Heinz Georg Kramm, who was born in 1938 in Düsseldorf, Rhineland, is actually not known as a riot brother. The man, who has called himself Heino since the 1960s and completed training as a journeyman baker, has become the epitome of German hit music over the decades with his homeland songs. At the beginning of the 1980s he fought amusing little wars against the Berlin punk actor “Der Wahre Heino”.
Now, at the age of 84, Heino has sparked a discussion among viewers and showbiz professionals. When asked by presenter Matthias Killing from SAT1 breakfast television what he thought about gender-appropriate language, he replied strangely, abstractedly: “
They shit in their brains, as we say in the Rhineland. I don’t agree with that at all. I’ll keep singing about the black hazelnut, I’ll keep singing ‘Funny is the gypsy life’. I won’t let anyone stop me. This is a piece of cultural heritage. I made this popular again in the 1960s, during the heyday of the beat. And it should stay as it is.”
So far, so already reported.
Now one of his future live shows is in jeopardy.
It’s about the Swiss party organizer Reto Hanselmann. He has the singer with the deep voice for the “Hanselmann’s Wiesn” event on October 12th in Zurich. booked.
Hanselmann now told the Swiss newspaper “Blick”:
“I do not share Heino’s statements in any way. Our parties are open to everyone, I believe in respect and tolerance. That is the message that is important to me.” And threatens to terminate the contract: “We are currently in contact with his management. A definitive decision has not yet been made.”
Heino manager Helmut Werner has now made a statement about this:
“Basically it’s like this: I don’t know to what extent Heino could be accused of making sexist or racist comments. When I read comments in which he is called an ‘old, white man’, for me that is age discrimination. It’s a very small, miserable bunch who think like that. Heino, at almost 85, doesn’t allow himself to be talked into his language. He is what he is. And there’s nothing wrong with that. He is a German singer and not a politician,” he said in the Cologne tabloid “Express”.
Werner further explains: “The fact that it is supposed to be racist when Heino sings ‘Gypsy life is funny’, you also have to know that Heino is friends with many Sintis and Roma. They all say they are proud of it. Heino sings about her culture here. You don’t see a swear word here. The only people who see the swear word are those who want to make the world a better place and who want to get angry about certain words…”