Swiss white reggae group disbands after controversy

Lauwarm group disbanded, destroyed by reggae controversy Keystone-SDA

Swiss white reggae band Lauwarm disbanded last week after a years-long racism row, reports the SonntagsBlick newspaper.

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The band had made headlines throughout Switzerland in the summer of 2022, after their concert at the Brasserie Lorraine in the Swiss capital Bern was interrupted. Some spectators had expressed their discomfort at the band’s white musicians playing reggae music with dreadlocked hairstyles. Some had claimed that this was cultural appropriation and had complained about it.

+ A Swiss white reggae band at the centre of a racism row

The episode triggered a heated debate on the right to use elements of other cultures. And the media storm had deeply scarred the group: the members had been labelled as ‘white, privileged men who appropriate foreign cultures’, explains singer Dominik Plumettaz, who has an immigrant past, with Afro-Brazilian and indigenous origins.

The artist also reports hostility from the left: a small but noisy group allegedly equated him with right-wing extremists. At the same time, the political right tried to profit from the incident by denouncing the restaurant for racial discrimination against whites.

An initial conviction was successfully appealed and the case ended in February with an acquittal.

In the meantime, however, several concert organisers distanced themselves from Lauwarm, making new performances more difficult, and eventually the very name of the band became the subject of controversy.

“I want to start over, shake off the prejudices,” Plumettaz said in the newspaper interview. He now pursues solo projects under the stage name Do Maré.

Translated from Italian with DeepL/mga

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