Q&A: Birgit Ellinghaus

What trends and tendencies do you see in folk music right now?

Since I participated in Folk Spot last time in 2016 I was surprised not to see really new trends or tendencies. It seems to me that the Danish folk scene is still – like in 2016 – primarily concerned with preserving the aesthetic status quo of a musical practice in an easy going, purely entertaining, almost museum-like way. At least in the showcases and by the presented artists 2023 lacked the courage here and there for a thematically committed folk repertoire, that refers to the current reality of the world (climate crisis, wars, closed borders, economical challenges for the arts, identity debates, migration, political populism etc.). Folk music is traditionally close and committed to the people. I found a huge discrepancy between the presented showcase programs and what I hear and read about Denmark.

What is your impression of the Danish folk scene versus folk music in Germany? (Differences and similarities)

The Danish and German folk scenes are not really comparable, as both countries have different geographical and population sizes and history. After World War II, the folk scene in Germany was asleep for a long time. Only from the mid-1970s onwards the historical reappraisal of the appropriation of folk music by the Nazis was in the center of the folk music movement. And the activists wanted clearly to distance themselves from the previous generation in terms of sound, lyrics and stage presence. That still has an impact today. In addition, Germany is a federal country in which there are enormous differences in local musical traditions: the spectrum ranges from Bavarian/Franconian folk in the south, Rhenish carnival song tradition (on the national list of intangible cultural heritage), Sorbian folk dances, shanty choirs in Hamburg to the political singer-songwriters of Waldeck Castle & their grandchildren up to the songs of the miners in the Ruhr area and much more. There is the raw, the political, the finely chiseled, the danceable, the humorous and many other themes and emotions – depending on the region and cultural context and the identity.