Beats without age limits: Uschi hangs up – when senior citizens become DJ

You can argue about the song “Belly Po”. Some feel the body image outlined by rapper Shirin David (“Go to Gymie, get a show. Ingrid Jatho, 73 years old, who has just chased the song from her DJ desk through the boxes, a judgment that can be agreed quickly in this academic dispute. “Weird woman,” she says of Shirin David. “But I thought the music was good.”

Ingrid Jatho has recently dealt with the work of more than 40 years younger rapper. Jatho used to be a teacher – recently she is DJ. In a seminar, she learns what that means, which protrudes relatively clearly from the wide sea of ​​”active in old age” courses (“watercolor painting”, “herbal science”, “dangers on the Internet”).

“Forever Fresh” is the name of the project of the Cologne Music Festival “C/O Pop”, (23rd to 27th April), which has often been a seismograph of current discourses in pop. The announcement reads promising. “Women from 70 are given the opportunity to rediscover their love of music, to learn from scratch and to conquer the festival stages with their performance,” said the promise.

In essence, “Forever Fresh” is a quick training as a DJ. But with a specific goal: the workshops should go into a appearance of the “Ü70 DJ newcomer collective” on the “C/O Pop” on Saturday (April 26, 9 p.m.). The women should play a gig.

Edeltraud, Uschi and Irmgard on the DJ desk

To do this, it is practiced. On this day, two rooms in the rooms in Cologne booms strong bass. The women stand alternately on the desks, push the volume controls up, press on buttons and rock in their legs. Their names are written down on small adhesive strips: Edeltraud, Uschi and Irmgard. Tends to be different from scene clubs.

In fact, you shouldn’t make the mistake and wickered the whole undertaking. Older woman faces flashing technology – a painful cliché can easily be called up. In older women and music as well – keyword hit. In truth, the course tries exactly the opposite. It is also an uprising against age clichés.

In any case, Ingrid Jathos Playlist is as far away from Schlager as Howard Carpendale from Gangsta-Rap. She chose “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus, “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira and “Belly Po” by Shirin David. The transitions and the “accents” have just been practiced as she says. How do you get from one song to the next? How do you “thread”? This is how the in-case of a song is called.

DJ-Ing for advanced (in life)

Jatho comes from a family of music. But to make music even – that’s new for you. She only danced on it. At the DJ desk, she “had to work properly,” she says. But she thinks that.

Course colleague Inge Dobrinski, 79 years old, describes it in a similar way. “It was a trip to a new direction for me,” she says. “In my times when I struck the nights around my ears, there was no DJ yet,” she says, only “dance events”. And today? The club scene is happy to be open-minded. But you don’t meet many 70-year-olds there.

The young people are trained by two women who are half as old. Anna Cainelli and Sedaction (that’s what she calls itself) have a lot of DJ experience. They are enthusiastic about their protégés. “Inge was at the start!” Says Sedaction. “She knocked out one by one!”

In terms of teaching material, they started at 0. The technology is not even in focus. “We are more concerned with feeling good with the music they are playing,” says Sedaction. “And they really feel.”

Some don’t even have a computer

What is being done should not be underestimated. Some participants don’t even have a computer at home – now they are standing in front of a sea of ​​buttons and regulators. But nobody was jumped off. Probably also because challenge can be something good. “Many also said: You just don’t have as Challenges in old age,” says Sedaction.

Ingrid Jatho, however, still doesn’t get out of Shirin David “Belly Po” by Shirin David. The text, the whole subject: She has to think of women’s magazines that she used to be. On 20 pages of super thin models, on another 10 pages of diets. “And then another 20 pages of cooking recipes. With a lot of sugar and fat,” says Jatho. “Of course, this only served to confuse women.”

There is “already a little further” today.