Choir that drowned out Germany's AfD leader happy to 'bend the ear' of country

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/04/choir-drowns-out-alice-weidel-afd-far-right-germany

Choir that drowned out Germany’s AfD leader happy to ‘bend the ear’ of country

Group ‘surprised’ when their song was used to disrupt an interview with Alice Weidel – but now they face a backlash

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Mon 4 Aug 2025 00.00 EDT

It was while Alice Weidel was being interviewed on the terrace of a parliament building overlooking the River Spree in Berlin that members of the Corner Chor’s mobile phones began to ping with alerts as their song in protest at her far-right party, Scheiß AfD Jodler (Shit AfD Yodellers), blasted out from a 100,000-watt sound system on the other bank. “We were hugely surprised and truly happy to hear at that moment that our song was receiving such a public airing,” one choir member told the Guardian.

The choir had not known of the carefully orchestrated plans by the Centre for Political Beauty (ZPS) – an association of action artists led by the philosopher Philipp Ruch – to use their song to disrupt the so-called summer interview, a regular annual TV fixture in which leaders of the main political parties are questioned in turn, typically in a relaxed setting. Neither had the authorities, nor the public broadcaster ARD. And disrupt it certainly did. The sweet-sounding 19th-century Styrian Christmas yodel, which Corner Chor had rewritten as a three-voice protest song against the far right, managed to drown out much of the hour-long exchange, prompting Weidel to lean into the interviewer Markus Preiß and tell him: “I have problems understanding you against this noise.”

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The singers, who come from all walks of life, admitted to being a little shocked by the resonance their song had enjoyed since going viral at the Weidel broadcast, having reached No 6 in the iTunes Germany charts. It received 60,000 plays on Spotify, drew thousands of new followers on their Instagram account and an innumerable number of downloads from SoundCloud of a Scheiß AfD ringtone. The choir has also attracted donations for forthcoming projects.

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“Attempts to label us as a bunch of hysterical women are ill advised. We are humorously disruptive, peaceful protesters … We had not intended to bend the ear of the whole country but we’re happy we’ve done so. People are speaking about this way beyond the event itself, about the AfD.”

… noise at link …