From MTV to Mecca

Kristiane Backer’s autobiography takes the reader on a journey from the heady world of international television presentation to a deep spiritual quest into the heart of Islam. During the early 1990s Kristiane was one of the first presenters on MTV Europe, a popular music channel. Kristiane hails from a comfortable, middle class, German Protestant family. It is from this secure basis that she launched her career into the precarious and fickle world of the international media. Within the text lies a dignified and frank presentation of Kristiane’s life experiences. It is an immensely inspiring and enthralling narrative. Kristiane effectively articulates the emptiness that long exposure to the shallow world of pop culture engenders. The long lists of celebrity friends and acquaintances and their attendant lifestyles serve to highlight the vacuity inherent in such an existence and amplify its damaging effects upon the soul. Islam warns against actively seeking fame and adulation – and the media abound with illustrations of the harmful consequences of stardom – the reliance on drugs and alcohol; the narcissistic obsession with personal appearance and the potentially devastating effects of these forms of self-abuse. Kristiane, to her credit, remained relatively untouched by the chaos that ensues in the lives of many of those ensnared by celebrity.