Ute Lemper speaks to us about her incredible new single, ‘MOTHERS‘.
What inspired you to create ‘MOTHERS?
I actually wrote MOTHERS a few years ago as the title song for a television series I was hosting in Europe about mothers from all kinds of professions, cultures and backgrounds. The song was not used in the end, but I always loved it and the idea of giving mothers a voice.
This spring it suddenly came back to me with a completely different urgency. I am a mother of four, and I became profoundly worried about the future of our children and the world this next generation will encounter. We are living through wars, terrible political divisions, cuts in education, the overwhelming influence of the internet and social media, and now AI. There are so many forces affecting the next generation that we as parents cannot control.
So I rewrote the second verse and made it much more provocative. And suddenly I thought: this cannot just be a song. Why not make it a call for mothers to stand up and sing?
The song celebrates mothers around the world. Why was this message important for you to share?
Mothers should be united. A mother worrying about her child in Iran, Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Russia, Germany or American South America fundamentally knows the same fear and the same love. Politics, religion, nationality, and borders may divide us, but our care and will to stand up for our children unite us. And this is so much stronger.
No mother wants that one day her child will become a soldier and die for his country, or become the victim of somebody else’s war. No mother wants her children to be infused with hatred either.
And I was especially thinking about mothers in cultures where women still don’t have the same emancipation, equality, and freedom that many of us have achieved. So ‘MOTHERS’ is a cry for peace, but also for the right of women to have a voice to protest against the injustice and unbalanced world around us, because we care.
You spent five months working on this project. What was the process like?
It was intense; I was entirely immersed. For five months, I basically lived inside this project.
Once I decided to create 18 versions, I knew I did not want to simply put translated lyrics over the same arrangement. I translated and adapted the lyrics, checked them with native speakers, and studied the instruments, musical traditions, and sensuality of the different cultures.
Every version became a completely different musical world. Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are incredibly groovy and sensual. Farsi has this beautiful melancholy and Middle Eastern haunting beauty. Kurdish and Turkish have something ancient and earthy. Hebrew became a cry for peace side by side with the Arabic version. Ukrainian and Russian have this incredible passion and strong female energy, stemming from a similar musical heritage and both begging for peace with powerful and broken voices.
I uploaded many options of one language into my good old Pro Tools system, where I separated tracks, edited, changed, and added voices and instruments. It was an enormous puzzle. I was fantastic to be able to create a cinematic sound image and a movie for every language.
You used AI to assist in creating versions of your vocals in different languages. How did you approach that?
I could not have created a project of this scale without AI.
The song and composition already existed. I had recorded the musical foundation with my guitarist, myself singing on piano and keyboards, and my drummer and percussionist. I translated and adapted the lyrics myself. Then I used AI to explore the voices, instrumentation, arrangements, and cultural sounds of each version.
And I have to say, I was amazed. The voices were so touching and had incredible human soul and sensitivity. Of course, I am nervous about the whole AI revolution and its potentially uncontrollable power, but in this case I experienced the best of it.
After many attempts, I brought everything back into Pro Tools and worked on it as a producer – editing, changing, adding human voices and instrumental lines.
AI became an extension of my capacities. I felt almost like a movie director with this extraordinary new team available to me. It allowed me to realize a dream that conventionally might have cost a million dollars and taken five years.
Why was it important to make the song available in languages like Farsi, Arabic, Hebrew and German?
Because I deliberately wanted languages that carry history, conflict, and sometimes the identity of opposing sides.
Farsi surprised me perhaps the most. At this moment, Iran is constantly presented to us through politics, conflict, and war. But listen to the Farsi version, and suddenly you hear the soul of the people—the tenderness, longing, melancholy, and beauty of Persian music. I wish politics and religion did not so often stand in the way of seeing the heart of a nation.
Hebrew and Arabic were essential to me. Both versions carry this mother’s cry for peace. I wanted Ukrainian and Russian to exist side by side, just as I wanted Kurdish and Turkish.
