Shirin David is annoying fans with a new hit
Shirin David is currently the most successful German singer, with most of her songs reaching number one. She has achieved this again with her latest single "Bauch Beine Po", which celebrates a slim and toned body. However, it's unclear whether this is ironic or body-shaming.
"Go to the gym, become skinny": Shirin David's new hit "Bauch Beine Po" confuses with its apparent unbroken glorification of a trained, slim body. But it could also be particularly clever irony.
At 29, David is the most successful singer in Germany in terms of number-one hits. No solo singer has had more number-one hits than her - neither Madonna, Tina Turner, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston and Rihanna, nor Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Céline Dion, Adele, Taylor Swift, or Helene Fischer.
In fact, Helene Fischer only had a number one in the single charts last year through a collaboration with Hamburg-born Shirin David and the "Atemlos" remake ("Atemlos durch die Nacht - 10 year anniversary edition").
Before the release of "Bauch Beine Po", there was already criticism and disappointed fan voices when text lines were known on social media. Does she promote a problematic thin body image? Does she engage in body-shaming?
"I'm smart, but blond and supermegahot"
But the text seems to be so over the top that it must be biting sarcasm. But is irony understood in times of serious one-to-one understanding?
"You want a body? Then you have to push! If you're a hottie, they'll look. Go to the gym, become skinny, make a show out of it. We're pretty in bikinis. That's Bauch, Beine, Po."
The song also includes lines like "I'm out of office, don't call me. That's clean girl aesthetic, beauty program." And: "I'm smart, but blond and supermegahot."
Many lack the double layer in the text and the lascivious music video. And accompanying events seem to confirm that David is really about slenderness and fitness.
She posted an "Iced Matcha Latte Recipe" and held a Bauch-Beine-Po course for selected fans with a fitness studio chain - the pictures show slim, agile fans.
But Shirin David probably knows exactly what she's doing. She became known as a YouTuber and is a media professional of a new dimension. She easily manages to be a boundary-crosser who both participates in beauty trends and celebrates self-empowerment.
Message: As a feminist, look good and be smart
What this supposedly different kind of feminism is about, which may lie beyond all clichés in some people's minds, she explained, for example, to the then 73-year-old Thomas Gottschalk in his last "Wetten, dass..?" episode last November.
He hadn't seen her as a feminist, Gottschalk said. "Why not?", David asked the ZDF million-strong audience. "Because I look good? As a feminist, we can look good, and we can be smart and eloquent and wonderfully beautiful at the same time. One doesn't exclude the other."
With her self-confident and provocative performance, David tried to give Gottschalk ("I'm from the Alice Schwarzer generation") a good one. She then also reminded him that he once said that influencers didn't belong on his couch, but she found it very comfortable.
David cultivates the image of having fought her way through in the male-dominated music industry for years. It's about you-go-girl feminism - motto: As long as you like yourself and have a few people supporting you.
And so, David thanks her manager Taban, her sister Pati, and her mother in the evening of the announcement of their seventh number-one hit on Instagram.
She also posts a photo of herself in the pool with a wet t-shirt, saying: "I know exactly what it's like to not be welcome, not to be invited, and to be ignored. I haven't received anything for free from this industry and these people..."
But her perseverance is immense. And to all those who didn't believe in her, Shirin David writes in a confident hip-hop style: "Fuck you, you don't need to believe in me..."
Despite the controversy surrounding her latest single "Bauch Beine Po," Shirin David continues to break records, surpassing even iconic figures like Madonna and Beyoncé in terms of number-one hits in Germany.
Further solidifying her status, David recently collaborated with Helene Fischer for a chart-topping single, proving her ability to amass success and challenge stereotypes in the music industry.
