Peter Söder, 52, and his wife, Claudia, 44, traveled to South Tyrol from the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg to see the band at Alpen Flair. “Frei.Wild isn’t just entertainment and fun, it’s also political,” Mr. Söder said. Mr. Burger explained that the band focused on Germany because it has a much larger market for German-language music than Italy. In 2012, a journalist accused Frei.Wild on a TV talk show of acting like a neo-Nazi band, setting off a wider discussion about the band’s ideological position. When the band was nominated the following year for an Echo Prize, the German equivalent of the Grammys, other acts threatened to boycott the ceremony and the nomination was rescinded.

Source: New York Times August 01, 2018 12:22 UTC