AVIVA-BERLIN.de im April 2024 - Beitrag vom 12.03.2003


Interview with Marla Glen
J.Gallagher+S.Adler

Marla Glen came to Berlin to promote her new album Friends. Shortly before a guest appearance at the Teddy Awards 2003 she told us her feelings about Germany and her remedy for a broken heart

Marla Glen is uninhibited and at the same time she´s melancholic - just like her music. Born in Chicago, she started writing songs and music early in her life - at the age of 11. With her deep, powerful voice she won a singing competion which took her to France. There she started up her first band and hasn´t looked back since. Her music is a mixture of blues, soul, jazz, R&B and African ethno. After taking time out, the rebellious fighter for a just world is about to make a comeback.

AVIVA-BERLIN: You´ve been living in Germany for four years. How did that come about?
Marla Glen: I came to Germany to find out what happened to me and how big I was, how many records I had sold, how much money I had made. Four years led me looking for justice. Otherwise I wouldn´t have come here to Germany, if I wasn´t looking for something. I begin to find it. A lot of people always believed my story but I finally found people who could do something about it so I can continue on with my life.

AVIVA-BERLIN: The main theme of the 53rd Berlinale is Tolerance. How do you see Germany?
Marla Glen: My first experience with German people was Köln and that wasn´t such a pleasant experience there. It was worse than with the record company, actually. I just refused to give up - to know that Germany did have a heart, that there were human beings here that were not like in the record company. I asked for help in Köln and even the TV people and everybody just never helped me. But I found my help and my humanity. You always have to find your humanity in every country. Every country you go to you feel like an animal and you feel like nothing until you learn the language and you learn the law. And now I found that there´s some humanity here.

AVIVA-BERLIN: I´d like to change the subject completely...
Marla Glen: Yeah, cos I´m gonna cry. It hurts.

AVIVA-BERLIN: If you could choose someone as a relation, who would you choose? For example, as your mother...
Marla Glen: First of all, I wouldn´t choose any other mother because my mother was a great mother. I don´t know. I like the way that God brought me into this world and I like the way I am and I like the people who raised me which was my mother and father. And I love my brother and my family. And I wouldn´t want it any other way. I couldn´t say that I would want this person to be my mother, this person to be my father because I like the parents that God gave me, otherwise I wouldn´t be Marla Glen.

AVIVA-BERLIN: Today is Valentine´s Day. Do you have a remedy for a lady who might have a broken heart?
Marla Glen: Well, I have a girlfriend and she´ll be here today. My remedy for her is more sex! More making love!!! (laughs ...)

More about Marla Glen on her official website:
www.marlaglen.de