Do you feel the same way? Do you open the newspaper, turn on the radio or switch on the TV and despair at the same moment as people try to convince you on all these channels that the end of the world is imminent? The war in Ukraine, corona, climate change, environmental pollution, IS terror, good people, bad people, Böhmermann vs Erdogan….
Do you sometimes long for the time when mum was surfing the blue-yellow wave on Radio Niederösterreich while ironing, singing along to the most beautiful hits of the 50s and 60s by Caterina, Vico, Connie and Peter, Udo and, of course, Peter the Great? When the future was all good and the past was in black and white. When you dreamed of faraway places, of Fernando, Alfredo and Jose, awaited the arrival of the ship that was coming, or, after a few glasses of Greek wine, made two tracks in the snow and then picked up two little Italians from the railway station?
I sometimes feel like that and that’s why this special evening exists. Let’s forget the worries of the world for a little while and surrender to our most wistful dreams – so that afterwards we can face reality with renewed vigour! Schlager therapy, so to speak. And we can promise you this in advance: politics, Florian Silbereisen, Helene Fischer and Andreas Gabalier must stay outside! [Thomas Gansch]