BERLIN (AP) – A Bavarian court found a folk singer guilty on Friday for violating Germany’s strict child labor laws by having his 4-year-old son perform on stage with him during an evening show.
Angelo Kelly, 39, was fined 3,000 euros ($ 3,600) by the Hassfurt administrative court for participating in an outdoor summer concert with his son William in 2019, who sang “What a Wonderful World”. The boy is the youngest of Kelly’s five children.
“During this performance, the boy William stayed for at least 30 minutes on the stage where he played, sang together and performed his own music,” said the court, according to the dpa news agency. “This is considered work by the Youth Work Protection Act.”
Kelly, who is popular in Germany, said on her Facebook page that she would appeal the verdict.
“As a parent, my children’s welfare is the most important thing to me,” he wrote. “William was and is never obliged to appear with us at our shows. If he did, it was because he wanted to. “
Children aged 3 to 6 can participate in musical performances according to German law for up to two hours a day, but only with the official approval of an exception and only between 8 am and 5 pm, said the dpa. William, who is now 5, appeared on the stage until 8:20 pm, officials said.
Kelly’s lawyer, Julian Ackermann, criticized the decision, saying that playing a “brief appearance on stage in the presence of his mother and brothers at a show given by his own father” as child labor was legally wrong and “very far from the facts.”