Who was/is Ina Deter ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more

Ina Deter

"My reputation as an emanze is still a reason not to play my songs. But: Success fills all mouths. And with 'New Men' I stuffed them for them then" (Ina Deter)

Born on 14 January 1947 in Berlin, the singer-songwriter and rock musician already played the guitar as a young girl. At the beginning of the 60's Ina Deter studied graphics and design and had her first musical appearances with a skiffle band, the Lucky Girls. After further musical experiences in a Country & Western group, she began to tingel through the West Berlin scene as a folk singer in 1967. "Dylan, Donovan and Joan Baez I worshiped and sang their songs to vomit. After that I was as empty and unimaginative as never before. For three years there was no music for me that I enjoyed, and I sat idly and despondently around" (quoted from Roland Bernd/Götz Hinze in 'Munzinger Pop-Archiv International'). After completing her studies, Deter moved to Cologne at the height of the student movement, where she initially worked as a graphic artist and also established initial contacts with women's groups there. In 1972, Ina Deter recorded a single entitled I've had an abortion. Decisive for her frank commitment to the then fiercely controversial topic was "Alice Schwarzer's abortion contribution in 'Panorama', which was deducted at short notice. The motivation was so strong that I threw all my inhibitions overboard and wrote my anger off my body" (quoted above).

In 1976, Ina Deter took part in the national qualifier for the 'Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson' with the title 'If you are like your laughter'. The idea for the song came to her in the summer of 1973 in Spain. "I was on a bus from Barcelona to Calpe. He got in, met me in the hallway, looked at me, smiled ... the line was born: 'If you are like your laughter'. We never spoke a word." Although the musician only came in tenth place, she attracted attention with her lyrics. The title can also be found on Deters first album 'Ich should eigentlich ein Junge werden', which was released in 1977. After the two follow-up LPs 'Heute' (1978) and 'Wenn wir unseren Neidiegt', CBS terminated the contract with Ina Deter. Official justification: Your records wouldn't sell enough. For the artist herself, however, it was the reaction to her refusal to record a German version of a Sally Oldfield hit that was demanded of her. About this experience with a music company she said in 1980 in an interview with 'Folk-Magazin': "It's just a damned, hard, hard reality that you experience yourself over the years, and always a piece of illusion then diminishes. That's why I have no more utopias, I only see reality. I don't think I'm a dreamer anymore! It is important to understand connections! And then you need to be clear about that, too: Why is it successful and why isn't it? Why is the one who's so bad successful? Because the masses still strive to get the dream world set, because everyday life is so crappy!"

Ina Deters success came in 1982 with the song Neue Männer braucht das Land from the LP of the same name. Its history goes back to an experience in the autumn of 1981 in the Südstadt district of Cologne. "I drove my bike past the Stollwerck, the former chocolate factory. Suddenly in front of me an oversized poster: 'What a country, what men.' "What a bunch of assholes. I drove home, sat at my desk and wrote the line: 'New men need the land'." The Saarland radio station put the song, which is often referred to as a 'national anthem of the women's movement', on the index at the time, while the NDR saw the graffiti sympathetic refrain as an invitation to damage property and responded with a criminal complaint. Roland Bernd and Götz Hinze in their contribution to the 'Munzinger Pop-Archiv International' reject Ina Deter's frequent accusation of being an 'Emanzenzicke': "... their songs are too catchy, too pointed - and too versatile. The fact that she has been able to assert herself and hold her own in a male-dominated industry with songs like 'Wie viele Finger braucht eine Faust' (How many fingers does a fist need) makes her even more likeable. She can sing of 'A New Feeling' that listeners are actually crying with emotion - and only seems honest, not greasy. With her determination, which at best permitted musical experiments, but not textual ones, she was spared orientation struggles, as with Marianne Rosenberg."

Other successes of the musician include titles like Du hast 'ne Ladung Dynamit (with Edo Zanki) and Frauen kommen langsam - aber gewaltig (Women are coming slowly but surely). In the mid-90s she moved to Aachen, where she retired from the music business for a while and took up a position as assistant theatre director. It was not until the end of 1996 that Ina Deter began writing lyrics again. Since then, four new CDs have been released, including a 2004 homage to Edith Piaf entitled 'Voilà - Lieder von Édith Piaf in Deutsch'. Ina Deter has been living in Berlin again since 2005. A new CD with own songs is announced for the end of 2007.

www.inadeter.de

Extract from
Various - songwriter in Germany
Vol.4, For whom we sing (3-CD)
/various-songwriter-in-Germany-vol.4-for-who-who-we-sing-3-cd.html

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