Scorpions have revealed why they’ve changed the lyrics to their chart-topping hit ‘Wind Of Change’, explaining that they no longer wanted to “romanticise Russia”.

In light of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the German hard rockers decided to change the song’s lyrics for their ongoing US and European tour, which opened in Las Vegas on March 26, a month after the start of the invasion.

“To sing ‘Wind of Change’ as we have always sung it, that’s not something I could imagine any more,” Meine told Die Zeit. “It simply isn’t right to romanticise Russia with lyrics like: ‘I follow the Moskva/ Down to Gorky Park…Let your balalaika sing’“.

The band have changed the lyrics to: “Now listen to my heart/ It says Ukrainia/ Waiting for the wind to change,” which are projected on a screen behind the band as they perform.

Released in 1991, the perestroika power ballad is the German hard rockers’ most famous song; it was voted song of the 20th century by viewers of the public broadcaster ZDF in 2005.

Even though the song was released over a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is widely remembered as the soundtrack to the era of economic and social changes in the former Soviet Union that heralded the end of the cold war.

Meine said he composed the words on September 3 and 4, 1989, a month after Scorpions performed at the Moscow Music Peace festival.

Elsewhere in the interview with Die Zeit, Meine discussed his friendship with Hanoverian ex-chancellor turned Russian gas lobbyist Gerhard Schröder, whose fifth wedding party he attended in 2018.

“I haven’t spoken with Gerhard Schröder for a while,” Meine said. “But his behaviour really is hard to understand.”

Schröder held on to his boardroom post with Rosneft for the first three months of the Russia-Ukraine war before the Russian state-owned oil company announced his stepping down on May 20.

“If he now gives up this post on the supervisory board, then that is a genuine step in the right direction after a long time,” Meine said.
Meanwhile, Kalush Orchestra‘s Eurovision trophy has been auctioned off online to raise funds to buy drones for Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia.

The Ukrainian rap group triumphed over the UK’s Sam Ryder at the Turin ceremony earlier this month, receiving a massive portion of the public vote.

As BBC News report, the winning trophy – a crystal microphone – has now been auctioned off on Facebook with the aim of buying drones for Ukraine’s armed forces with the proceeds.