Ibaialde's Corner

It is now 18 years since the Fall of Berlin’s Wall, for most of our students it doesn’t mean much, but for more mature people it meant the fall of a system which had made freedom something impossible.

“Wind of Change” is a 1990 power ballad written by Klaus Meine, vocalist of Scorpions. It appeared on their 1990 album Crazy World, but did not become a worldwide hit single until 1991, when it topped the charts in Germany and across Europe, and hit #4 in the United States and #2 in the United Kingdom.

The lyrics celebrate the political changes in Eastern Europe at that time – such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the increasing freedom in the communist bloc (which would soon lead to the fall of the USSR), and the clearly imminent end of the Cold War.

In 2005 the viewers of the German television network ZDF chose this song as the song of the century. It is the highest ever selling song in Germany and is frequently played on television shows presenting video footage of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is widely known in Germany as the song of German reunification (and fall of communism in Eastern Europe generally), even though it only rose to popularity two years later.

Here I offer you a karaoke version made as a project for ESL class in year 9 at Ibaialde, I hope you like it.

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