And German is my native language. It carries an enormous history for me personally.
The whole point is that this song for hope can coexist inside one project and all the languages express one unified wish, even when the political world tells us differently
Your music has often explored themes of freedom, memory and human dignity. How does “MOTHERS” connect with your earlier work?
My mission as an artist started 45 years ago.
Forty-five years ago I began singing Brecht and Weill. Both were forced into exile by Nazi Germany. As a young German singing this repertoire around the world, I had to confront in a very heartfelt way the history of my country – the Holocaust, the crimes of the Nazis and the ignorant generation of my grandparents. The grief and anger about the numbness I encountered when wanting answers fuelled my rebel heart and the mission became part of my artistic identity.
‘Songs for Eternity’ came from the same urgency. These are songs written by Jewish prisoners in concentration camps and ghettos. Some of these songs literally grab me by the throat. The sadness of the stories is overwhelming and I feel a great urge to tell them over and over not to ever forget.
And then Marlene Dietrich – the German woman who dared to fight against Nazi Germany and was considered a traitor in her homeland for decades after the war. I spoke with her for three hours when I was a young actress in Paris, and 30 years later I created an entire theatrical work around that conversation.
So ‘MOTHERS’ is not disconnected from my previous work at all. These projects are all about memory, conscience and humanity. About refusing to look away and pointing at the painful truth.
I believe an artist has a voice to express outrage, to question, to confront, to call for compassion—and perhaps sometimes even to create an awareness or a movement.
The video shows mothers and children from different cultures. What did you want people to take away from those images?
Images can transport music into another dimension.
I created fantastical elements – women flying on peace doves over war zones, protecting children, ancient mothers carrying the secrets of life to new generations. I also animated the different language covers.
But halfway through the video, I wanted reality to enter. So I included real protest footage – mothers around the world marching in the streets in solidarity for peace. Suddenly the song is not a fantasy anymore. It is happening now.
And the video climaxes on this very young woman who simply looks straight into the camera, serious and afraid. For me she is the bridge into the future. What are we leaving to her generation?
You hope mothers around the world will perform the song themselves. What would it mean to see that happen?
That is really my dream.
I would love women to take the song into their own hands and sing it in the streets of capitals and small towns, across different countries and cultures.
Haha…of course I am a dreamer. But I am not the only one…
Seriously, I would love to create MOTHERS music festivals around the world and invite great singers from different countries to perform their own versions, in their own languages and with their own musical originality.
And especially women in cultures where they still experience oppression through tradition, convention or religion – I would love them to take the song and sing it as their own quest for emancipation, dignity and equality.
Then the song would really have a life beyond me.
After more than 40 years in music, what continues to inspire you to take on new projects?
Curiosity. I have always been incredibly curious.
I don’t want to repeat myself. I have had this extraordinary journey through theater, films, concerts, Brecht and Weill, French chansons, jazz, my own compositions, poetry, orchestras, and so many collaborations and cultures. But I am still looking for the next door.
And I think at this point in my life I feel even more strongly that art should have a reason. Of course music can simply be beautiful and entertaining. But I am most inspired when I feel there is something I need to say.
Before we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share about “MOTHERS” and its message?
Yes. I want ‘MOTHERS’ to have a life beyond the song.
I created mothersoftheworld.music because I would like to build an international resource for mothers who need help—women dealing with mental health problems, abuse and other critical situations, teenage mothers, or simply mothers looking for support.
The website is still growing, and I really want people to participate. Visit it. Share it with mothers who might need it. And if you know a trusted organization or initiative in your country that helps mothers and women, please send it to us so we can include it.
I would love to build this country by country, community by community.
The music is the beginning. The larger dream is connection—and perhaps eventually a real movement of mothers around the world.
Watch the music video for ‘MOTHERS’ below and find out more about Ute Lemper and her music online on her official website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
