Gigi, Dumbo, Winnetou

Suddenly forbidden: This has to stop now!

The song "L'amour toujours" was hijacked by racists.

(Bild: APA Pool/Semtainment)

The attempt to censor contemporary culture by means of bans is currently affecting music. At the moment it's about a song from 1999 because racists have discovered it for themselves. Many people are now outraged by self-appointed "moral guardians".

"I'll fly with you", translates the lyrics of a song that took the hearts of countless music fans around the world by storm in 1999. "L'amour toujours", released by Italian star DJ Gigi D'Agostino (55), is, as he himself emphasized in the big "Krone" interview on Sunday, "about universal love and about people who are in each other's arms and feel united".

Racists hijack song
Now, 25 years after its release, people are once again in each other's arms - but united by a completely different thought. As reported, party guests on the North Sea island of Sylt, in Carinthia and Lower Austria shouted racist slogans to the song. And replaced a musical sequence with "Germany to the Germans. Foreigners out!" A scandal whose consequences should actually be borne by those involved.

The song "L'amour toujours" was hijacked by racists.

(Bild: APA Pool/Semtainment)

Or so they think. Because now the DJ has to do it himself. Major radio stations are no longer playing his song, and the Oktoberfest is also refraining from doing so. UEFA banned the Austrian national team from using the song as a goal anthem at the European Championships. The "cancel culture" (see info box below) is back - and with a force that is unparalleled. However, the phenomenon is not new, as many examples in recent years show.

What is "cancel culture"?

• The term "cancel culture" originated from an internet phenomenon. In 2014, Twitter (today the platform is called X) used the term "cancel" to refer to people who disagreed with someone else's opinion.
• The term refers to the attempt to respond to supposedly discriminatory attitudes or statements by ostracizing and boycotting the person or organization in question.
• It has affected many people, from authors J. K. Rowling ("Harry Potter") and Nobel Prize winner Peter Handke to children's books and Gigi D'Agostino.
• Right-wingers see "cancel culture" as a left-wing approach to eliminate undesirable opinions. Left-wingers think that conservatives use the term themselves to silence legitimate criticism.

Anger spilled over at Winnetou & Karl May
In August 2022, an absurd fight against Winnetou caused particular anger among disgruntled citizens. Book publishers and ARD were on the warpath against the legendary Apache chieftain. The outrage at the targeted agitation against author Karl May was enormous. "Fuck these Wokies. Karl May is part of our culture, our childhood, our lives," star actress Anja Kruse vented her anger at the planned discontinuation of the Winnetou adventures with Pierre Brice and Lex Barker on the TV screen.

Even James Bond was censored - i.e. the novels by author Ian Fleming, as they contained "racist terms and offensive passages". University Professor Günther Stocker has no sympathy for this: "Novels and stories must always be viewed in their historical context," says the Viennese literature expert, "if the book is actually inhuman, the question arises as to why it is being reprinted at all. The practice of blank rewriting is an incapacitation of the adult reader."

But even children's films or classics such as "Peter Pan", "The Jungle Book", "The Simpsons" or "Dumbo" cartoons fell victim to the censorship scissors because they allegedly contained "many problematic scenes" ...

This has to stop!