HIP Video Promo Presents: Ute Lemper is back with an all new music video "Mack The Knife"

Musical Theatre Icon Ute Lemper releases her reimagined take of "Mack The Knife"

ROSELLE PARK, NJ, GERMANY, March 18, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Everybody knows the tune. But not everyone realizes the meaning that animates the song. “Mack the Knife” is one of the true standards of International pop and jazz — a song with an instantly recognizable melody, an intoxicating sway, and an undercurrent of thrilling menace. It’s also a broadside against the powers, an examination of corruption, and a warning shot directed toward the rich and powerful. Composer Kurt Weill and lyricist Bertolt Brecht were two of the original dissidents in international popular culture, and they poured their critique of manners and money-worship into The Threepenny Opera, their staggeringly influential 1928 musical. Louis Armstrong and Bobby Darin have recorded the tale of the murderous Macheath; Jim Morrison used to turn to it when he wanted to add a little extra drama to his dangerous performances. Now, it’s been cut by one of the first voices of musical theater: the incomparable Ute Lemper.

The new version of “Mack the Knife” is the introductory track on Pirate Jenny, a full-length tribute to the music of Kurt Weill that includes plenty of words by Bertold Brecht, too. The collection of groundbreaking songs gives Lemper plenty of latitude to do what she does best — dazzle audiences with her interpretive singing, nuanced understanding of character, and musical daring. In a sense, she’s carried Brecht and Weill with her throughout her career: she’s brought their incisive sensibility to all of her roles, especially her famous turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, a show filled with musical and lyrical allusions to The Threepenny Opera. For many longtime listeners, Pirate Jenny will sound like a homecoming.

At the same time, Lemper’s take on “Mack the Knife” is a radical one, informed by contemporary trends and current events. She reconstructs the harmonic underpinnings of the song and introduces a beat that alludes to trip-hop and experimental pop. Lemper also fully inhabits the character, emphasizing Macheath’s amorality, his restlessness, and his bloodlust. In a clip she directed herself, she takes on the role of the killer, fitting herself with reflective sunglasses and drifting through a slumbering New York City. Her Macheath sails straight past the banks and the police cars — symbols of authority — intent as she is on a mission that has taken on chilling vengeful overtones. Lemper interspersed clips from her celebrated 1990 performance of “Bouffes Du Nord.” It is, simultaneously, a reminder of her stellar history, where she’s going, and who she has always been.

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Andrew Gesner
HIP Video Promo
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