A 49-year-old Catholic from the hit industry wants to join the Bundestag for the CDU? Doesn't sound extraordinary. A black music manager from Berlin-Mitte is running for the CDU: That raises questions. Joe Chialo is happy to answer them – hoping to escape them one day.
It may be insensitive to reduce Joe Chialo's first impression to his looks. But for a designated CDU Bundestag candidate of 49 years, the entrepreneur with Tanzanian parents is strikingly attractive. Not many men his age can wear tailored jackets despite their broad shoulders. The friendly face over the noticeably toned body is part of an engaging personality that will make the Berlin music manager an exciting person in the upcoming federal election campaign. Nevertheless, hardly anyone would have taken any notice of the political career changer if Chialo weren't also the thing with which he does not attract attention either in his place of residence or in his industry: black.
Chialo's company, the music management airforce1, is based in the chic part of Berlin-Mitte, on the border with trendy Prenzlauer-Berg. This is where Berlin techno was born. The hard sound of the Berlin street rap pumps from passing cars. But Chialo doesn't distribute the cool sound of the capital. His artists are called Santiano, Ben Zucker, The Kelly Family or Die Priester. Chialo makes pop and hits in German, and very successfully. "You obviously have a good sense for the German mass taste, Mr. Chialo?" Stupid question, friendly counterattack: "I'm German too."
Hardcore musician and member of the Greens
Chialo grows up in a boarding school in Germany after his parents, who are active in the diplomatic service, leave Bonn and have to move further and further to the next country. "Well, great!", It was in the boarding school, says Chialo. He still maintains friendships from that time today. He doesn't want to downplay the bad things that happened in church shelters, but never had to experience anything like that himself. In the boarding school, Chialo can live out his musical interests, playing the trombone and singing. As a young man, he sings – or bawls – in a hardcore band that at least makes it to record deals and festival appearances.
At the same time, the trained cutting machine operator is politically active. "I was a member of IG Metall and an active member of the Greens," says Chialo. What bothered him in the party, however, "were the decision-making processes because everything was discussed ideologically for three days". When the then Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer got a paint bag on his ear at the Green Party Congress because of his plea for military intervention in Kosovo, he was "bothered", says Chialo. "That was the party of pacifism, but if you deviate from the ideology for good reasons, it immediately becomes violent. I found that so lying."
After graduating and leaving the band, Chialo focuses on a career behind the scenes in the music business. He makes Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys big in radio sales in Germany, lives in Cologne, Amsterdam and Berlin. He looks after Germany's first TV casting band, the No Angels. After all, Chialo goes into business for himself as an artist agent in Munich. "Then came Santiano, that was the first really big hit."
From rock to hit
The band from the far north combines sea shanties with rock and folk elements and is hardly missing in a big hit show. "The most successful artists always bring something in from outside," says Chialo. But he doesn't like to apply that to himself. At most, others perceive that he himself could be "from outside". Start in rock and end in hit? "Musically and politically," says Chialo with a laugh. His career from a young leftist to an entrepreneur with CDU party ID is exemplary. The bandmates from the past are "alienated with what I'm doing here".
*Privacy
The fact that he now also wants to become a politician has to do with the birth of his child, says Chialo. "When I look at my daughter, I wonder what else can I do to show her that there are bigger things in life than making sure you have the coolest sneakers." He now wants to contribute his skills in the cultural and creative industries in order to further advance this branch of the economy, which is so important for Berlin. Chialo says he wants to think politics in terms of family needs. He also promotes an "economic dialogue on an equal footing with the global South". This offers opportunities for both sides and reduces migration pressure. In his first job he is building up African musicians for the European market together with the Universal label.
"There is really music in the CDU"
But why is Chialo running for the CDU? With the party, he connects the pragmatism, the "moderation and moderation" and his Christian faith, he says. He is not unsettled that racist positions like the "Children instead of Indians" campaign had a place in the CDU not so long ago. "The CDU is a people's party and there is real music in there," says Chialo. Extreme views are only rashes among the Christian Democrats before reason finally prevails.
"If there are enough people together, you will always find a few people who think or do absolutely disgusting things," says Chialo, "But I refuse to apply that to the whole group." He means his party as well as his church or the police. Yes, he said he was only checked for the color of his skin. "But it would never occur to me to demonize the whole police force, because I have had a lot more good experience with police officers."
"This is sure to hurt"
Chialo does not distract as the conversation moves away from his political agenda on racism. He already knows that. "With all the problems we have in Germany with racism, Germany is not a racist country for me," says Chialo. Nevertheless, as possibly the third Afro-German member of the Bundestag after the Christian Democrat Charles M. Huber and the SPD politician Karamba Diaby, he is prepared for hatred and rejection. "That will definitely hurt, I'm not kidding myself," says Chialo. But female or gay politicians are also discriminated against in Germany. And: "I know the majority society behind me."
However, Chialo did not get the majority of his local association when it came to running for the constituency of Berlin-Mitte. That is why he moves to Spandau, where the CDU state chairman and top candidate for the next parliamentary election, Kai Wegner, has proposed his constituency. In Spandau, the 2017 direct candidacy narrowly went to the SPD. Chialo is now buying an apartment there and wants to score with his topics on the outskirts.
Discrimination against people with a migrant background is not one of his main concerns. Understandable: Demanding this from a black German has a racist note in itself. But Chialo will not be able to escape the subject. "I come from the entertainment industry: I know that the images in people's minds are what they are. Teaching the unteachable would only stop me," he says. "I focus on the content that I have to offer." He might have a very thick board to drill there. "But does that scare me off? No."
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