Zunge is a music video by Till Lindemann. It was released on 8 September 2023.
| Zunge | |||||||
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| Music video by Till Lindemann | |||||||
| Shoot: | April 2021 | ||||||
| Location: | Bolshoi Moscow Circus, Moscow  | ||||||
| Director: | Anna Tsukanova-Kott | ||||||
| Premiere: | 8 September 2023 (15:00 CET) [YouTube] | ||||||
| Length: | 4:58 | ||||||
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Information
- In August 2022, Edgard Zapashny, director of the Bolshoi Moscow Circus, revealed some information about the video shoot in an interview. The video was shot a year prior, to celebrate the circus' 50th anniversary:[1]
"Till hired Russian director Anna Tsukanova-Kott, and they started thinking about what to do," Zapashny recounts. "Anna suggested to him, 'Why don't you shoot with tigers, and not just stand next to them, but let a tiger lick you, maybe even scratch you?' Till quickly agreed."
Anna Tsukanova-Kott called Zapashny, whom she had known for a long time, to ask for help with the shoot.
"I said, 'Well, of course, you've really come up with something crazy, but is the artist really willing to take such risks?'" recalls the circus director. "I was invited to a restaurant to meet Till. I went and saw a healthy guy who fully understood that what they were planning was dangerous. Later, I realized that he's a guy with a bullet in his head, in a good way. I mean, he's really willing to take risks for the sake of a good product."
Before the shoot, several rehearsals were conducted, and the global celebrity immediately said he was ready to enter the cage with the tigers and even interact with them.
"It was amazing because, to the best of my memory, male Russian artists never agreed to anything like this. Only Olga Pogodina agreed to get in close contact with tigers during the filming of the series 'Margareta Nazarova.' Till became the second person in history to do this," Zapashny reveals.
According to the staff of the Big Moscow Circus, the essence of the shoot was not only to show the artist working with tigers. It is known, for example, that Lindemann was thrown darts during the shoot.
- Zapashny was interviewed once again, on the day before the video premiere by KP.ru:[2]
He was friendly, without a hint of pathos. He told me about the idea of the clip and said that he intended to perform all the stunts personally. Because I immediately asked him if it was necessary to prepare a body double. But he said: "No, no, I want to do everything myself." Afterwards he specified: "Could the tiger attack me?". That is, he wanted the tiger to attack him, and perhaps even injure him.
He was aware that it was a tiger. I interjected: "Wait, do you realize that when attacked, a tiger is likely to inflict injuries on you? Even if they are minimal, they will be injuries. "Yes, I do realize that, I don't mind," he replied. "Great, sure, but I'm against it," I replied. Because I didn't want to take that kind of responsibility and uncontrollable risks with a world-class star. We defined a circle of tricks. He kept insisting that he had to be in close contact with the tigers. And we decided that Till would feed the animals both from his hand and mouth.
At that moment we had a tiger named Ricky (Edgard's favorite, who passed away in May 2023 - editor's note), with whom both my brother and I had done similar tricks. And I had confidence in him. But I immediately told Till that one day is not enough for such stunts. After that he obediently came to our circus several times for rehearsals. He talked to the tigers, we tried the trick. And after we were convinced that the animals reacted well to him, and he behaved adequately - he did not provoke, did not go crazy, and clearly followed the instructions - we gave the go-ahead.
- Starting on 1 September 2023, four teasers were published via Instagram and Facebook stories. All featured a distribution referral link to the single release, the first three teasers said soon, while the fourth one showed 08.09. - 17:00 CET, which contradicted the published premiere time on YouTube at 15:00 CET.
- On 6 September, the premiere was revealed to be at 15:00 CET on 8 September on YouTube.
- Several issues around the YouTube uploads were observed.
- Initially, a premiere was set on YouTube, which was missing its thumbnail and had a typo in the video title: Till Lindemann - Zunge (Official Videos). A few minutes later, a thumbnail showing Aglaya Tarasova appeared, which was later replaced by one showing Till with his lips sewed together. The small typo was eventually fixed as well.
- Three hours after the first upload, a second one was published on YouTube with the same premiere time, with the identical thumbnail of Till, while the title of the video had the same typo yet missing the song name: Till Lindemann - (Official Videos). Soon after, the first video was deleted and the second one was set to private before being republished an hour later with the full and correct title.
Media
Cast
- Directed by: Anna Tsukanova-Kott
- Produced by: Till Lindemann, Anar Reiband, Anna Tsukanova-Kott
- Cast: Till Lindemann, Aglaya Tarasova
- Tigers: Eric, Kurt, Anita, Ricky
- Raven: Professor
- Camera: Dmitriy Gorevoy, Yaroslav Rozhdenevsky, Antonina Rozhdenevskaya
- 8mm Camera: Evgeniy Disterlo
- Edit: Antonina Rozhdenevskaya
- Color Grading: Yaroslav Rozhdenevsky
- Gaffer: Pavel Semenov
- Sound Design: Rustam Mamedoff, Yaroslav Rozhdenevsky
- Make-Up Artists: Mariia Morzunova, Inna Morzunova
- Raven Trainer: Danila Vorobyov
- Endoscope: Ivan Nedoluzhko
- Plastic surgeon and Assistant: Evgeny Kazantsev, Anastasiya Buzuluckaya
- General Director of Great Moscow State Circus: Edgard Zapashny
- Artistic Director of Great Moscow State Circus: Askold Zapashny
- Stage Manager: Elena Petrikova
- Technical Director: Alexey Studenov
- Light Designer: Artem Titaevskiy
- Chief of the artistic staging department: Olga Belova
- Photographer: Natalia Petrova
- Assistants in the cage: Ilya Kalinin, Vasiliy Baluk, Vlad Schuk, Aleksader Startsev, Aiya Sagindikova
- Special Thanks: Danny Uhlmann, Delight Studio Rental, Anastasia Neklyudova