while skiing and snowboarding – also because I now know what is at stake. I am no longer as risky as I used to be. You get older, have family and responsibility.

At the moment you have the feeling that – at least socially – the accidents just line up. What is the worst misfortune for you?
WARTKE (he thinks for a long time): The most beautiful happiness would be the victory of good mood for me. Because for them actually there is always reason. The worst misfortune is the recess of fascism in the world. Because that is a victory of the bad mood. And I dare to say who looks positively and lightly at life, does not come up with the idea of ​​turning to these parties. But the topic is very worried to me!

To person Bodo Wartke, born in Hamburg in 1977, is known as a chansonnier, actor, pianist and rapper. Wahlberliner, who began his stage career when the 19-year-old started, became known to a wide audience, especially through his rap songs of German tongue crusher. He himself describes his art of entertainment as a piano cabaret in rhyme culture. In addition, he has released two modern new seals of ancient dramas in which he himself appears as an actor: König Oedipus and aNigone After Sophocles. « What if » is his fifth piano cabaret program, with which he is currently touring Germany – on Saturday, March 8th, he will be a guest in the Gersthofer Stadthalle.