Ich + Ich: Yasmine
Perhaps it shouldn't be too controversial an opinion that Germany's largest city Berlin produces more credible "urban" music than its neighbors to the south in Bavaria. After all, Peter Fox's Schwarz zu blau, a fresh and innovative hip-hop take on Berlin after hours, won last year's Bundesvision Song Contest by a huge margin. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that fellow Berliners Ich + Ich come through with a wonderfully evocative and emotional urban soul song in Yasmine. Pairing up with an uncredited Egyptian singer, Mohamed Mounir, Yasmine mixes German and Arabic lyrics along with German and American musical cues into a multi-cultural melange that is so reflective and evocative of the melting pot that is modern Berlin. Unlike some of it's competitors, Yasmine has depth and character that is able to take these disparate elements and combine them into a whole that is greater than its parts.
Over the years, Americans have come to think of German popular music consisting entirely of avant garde synth-pop or heavy metal. But Germany, and particularly Berlin, has developed an amazing depth of "urban" music talent. Ich + Ich and Yasmine demonstrate this beautifully.
Prediction: Over their first three albums, Ich + Ich have sold over 2.6 million copies, which indicates a massive base of support. Couple that with a fine song, and I predict that Ich + Ich should place comfortably in the top 5.
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