The controversial party song “Layla” was actually banned in the Schützen marquee – and in the end hundreds sang along at the Düsseldorf Rheinkirmes: After days of debate as to whether the hit, which was criticized as sexist, should run in the St. Sebastianus Schützen area, the DJ played an instrumental version as a compromise on Friday night.
Only a few seconds of text could be heard at the end. The rifle club agreed to that, said DJ Marc Pesch on Saturday of the German Press Agency. At the end, the guests roared along with the text so loudly that the missing singing from the loudspeakers was hardly noticeable.
“I wanted to find a solution between the visitors’ desire to hear the song and the rifle club’s desire that the song not be played on its premises,” said Pesch. After his performance, he uploaded a mobile phone video to Facebook, which he commented with: “Kirmes Düsseldorf. Layla was unavoidable.”
The rifle club announced on request that the board would no longer comment on the subject. The original song was played in other tents on the fairgrounds.
The song by DJ Robin
At first, the Düsseldorf rifle chief wanted to ban the song throughout the fair – after all, the ban was only pronounced for the area around his own marquee.
The Equal Opportunities Office of the City of Düsseldorf had previously spoken to the organizers about “Layla”. The Schützengesellschaft is the organizer of the fair on the Rhine with four million guests expected.
