Party hit with depth

“That was one of my most difficult songs”

Udo Jürgens at his beloved Wörthersee.

(Bild: Uta Rojsek-Wiedergut)

Entertainment music with attitude - Udo Jürgens caused a revolution in the music scene with his socially critical lyrics. However, "Greek Wine" gave him a stomach ache for over two years.

"Entertainment music must also have an attitude" - this is one of Udo Jürgens' most important philosophies. And the composer and entertainer has always remained true to this. "Reinhard Mey once said: 'If Udo hadn't started with these kinds of songs, these lyrics, I wouldn't have had a chance with mine'," the Carinthian proudly recounts in an interview.

And speaks of a kind of revolution in German-language music that "Ehrenwerte Haus" triggered at the time. A woman who spoils her dog and forgets about her own children. And when the man is away, receives the letter carrier. Or the racist dislike of a foreign resident - lines that were so violent for the time that they would have been unthinkable.

"And I suddenly reached top positions in the charts with lyrics like that," recalls Udo Jürgens. And countless other hits and evergreens with profound, socially critical lyrics were to follow. Like "Griechischer Wein", which ended up becoming a party hit, even though it tells the sad, melancholy story of a migrant worker.

"The idea came after the vacation"
"That was probably the most difficult song I've created in my career. The idea for the music came to me after a vacation in Greece. It was finished quickly - and everyone said: It's going to be a hit. But it took us two years to find the right lyrics. And it actually ended up being a hit - even if many people didn't hear the lyrics."