Nina Hagen (AFP Photo / John Macdougall)
Grandma of punk-rock with opera voice back in Moscow
Published 21 October, 2009, 11:46
Edited 21 October, 2009, 15:08
She’s become a cult personality during over 30 years on stage. She’s often called the 1st lady of punk, mother of shock-rock, a singer with the disposition of an opera diva. Germany’s great Nina Hagen is again in Moscow.
Hagen, since the very beginning of her musical career, which started in her teens, has been an extraordinary, avant-garde, expressive and decadent figure. Not many fans of the German disco-punk-rock singer Nina Hagen know that she took vocal lessons at the Moscow Conservatory in the 1970s, or that in the late 1980s she wrote a song about the then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Hagen’s biography in brief is thus: she was "dishonorably discharged" from the Free German Youth group at age 12, and became active in political protests against the East German government. Hagen started smoking, taking drugs and having sex aged 13, failed entrance exams to a drama college, and started a career as a rock singer in East Berlin in the 1970s.
Ever since, she’s been a remarkable public figure. She’s also known for her active involvement in discussions over defending animals’ and aliens’ rights. Her daughter’s name’s Cosma Shiva, which can only prove those strange inclinations and her busy spiritual life.
Hagen first performed in Russia in 2002 at Moscow's B2 club, and remains a rare guest in this country. Hagen’s discography totals 15 studio albums, with her most recent one, "Irgendwo auf der Welt", featuring songs in English and German, released in 2006. Her new album is set for release in 2009, and it’s undoubtedly going to be one of her ever-enthusiastic sails across the human mind.
Now the 54-year-old queen of extravaganza still hasn’t slowed down her activities, being nobody but herself. She stars in movies, performs Brecht’s opera arias and Rammstein songs, she’s a jury-member in the German version of Star Academy reality show, and so on.
At the eccentric, decadent, absurd, and at the same time spiritual show of Nina Hagen at Moscow’s B1 Maximum on Wednesday, she’ll perform most of her new compositions. So welcome!
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