Otto Waalkes joins the rappers – and becomes a Spotify sensation

In 1993 Otto Waalkes scored a hit with the song “Friesenjung” – now a cover is going viral on social media. The Berlin rapper Ski Aggu and his Dutch colleague Joost Klein recorded a techno version. The three of them climbed to the top of the German charts within a day.

Thirty years ago, Otto Waalkes took Sting’s song “Englishman in New York” as a template and adapted it to his native East Frisia. It says: “I’m just a Frisian boy. And I live behind the dike.” Thanks to a techno version, the song is now gaining new fame.

First, the two young musicians posted individual song fragments on social media. Because Otto Waalkes, as the rights holder, had not yet given permission at the time, they publicly asked their community for permission to release the full song.

The call “Bitte Otto please” often reached the comedian and actor through the social media comment columns. Otto Waalkes, who lives in Hamburg, specifically registered on the TikTok platform and wrote on his new channel: “Holdrio Ski Aggu & Joost, you have my permission.”

Before the social media campaign, the two rappers Otto Waalkes were probably strangers. “I didn’t know about it at first. Then I gave them permission – and then they brought me in. And now I’m rapping with them. I didn’t know them before,” the 74-year-old told “Bild”.

Shortly afterwards, the recordings for the music video took place in Berlin. It shows Joost Klein and Ski Aggu together with Otto Waalkes rapping and dancing in the streets of the capital. It has been public on YouTube since Saturday and has since been viewed over half a million times.

The techno version was also a hit on Spotify. On Monday, the streaming platform tweeted: The song “Friesenjung” “debuts at number 149 on the daily global Spotify charts, with 1,353,780 streams.” It is the 84th song to reach more than 1 million streams in the German charts in one day. The hit now has more than nine million streams.