Germany’s Echo awards scrapped after anti-Semitism row

In a shock move, Germany’s prestigious Echo awards have been scrapped after the recent controversy involving two rappers with allegedly anti-Semitic music.

As TMN reported earlier, there was an artist and public backlash after rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang got nominated – and then won the hip hop/urban category– with an album containing allegedly misogynistic, homophobic, violence-glorifying and anti-Semitic lyrics.

References to one time inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp and the Holocaust were particularly galling to some artists who returned their trophies in protest.

The awards are decided by sales, and the rappers’ record sold 150,000 units. Their distributor BMG has since cut ties with the duo

Germany’s recorded music trade association Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) initially allowed the nomination to go through on the grounds of artistic freedom but made it clear it didn’t agree with the record’s lyrical content.

However the decision to include the rapper duo on the televised broadcast was attacked for allowing their raps to mainstream society.

After the furore broke after the April 12 ceremony, BVMI promised to revamp the entire nomination and winning process, has now scrapped the 25-year-old event

The Echo brand has been damaged so severely that it’s become necessary to start from the ground up, BVMI said.

“[We] do not want this music prize to be perceived as a platform for anti-Semitism, contempt for women, homophobia or the blurring of violence [following] what happened around this year’s [event], for which the board has apologized,” it said in a statement

It added that Germany, as third largest music market, still needed a credible prize.

The replacement event will be based on jury vote, similar to Echo’s jazz and classical categories, which will still be staged as stand-alones, in May and October respectively, and will not be broadcast.

The bodies involved in organising the Echo awards will not be part of the replacement event.

It was not the first time there was an outcry over World War II references.

In 2013, Rechtsrock band Frei.Wild also caused an outcry and lose their chance of winning because their album’s pro-patriotic themed record.