The versatile hip hop artist and mdw alumna Ursi Wögerer, a.k.a. Miss BunPun, seeks to use her music to raise awareness of themes like queerness, empowerment, and body positivity/neutrality. As is the case with her current single “Take Me as I Am”, where she once again unites serious themes with positive vibes.
Her lyrics are queer feminist, anti-racist, and socially critical, her music a combination of self-produced hip hop beats, R’n’B vocals, and English-language rap. Ursi Wögerer, formerly known as Misses U, addresses issues in her music that preoccupy her personally while also calling upon her audience to stand up against discrimination. “As artists, we can assume a whole lot of responsibility and convey good messages,” says the Linz-born artist. “A person’s music expresses their own feelings, after all, and hearing that someone else identifies with and feels reinforced by it is a nice bit of feedback.” Tendencies towards body shaming, diet culture, and racism in our society are only a few of the themes that Miss BunPun takes on. Her new single “Take Me as I Am” is meant as a reminder that one doesn’t have to change for others and should be accepted as one is. “People around us need to take us as we are—and whoever doesn’t shouldn’t be able to claim too much of our precious energy.” In this, Wögerer is supported both by her band colleagues from the Beat Poetry Club and by the label Beatzarilla, which she co-founded and which produces and publishes for FLINTA (female, lesbian, inter, non-binary, trans, and agender) musicians and producers.
I need variety and diversity.
“People who will produce for women and FLINTA persons are particularly scarce. So we want to provide them with encouragement and to help them in their quest for visibility.” The idea of establishing a platform to promote FLINTA musicians, FLINTA producers, and FLINTA-fronted bands as well as solo artists originated with her band colleague Nina Braith, who got to know various artist collectives during a stay in New York. The idea of providing each with other support and reinforcement in solo projects found quick favour among the band’s members. “Though establishing a label on paper is easy enough, it takes a lot of subsequent work to actually build it up, to sign artists and produce them. But we’ve now put together a good team that keeps an eye out for subsidies and organises events, among other things.” Classically trained during her childhood and teenage years, Wögerer—already an enthusiastic musician—ultimately devoted herself to hip hop. “It was through my street dance hobby that hip hop came onto my radar, and that showed me my affinity for pop music, how I just feel it more.”
It’s important to me to produce myself so that I can include my own ideas and vibes in my music.
She only got into rap fairly late, with some initial forays on her 2018 debut album I Am Me. Ursi Wögerer currently performs solo as Miss BunPun backed by her bandmate Lilly Janoska, a.k.a. RawCat. “We work well together because we complement each other in an ideal way, and we’ve also been performing onstage together for a long time.” What this talented rapper likes about her solo work is composing as well as the opportunity to produce her own beats. “It’s important to me to produce my own music. In hip hop, it’s often the case that the producers create the beats while the solo artist writes and then sings or raps the lyrics. But doing the producing myself enables me to infuse the music with my own vibes.” Ursi Wögerer obtained her initial producing experience as an mdw student. “There was hardly any producing-related content on offer back then, unfortunately. But there were a couple of people in my class who did want to produce their own music. So our professor at ipop, Philipp Sageder, offered to bundle some of our lessons into a producing workshop. That gave us a chance to do producing exercises and provide each other with inspiration—which was fantastic. The rest then came together as learning-by-doing.” She completed her MA in Music Education for Voice and Instruments at the mdw in 2022. As a qualified voice teacher, her second passion lies in teaching as well as in music mediation—and she’s especially enthusiastic about working with groups.
We’re getting a lot of positive feedback from the queer scene, above all—like about how they feel encouraged by us. But we also get comments that aren’t so nice. These are polarising topics.
With her a cappella band Beat Poetry Club, she gives regular workshops for children, teens, and adults, and she’s also currently performing in the musical Das Plastikmonster at Theater Akzent. What’s more, she’s already served twice as music director and rehearsed the music for productions of Anne of Green Gables and Frau Zucker will die Weltherrschaft at the youth theatre Theater der Jugend. Currently, Ursi Wögerer is looking forward to her new job as leader of the V.O.I.C.E Girls Group, where she’ll be supporting the team of the Vienna Pop & Jazz Choir Experience with her own experience in a cappella singing, rap, and choir direction.
