Meet Ute Lemper
History wanted to be a good teacher but it could not find any students.
On 5 March, singer and actor Ute Lemper, with 8-piece band, brings to life Berlin’s cabaret scene of the 1930s. She told us about her early musical influences and what resonance the songs of Kurt Weill and others still has in 2026.
What music do you remember hearing as a small child?
The 60s in Germany was a pretty bad cultural vacuum. My family listened to classical music, nothing much contemporary, but my father had a very good jazz collection that had an impact on my musical ear and became a big inspiration. My parents both played several instruments and my mother sang opera. Music was alive in our house.
Were your parents a big musical influence on you?
They both played several instruments, piano, violin, guitar, my mother sang opera.. music was very alive in our house.
Did you always want to sing and act as a career? Did you try any other jobs?
I started learning ballet aged 6, then modern dance, tap dance and piano. At the age of 15 I started to discover my voice and sang in a variety of jazz bands. After high school I went to the Rheinhardt Seminar Art University in Vienna and then my path was set.
Can you tell us why the cabaret songs of Weimar Germany appeal so much to you?
In the 80s I was living in West Berlin, a divided city, surrounded by the Wall. Europe was still in the midst of the Cold War – and the Weimar era seemed forgotten. I noticed that art was a lot more political in West Berlin than in the rest of the world. The devastating face of history was written all over the walls, and my mind and heart grew angrier and more rebellious. I studied the music of Kurt Weill and conceived my first concert dedicated to him. I wanted to tell his story to the people of my generation, and so I did, in little experimental theatres in dark but feverish West Berlin.
As a revolutionary German Jewish composer living in Weimar, Weill was driven out of Germany by the Nazis and fled to New York. Despite the enormous pain and sacrifice he suffered, he was able to pursue and create further fascinating compositions and collaborations in a new world.
Bringing Weill’s story with me was a way of creating a dialogue about the past.
My recordings of Weill and Berlin Cabaret Songs initiated a revival of interest in the progressiveness and exotism of 20s and 30s Berlin, fascinating a wave of young performers and audiences. That came with enormous responsibility. To be a German with an international career was still a complicated business in those years. I was met with a certain hostility based on stereotypes of the German character and language, and sometimes felt I had the weight of history on my shoulders. Bringing Weill’s story with me was a way of creating a dialogue about the past.
It became my heartfelt mission celebrate his music around the world, in recitals, with symphony orchestras, string quartets, or my band, to sing these magical creations from Weimar, alongside the song books of the French and American periods.
What do you think these songs can tell us about the word we live in today?
The songs, especially with Berthold Brecht’s lyrics, are almost 100 years old yet still breath-taking and completely unique. Rock, pop, cabaret and classical artists have been inspired by his works. The biting words, the melancholic melodies and the harmonic context evoke the colours of jazz, ragtime, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. There is theatre and political, satirical commentary about morality and a corrupt society. Exotic characters tell us about their survival, risen from the ashes of racism, disadvantage, and neglect. It all sounds rather familiar.
I love to sing these ballads of the truth even more 40 years later, after living through the mills of life and witnessing that history wanted to be a good teacher but it could not find any students.
When you sing these songs in English, many of which were written in German originally, what
changes for you (and how is it different for the audience?)?
At this point It feels equally strong to me in German or English. At first many years ago it felt that the English translations had lost the bite, but I am long over this impression. Of course, the sound and attack of the German language seem more expressionistic.
What do you enjoy most about performing with an 8-piece band, as you will on 5 March?
I am looking very much forward to join Robert Ziegler again, after we first recorded together almost
30 years ago. He always brings together a fantastic musical ensemble, and it will be an adventurous
and powerful experience.
See Ute on stage at Cambridge Corn Exchange on 5 March
