Blue lights flicker across the floor, crowds crowd the concert hall of the Hamburg club Gruenspan. When alyona alyona enters the stage, the crowd trembles, like the aftermath of an avalanche. The Ukrainian star rapper, who only received the ANCHOR Award at the Reeperbahn Festival last year, is now wearing a two-piece suit with a printed pattern, sneakers and braided pigtails. She stands in front of the Ukraine flag hanging from the DJ booth, starts rapping – and the audience starts jumping. No more stopping. alyona alyona is the third artist of the evening to perform as part of the Musikexpress night at Gruenspan. “I know we live in a time marked by the climate crisis,” says the 31-year-old before her last song of the evening. “But ecological crises cannot be overcome without security. Security is what my country needs now.”
“No matter what I did, it was always wrong”
alyona alyona is not the only musician today who comes up with political messages. Mia Morgan, the first act of the evening, is also angry: at patriarchy, unhealthy body images, socially prescribed heteronormativity. On her debut album FLEISCH, which was released in spring 2022, the musician from Kassel packs hard themes into sugary pop, garnished with rock elements. Morgan dances and squirms on stage during her concert, picking up the beat of the drums in her body, stomping on the floor. The audience is at her feet, most of the people in the hall are already fans and can sing along with every word. “Maybe I’m undead / Maybe I’m depressed / Maybe I’m Jennifer Check / Maybe I’m in love”. sings Morgan. In the middle of her set, she pauses and talks about herself, the struggle with her own body, her former anorexia, the feeling of not being enough. “Sometimes I was too fat, too thin, too loud, too quiet, took up too much space and then again not enough,” she says in a firm voice. “No matter what I did, it was always wrong.”
“Baby, I had an abortion – and I’m not sorry!”
The Petrol Girls are also fed up with having anyone dictate who they should be and what they should do with their bodies. The British band around singer Ren Aldridge makes feminist punk, wants to be loud and uncomfortable. And so Aldridge screams feminist declarations of war like mantras into the audience so that someone finally hears them. “Abortion is normal, abortion is health care, abortion is common,” says the singer, before quoting her own song lyrics: “Baby, I had an abortion, and I’m not sorry!” Aldridge wears a red cropped top and sequined shorts, she jumps and runs non-stop across the stage, yells into the mic, crawls on the floor. The energy this band brings is electrifying. “It’s my body, my goddamn choice,” Aldridge calls out countless times during her last song of the set, and the audience always answers.