Peter Fox: World music made in Germany

Peter Fox used to sing with Seeed, a Berlin dancehall band that set out in the 2000s to prove that Germany too could do reggae.

Hits like "Ding," "Aufsteh'n" and "Dickes B" explored life, including a lot of dancing and partying, in the city of Berlin — where the multicultural band got together back in 1998.

The band enjoyed success beyond Germany's borders, headlining the likes of Denmark's Roskilde Festival.

At the time, bands like Seeed frequently incorporated diverse musical influences into their sound without fear of being called out for cultural appropriation.

In Germany, bands including Culcha Candela, Ohrbooten, the German-Romanian Miss Platnum, Hamburg's Jan Delay and many others rapped, sang, and played R&B, reggae, dancehall, ragamuffin, Balkan pop, funk and soul.

They blended the music of different continents into a danceable and sometimes electrifying sound. It was pop music from Germany, inspired by artists from around the world.

Fox goes solo with a bullet

In September 2008, Seeed singer Peter Fox stood out from this highly creative bubble of musicians. Already a sought-after composer and producer, he took a break from Seeed and created "Stadtaffe" (City Ape), a pop solo album that departed from the Seeed sound.

Fox brought in the 40-piece Babelsberg Film Orchestra, used brass instruments, and created some unique percussive beats.

His first number 1 hit, "Schwarz zu blau" (Black to Blue), was about his conflicting feelings about his native Berlin — dirty, cold and ugly one minute, yet a friendly smile in a local bakery would see the sun rise and black skies turn to blue.

Now, the 50-something father of two has released "Love Songs," a new album about love — and its absence — an album that uses choirs, field recordings and loads of percussion. On the album, his beloved Berlin becomes a planet where people of all colors and body types celebrate and create a thriving culture together.

When Fox first went solo in the late 2000s and released "Stadtaffe," he inspired audiences with a cinematic sound that some labeled "film music to dance to." Meanwhile, the album's title track addressed the musician's facial paralysis due to a viral disease ("In a city full of monkeys, I'm the king, because I sing for the masses with a crooked grimace"). But mainly it was about claiming the city of Berlin as your own.

The album reached #1 in the German album charts and was the first record to go gold 15 times. Not only a massive fan favorite, the album was celebrated by the press and critics alike. Success made the singer and producer uncomfortable, however, and he soon rejoined the ranks of his original band, Seeed.

'I see the future in pink'

Fox would go on to release more albums with Seeed, including an eponymous hit album in 2012. After Fox's long-time bandmate Demba Nabe died tragically in 2018, the band continued to produce records.

In October 2022, Peter Fox issued another solo record, the single "Zukunft Pink" (Future Pink). Inspired by the South African house sound, "Amapiano," Fox created a track that again sought to import a sound and reproduce it in the German language, while showing respect for the original and the people who invented it.

"Everybody paints black, I see the future in pink, " he sings on the track, while calling out billionaire Elon Musk and referring to his massive Tesla factory built in Brandenburg on the edge of Berlin.

"In our future, all refugees will find shelter (yeah-yeah)," he continues. "Yes, the movement is already on its way, from Tehran via Lagos to Paris. Baby, shake, baby, dance, baby, fly"

Fox accused of cultural appropriation

The song was another huge hit, in part because it brought a positive message in the wake of  Covid, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the looming threat of a climate disaster.

But as the song stayed at number one for weeks, it became a bone of contention for those who accused Fox of "cultural appropriation." Critics said that Fox, a white, privileged male, had taken elements of musical genres from other cultures and used them to make a profit at the expense of minorities.

In this case, the German musician had appropriated elements of Amapiano music, a subgenre of house music that has various house music and jazz influences and was developed in South African townships. It is generally regarded as the soundtrack to the emancipation of South Africa's Black population.

Fox, who has French roots and was born Pierre Baigorry, says he tried to get it right. In the press material for "Future Pink," he named beats from southern and western Africa as the source of his inspiration, but did not explicitly mention the Amapiano music style, nor its history and chief purveyors.

In the credits of the music video, he explains his musical inspirations and mentions various African artists by name. He also said he never marketed his single as something "brand new."

Rapper makes amends

In December 2022, Fox released an "Alliance Remix" of "Future Pink", which was the result of a collaboration with Black musicians from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Germany, including Focalistic and ALBI X. It was sung and rapped in German, English and the African language, Lingala.

It was his way to reconcile the critics, while also helping to give the South African Amapiano sound a higher profile in Germany and beyond.

With the release this week of the new album "Love Songs," Fox continues to celebrate a sound, and vision, inspired by diversity. 

This article was originally written in German.