Top Ten Best Xavier Naidoo (A.K.A. Der Xer), Söhne Mannheims & Xavas Songs
Xavier Naidoo is a German soul singer who had a sensational career full of chart topping albums, lots of praise, many hits and a big presence in the country's pop culture ever since his German language debut. His poetic and inspirational lyrics and beautifully emotional singing voice made him everyone's darling. He even hosted the popular music show "Sing meinen Song" and was a judge in "The Voice of Germany", something you would call best family friendly entertainment.Even though here and there he said a few things that were brief scandals, it was quickly excused and in the end it was believed they were all big misunderstandings. But in the mid-2010s Naidoo became more open, not to say extremely open, about his involvement in the conspiracy theorist scene. He believes we live in a pre-apocalyptic world that is ruled by a satanistic cult controllung the government, and he has also started expressing this in his music, sometimes quite aggressively, which lead to a huge backlash. And may I say so, rightfully so.
But that does not change his earlier acclaim was just as rightfully deserved. He is a great music artist, blessed with a wonderful voice and incredible songwriting talent - unless he abuses it for his deeds. Yes, retrospectively you can also re-interpret his old songs as part of his agenda, but for twenty years his songs gave inspiration to many people, not because they agreed with some grotesque illuminati theories, but because the music has soul and wonderful wordings many people could relate to. So, I created this list simply to acknowledge Xavier Naidoo as an artist.
Naidoo is also a founding member of the soul group Söhne Mannheims and next to the rapper Kool Savas he is one half of the duo Xavas. Under the pseudonym Der Xer he furthermore makes techno music, but many (including me) regard this side project as the artistic low point in his career.
This is the song by him everybody knows, and the one that earned him the most praise. The song's lyrics tell you to go the right path on your life even though it will most likely be hard. Many won't like what you do and will disagree, but you know it's the right thing to do. The verses are a bit more cryptic, about finding a key to the right door.
Even though you COULD interpret that Naidoo is talking about his beliefs and how he'll stand for them no matter what people say, the song is a universal source of inspiration that can give strength to anyone struggling for how they chose to live. The song also has the best music of any Naidoo song, the beat is just so truly beautiful and Naidoo gives a truly great, vulnerable performance that goes more extrovert as the song progresses.
Another highly inspirational song by Naidoo that you can retrospectively interpret differently.
The song tells about how the singer is trapped in a dark and filthy territory, but manages to escape and then in the chorus tells to the listener everything can be better if you decide to make it better.
If you look at the comments under the music video most people said the song helped them at a time when they had to struggle, they interpreted the song as "dark times may get you down now but eventually everything will be better". But maybe he was also going for "they control us and don't want us to see their conspiracy, but everything will be better if we all rise". He doesn't explicitely sing that so I'll go with the first interpretation because it's more beautiful and I really like the song.
This is from his German language debut album "Nicht von dieser Welt" (he recorded an English language album in 1994 for the US market but it obviously was a massive commercial failure, is out of print now and a rarity, so NVDW is usually called his debut). The title translates to "Being Free (Nightshift by the Sea)", and you may think with such a title it has to be about conspiracy theories, but no. It's about how many people underestimate the power and control have about their own lives, and how nature and everything in the world does what it wants itself, at least that's how I interpret it.
A simple but important message for everyone who might need it: stay an individual, don't let anybody tell you that you have to do, don't let them tell you you have to be part of this or that. Stand for who you are.
The song has extremely cryptic poetic lyrics but overall seems to be a love song about someone who helped the singer in his life. The song has a strikingly beautiful melody and is one of the few Söhne Mannheims songs that can keep up with Naidoo's solo work.
Xavier Naidoo worked with several famous German music artists over the years, of all kinds of genres, as until very recently he was everybody's darling, and everyone, from schlager megastar Andrea Berg to most successful rapper Bushido or best selling rock group Silbermond wanted to work with him. This is partly the reason of his big success, as he has many different target groups.
"Sehn wir uns wieder" is a duet but styllistically, it's more a Silbermond ballad with its dominant percussion and gentle guitar. It's a love song about one day seeing the other again even though at the moment being miles apart. Since Silbermond are not unpolitical themselves, I'd be very interested in what they think about Naidoo's conspiracy theories.
This song is about a woman that inspires Naidoo on an extraordinary level. He never uses any stereotypical lines usualy found in love songs, even when he sings about her body, he doesn't go for anything low, he caresses her expressions. It's always very sensual, not sexual. He says she has the power to truly move the world and compares her to the tides and the wind, as a force of nature. In one line in the chorus he mentions her breasts but it's not any sexual, it's just one of many aspects of her he thinks are beautiful.
I think this is a very beautiful song that feels like it's about honest and passionate love for a woman, not just mere sexual attraction or the typical "you're the greatest" phrases.
Kool Savas and Xavier Naidoo, a.k.a. Xavas, deliver an uplifting soul-hip hop crossover with their only album so far, which is not as common in Germany as it is in the US as the genres are quite different in Germany (soul is an often spiritual, gentle genre mostly by black people, while German hip hop is dark and aggressive, and dominated by both white and Muslim people - both genres don't have a fanbase based on a certain ethnicity or background). With tracks like this one, they managed to fuse the genres by interpolated musical characteristics of the hip hop genre (the boom-bap beats, the rapping) with the sensitive and poetic songwriting and atmosphere - and emotive singing - of soul.
The album "Alles kann besser werden" is a 3CD-set with two "bright" and one "dark" discs. The bright sides contain "normal" songs about universal topics anyone can relate to... the ones everyone will love. The dark side however... contains conspiracy theories, attacks on polticians, and other stuff you rather not get into. But at least he warns you on the intro to disc 3 you may not like it and that it's just his opinion, and you don't have to like this disc of the album. I like this decision.
Anyway, the disc also contains this song about child abuse and how he feels it doesn't get enough media attention. This song was actually executed well and he does have a point.
This is simply a beautiful religious/spiritual song about how when times are dark and may seem frustrating his belief in an almighty god gives him hope. I myself am an atheist and I may hate Naidoo's conspiracy theories but I nevertheless always liked how he treats religion. He has a strong and deep belief in god but is not conservative and accepts everyone no matter their origin, beliefs or way of life.
PS: There is also a beautiful piano version in duet with schlager singer Andrea Berg they performed live, which can be found on the 3 disc "Geschenk-Edition" of her album "Seelenbeben" (the album has numerous deluxe editions).
