Swiss white reggae group disbands after controversy

Swiss white reggae band Lauwarm disbanded last week after a years-long racism row, reports the SonntagsBlick newspaper. + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The band had made headlines throughout Switzerland in the summer of 2022, after their concert at the Brasserie Lorraine in the Swiss capital Bern was interrupted. Some spectators had expressed their discomfort at the band's white musicians playing reggae music with dreadlocked hairstyles. Some had claimed that this was cultural appropriation and had complained about it. + A Swiss white reggae band at the centre of a racism row The episode triggered a heated debate on the right to use elements of other cultures. And the media storm had deeply scarred the group: the members had been labelled as 'white, privileged men who appropriate foreign cultures', explains singer Dominik Plumettaz, who has an immigrant past, with Afro-Brazilian and indigenous origins. The artist also reports hostility from the left: a ...