Scorpions singer Klaus Meine positions himself clearly against Putin. “Since the release of the new album (“Rock Believer”) in February we rehearsed a new live show. We had a concert in Las Vegas and I was like, ‘This is not the time to romanticize Russia with lines like Follow the Moskva / Down to Gorky Park.’”
“I wanted to make it clear that we support Ukraine in this difficult situation,” Meine said in an interview with the Ukrainian TV station TCH. The war, says the 74-year-old, would affect the band very deeply. Live performances of “Wind of Change” are now aimed directly at Ukraine.
Here’s a fan shot from a Scorpions concert on March 27th in Las Vegas. In the new version, Klaus Meine sings “Now listen to my heart / It says Ukrainia”.
In an interview with TCN, Meine recalled the making of the song. “When I wrote ‘Wind of Change’ it was about the time we were first in the Soviet Union in 1988. After all those years in the shadow of the Berlin Wall and separated by the Iron Curtain, we played 10 concerts in Leningrad – the song is about how through music it is possible to build bridges and come together.”
There has been no trace of optimism since the invasion of Ukraine. “So many years after it was written, the song has lost its meaning,” says Meine. ‘Wind of Change’ is no longer a song of hope.