Klaus Meine of the Scorpions says he revised the lyrics to its perestroika power ballad “Wind Of Change” because the band no longer wanted to “romanticize Russia.”
The power ballad, released in 1990 on the German rock band’s album Crazy World, was written following a Scorpions set at the Moscow Music Peace Festival.
“To sing ‘Wind of Change’ as we have always sung it, that’s not something I could imagine any more,” Meine told Die Zeit. "It simply isn’t right to romanticize Russia with lyrics like: 'I follow the Moskva / Down to Gorky Park … Let your balalaika sing.'"
On the current Scorpions tour, in recognition of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Meine sings: “Now listen to my heart / It says Ukrainia / Waiting for the wind to change.”
Meine said the Scorpions have performed in Odesa, Kharkiv and Donetsk. “As a musician you hold on to the thought that people in wildly different countries, some of whom may look on each other as enemies, react to music in the same way,” he said. "That was also the case in Ukraine and Russia."