Singer Xavier Naidoo distances himself from conspiracy theories and homophobia
The singer Xavier Naidoo has undoubtedly made many questionable and also anti-Semitic statements in recent months and spread them on his Telegram channel. Some of his former companions already distanced themselves from the artist, ... Among other things, because the boundaries to the far-right became increasingly fluid. Particularly much attention was given to the whole thing when he joined the group of corona deniers at some point.
However, the singer now seems to have had a change of heart. In a short video, he apologized for many of his statements. Among other things, he also addresses allegedly homophobic statements, but at the same time emphasizes that he has never been homophobic.
Distancing from the extreme right-wing scene
Xavier Naidoo has recently moved in questionable circles, which are assigned to the right-wing extremist Reichsbürger scene.
In his video, the singer finds clear words to distance himself from the ideals and views of the followers: "Nationalism, Racism, Homophobia and Anti-Semitism", he strongly rejects.
He had set out in search of "the truth" and then got into the wrong circles. He goes on to stress that he simply got it wrong. According to Naidoo, the change of heart was triggered by the current situation in Ukraine. His wife comes from Ukraine herself, and that's why the war has become a family matter for him, among other things. All this made him think and made it clear to him that he had apparently been on the wrong path for a long time. He also talks about the fact that he had allowed himself to be instrumentalized.
In short: Now the singer wants to apologize publicly for the statements, which caused horror and outrage in large parts of the population (including his fans).
Anti-Semitic and homophobic statements: How seriously can the rowback be taken?
It is currently hotly debated on the net whether the singer is serious about his apology or not. After all, some of his statements in the past were so blatant that they were classified as "anti-Semitic" by a court.
Representatives of the LGBTQI+ community are also not sure if the singer has really had a change of heart. While he emphasizes: "Everyone who knows me knows what I stand for: I stand for tolerance, diversity and peaceful coexistence. "And apologizes to the people he might have hurt with his statements..., but many don't really know how seriously the whole thing could be meant.
To this day, Xavier Naidoo insists that lines in his songs that have repeatedly been criticized as "homophobic" are nothomophobicor similar. However, many members of the community have their doubts about this.
For the sake of completeness, however, it should be mentioned here that there are also many people who take the artist's apology video quite seriously. Among other things, because Naidoo never really seems to have thought about how society would react to his statements.
Two of his former companions, Oli and Amira Pocher, also recently spoke about Naidoo's statement in their podcast. They, too, seem relieved to a certain extent that he is now apparently taking a different direction. Whether everything - at least to some extent - will go back to the way it was before the statements remains to be seen, of course. As is well known, the expulsion from the DSDS jury in particular represented a kind of break in the artist's career ladder.