--- title: Erykah Badu Will See Something Good in Everybody Even Hitler description: The popular performer and artist insisted that even Hitler deserves empathy in a new interview. canonical: https://time.com/5117017/erykah-badu-hitler/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-24T19:54:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:50:02.482Z og:title: Erykah Badu Insists She Will See Something Good in Everybody og:description: Even Hitler og:url: https://time.com/5117017/erykah-badu-hitler/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48df9a8458c0879/6988f95b97cdff98d16b40f1/erykah-badu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: The Fashion Awards 2017 In Partnership With Swarovski - Red Carpet Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Erykah Badu Insists She Will See Something Good in Everybody twitter:description: Even Hitler twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48df9a8458c0879/6988f95b97cdff98d16b40f1/erykah-badu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Erykah Badu Insists She Will See Something Good in Everybody Including Hitler > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5ead3577-f717-4957-8e8c-fc4737e8c79c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 24, 2018 7:54 PM UTC  Erykah Badu attends The Fashion Awards 2017 in partnership with Swarovski at Royal Albert Hall on December 4, 2017 in London, England. Erykah Badu attends The Fashion Awards 2017 in partnership with Swarovski at Royal Albert Hall on December 4, 2017 in London, England. Samir Hussein—Samir Hussein/WireImage  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jan 24, 2018 7:54 PM UTC Leave it to [Erykah Badu](http://time.com/4873569/erykah-badu-selfies/), beloved artist and [mystical persona](http://time.com/4424174/erykah-badu-palm-readers/), to baffle fans and audiences in her [latest interview. ](http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/erykah-badu-in-conversation.html) In a wide-ranging chat with _Vulture_ about everything from musical vibrations to midwifery to motherhood, Badu waxed poetic about her empathetic character. And in one instance, even the interviewer became flummoxed by her musings. “I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler,” she said, adding “Hitler was a wonderful painter.” She continued: “Okay, he was a terrible painter. Poor thing. He had a terrible childhood. That means that when I’m looking at my daughter, Mars, I could imagine her being in someone else’s home and being treated so poorly, and what that could spawn. I see things like that. I guess it’s just the Pisces in me.” Her comments came in response to a line of questioning about [controversial statements she’d made in the past](https://www.haaretz.com/1.4985759). “I’m an observer who can see good things and bad things,” she had explained. “If you say something good about someone, people think it means that you’ve chosen a side. But I don’t choose sides. I see all sides simultaneously.” She further rejected the label of anti-Semitism, noting that she wasn’t aware of “what anti-Semitism was” at the time the charge was leveled at her. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5117017/erykah-badu-hitler/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5117017/erykah-badu-hitler/"},"headline":"Erykah Badu Insists She Will See Something Good in Everybody Including Hitler","datePublished":"2018-01-24T19:54:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:50:02.482Z","description":"The popular performer and artist insisted that even Hitler deserves empathy in a new interview.","url":"https://time.com/5117017/erykah-badu-hitler/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48df9a8458c0879/6988f95b97cdff98d16b40f1/erykah-badu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf48df9a8458c0879/6988f95b97cdff98d16b40f1/erykah-badu.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The Fashion Awards 2017 In Partnership With Swarovski - Red Carpet Arrivals","caption":"The Fashion Awards 2017 In Partnership With Swarovski - Red Carpet Arrivals","creditText":"Samir Hussein—Samir Hussein/WireImage","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5117017/erykah-badu-hitler/","name":"Erykah Badu Insists She Will See Something Good in Everybody Including Hitler"}}]}] ```