Elena Rud

In the organizer's words:

Elena Rud lives between outburst, despair and self-irony.

In their songs, the Munich indie band deals with topics such as mental health, body positivity and queerness. The five musicians around the eponymous front woman wrap these serious topics in a danceable sound of new wave indie with a punky 80s flair. The charm of Elena's distinctive, rough voice stands in the middle of innovative pop music à la the latest German wave.

In her poetic lyrics Elena addresses body dysmorphia, anxiety, sexism experiences and toxic relationships. She calls this de-tabooing "Melancholic Love Shit" and thus expresses the world-weariness of her generation - between hatred of others and of oneself, body image problems and anxiety states.

In doing so, the four guys not only back up their frontwoman, but also fight back against the toxic ideals by which they themselves are measured-for more weakness, insecurity, and glitter makeup instead of dominance, repression, and aggression.

As depressing as this may sound at first-Elena Rud is not hopeless. On the contrary. The appearance is self-confident, her message empowering: We all have these problems, let's finally talk about them. Like in a therapy, an open and honest confrontation with problems is sought, which can be unpleasant, maybe even has to be unpleasant. Elena Rud takes a seat on the imaginary couch and reveals herself.