Syrian enters TV talent show with German folk song

It's not easy to impress members of the jury on the TV talent show "The Voice of Germany."

Yet this is precisely what happened when 27-year-old Syrian musician Mazen Mohsen performed a German folk song on the popular program. Mohsen chose a modern rendition of the 19th-century tune "Die Gedanken sind frei" (Thoughts Are Free).

The text was first published on political pamphlets around 1780 as a symbol of resistance against political oppression, and an expression of a longing for freedom and independence. The words were set to music only later and published by Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1842 in the anthology "Schlesische Volkslieder" (Silesian Folk Songs).

Although the song is centuries-old, its relevance is contemporary. A translation of the lyrics reads: "Thoughts are free, who can guess them? They flee by like shadows in the night. No man can know them, no hunter shoot them. It remains so: Thoughts are free."

A story to tell

Adding a unique twist to the song, Mohsen wove in a verse in Arabic, prompting expressions of surprise on the judges' faces. In this segment of the reality show, judges only hear the singers' voices. When a judge presses the buzzer, they can turn around to see the candidate who can then become part of their team of aspiring singers.

In Mohsen's case, singer-songwriter Mark Forster pressed the buzzer and expressed his pleasure with the song selection. "I've never heard anything like that here — a folk song. Somehow it took me away and totally touched me. You can tell you have something to say," said Forster.

A performance with a message

Mohsen does indeed have a lot to say.

In 2014, he fled the civil war in his homeland, taking a rubber dinghy across the sea with his best friend. In the middle of the dangerous journey, the small inflatable boat sank. "In a few minutes, we were all in the sea," he said in a biography published on the show's website. He still remembers the crying children and the desperate wails of his fellow passengers as they were in the water.

Fortunately, a coast guard vessel suddenly appeared, and he knew all was not lost. "They saved me," Mohsen said.

He loves his life in Germany: "Here I can make my dreams come true. And I'm very happy that I made the journey and have now landed on 'The Voice of Germany.' My fate has simply brought me here."

That Mohsen chose the folk tune "Thoughts are Free" for the talent show is no coincidence. "The meaning that the song has for the whole world is very important to me," he said. "Where I come from, I couldn't simply speak my mind; here I can." He chose to sing a verse in Arabic so his fellow countrymen could understand the message. "I want to build a bridge between Germany and Syria with music," he said.

A new life

During the show, Mohsen's friends, who were sitting backstage, described him as a cheerful person who loves to laugh. In 2019, he was awarded a prize for civil courage when he saved two people from certain death. "As a guest in Germany, I want to show my gratitude and repay Germany for welcoming me and allowing me to live here in peace" he said.

In Syria, Mohsen studied music and worked as a music teacher before fleeing. In addition to singing, he also plays guitar and lute. For the past two years, he has been working as a freelance musician. In Germany he has worked on opera projects and sung with the philharmonic choir of Stuttgart. His version of the folk song on "The Voice of Germany" is a modern variation from 2015 penned by Konstan Wecker.

This article was originally published in German.