A New Nr.1, A Broken Record + Sinking Superstars

Rihanna’s new single storms to number 1 in Germany too. We Found Love is the fourth Nr.1 hit for the singer coming from Barbados. 17 of the 25 chart hits crediting Rihanna as an artist went Top 10, 12 of them even Top 5. That makes her one of themost successfull acts of the recent millenium so far.

Alongside Rihanna British DJ and producer Calvin Harris finally can launch a hit in Germany. He only appeared twice in the lists so far: 2008 with his debut Acceptable in the 80s and a year later alongside Dizzee Rascal on his single Dance Wiv Me. Both stalled somewhere outside the Top 20.

Having a new Number 1 track means Moves Like Jagger will never reach the top. MAROON 5 Feat. Christina Aguilera spend a 7th week at the runner’s up position. So far only six other songs ever did so. The last one was Stadt (City) by Cassandra Steen featuring Adel Tawil two years ago.

Most significant rise into the Top 10 comes from David Guetta feat. USHER. The video to their track Without You was premiered at 14th October. Instantly the track can gain more interest and rises five places reaching a new peak at number 7. Two days ago the remixes were released online – the proper CD releases of both the original and the remixes follow at 4th of November. So we will see the track rising further for sure. Meanwhile Guettamania gots more stuff to be focused on. The new Timbaland single Pass At Me features besides Pitbull also the French DJ. The track enters this week at number 27. It is the 25th track that features David Guetta inside the German charts.

Outside the top positions a chart record is broken. Sky And Sand taken from the soundtrack of the movie Berlin Calling by techno/electro DJ Paul Kalkbrenner and his brother Fritz reaches in its 81st chart week a new peak. The track rises 43–35 leaving the best position from more than a year ago two places behind. Never before a track had such a long attempt getting to its peak. It was Last Christmas by Wham! that held the record so far – it peaked in its 72nd chart week at number 4 at the end of 2007.

Why does it took so long for Sky And Sand to reach this peak (which is honestly spoken not impressing high at all)? Well – Paul Kalkbrenner is a famous DJ only within a very sophisticated club scene. Of course every weekend thousands of dancers pilgrim into locations playing more minimal sound. The complete track of these parties mostly isn’t departed in single hits. There are a few anthems that are available on vinyl or as a digital copy, hardly on CD. Maybe some of these anthems find their way onto compilations – that’s something of a big luck for the artists. For being successfull in a mainstream way the sound is too hidden. There are only two or three radio stations playing it, music TV is not interested at all, so the whole club thing is something absolutely independent.

The movie Berlin Calling was a quite unusual attempt of bringing the scene to a wider audience. Actually the movie never was a huge hit – instead it was played a whole year in small cinemas and became something of an underground cultic movie. Even today a lot of people are addicted to the movie. Last June Paul Kalkbrenner released the succeeding album to Berlin Calling called Icke wieder (Me, Again – in Berlin slang). That one propelled to number 2 at the album charts – absolutely unusual for an techno/electro album. Supported by that huge demand the old hit Sky And Sand found a lot of new interest too. Over last weeks Paul Kalkbrenner is on promotional tour for his album – with huge success: twice 17.000 visitors in Berlin, 7000 in Hamburg, 9000 in Stuttgart,two sold out performances in Dresden, 10.000 people in Leipzig, 5.700 in Göttingen … does anybody wonder why his signature hymn rises again that strong?



TV effects
The sixth show of Dieter Bohlen’s autumn format Das Supertalent (German version of theGot Talent idea) was aired at Saturday 15th. The big star of the show was 13 year old Ciran Karaca from Göttingen. He sang Rolling In The Deep. Adele’s original version profits from the performance and rockets back 51–24. It is already the 42nd chart week of the track.
Michael Spicek also had a chance at the show. He chosed You Raise Me Up and failed by forgetting the English lyrics. Three times NO for him from the jury – out off the show. Although the original from Irish Westlife does pop up in the charts at number 76 – so a beloved track can’t be killed by a bad performance. It is the third time in 2011 that You Raise Me Up can enter the charts after a performance in a casting show.
A third contestant of the show causing a track reentering the charts is Stefan Gertler. He performed Home originally recorded by Michael Bublé. The track appears again at 95 – it’s the second time this year.

A second time Austrian Andreas Gabalier can profit from a TV performance. On 16th of October he staged at Herbstfest der Volksmusik (Autumn Feast Of Folk Music – here Folk Music means mainly folcloristic „Schlager“). The show is one of the most watched shows in German TV, broadcasted by public ARD. Of course the majority of followers is somewhat over 50. As an effect of his performance direct tubed to the target group the single i sing a liad für di (I Sing A Song For You – in Austrian dialect) jumps up the sales charts 78–30 to a new peak and even outsells the covered version by DJ Ötzi that rises 57–37 also. What a feat!
Watch the performance HERE

There are a few smaller TV shows that influence the music market. One of them is for sure Ina’s Nacht from Hamburg that focusses much more on serious German musicians. Ina Müller „discovered“ bands like Jupiter Jones – performing in her show is somewhat like being ennobled. Last show at 15th October German Rapper Casper was featured, acompanied by Ina Müller herself (and Lena also was sitting on the bar). The track So Perfekt rises 96–62.





New German releases hitting the charts
The digital aera finally hits Germany. An independent comedy trio that serves their fan crowd weekly with new material on their youtube channel started selling a song without any professional distributor. The result is amazing – they crack the charts at number 48, only promoted via their own channel and social network activities. To the German market this is absolutely new. All former independent hits at least had a professional distributor making the advertisement and launching a release at iTunes, amazon et al. That a crazy crowd of youngsters can do all that alone might start a process of re-thinking the complete structure of distribution.

The track in question is not a high quality product at all. It fits all clichees you might have about young men searching for sex. The title Ständertime (Hard-On Time) says everything, isn’t it. What would happen if the song would be a quality one?




Sinking Superstars
The re-invention of a former superstar is a thing never made successfully. Last week we saw superstar ’08 Thomas Godoj struggling for reaching the upper half of the sales charts with his new singleDächer einer ganzen Stadt (Roofs Of A Whole City) – he failed at 55. This week it is superstar’07 Mark Medlock who lands hard down to earth. Till last year his career was the most succesfull of all winners of the TV casting. Eight Top Ten hits in a row, four years on top of the mainstream charts – that’s a feat only Tokio Hotel and Lady Gaga have it under their belt within the past 10 years. A year ago Mark Medlock and Dieter Bohlen quitted their collaboration. Mark Medlock discovered soul as his own passion and recorded a whole album with soul covers that was released a week ago. The first single lifted from this album is The Other Side Of Broken. Probably it is tne best song Mark Medlock ever recorded – without the power of his inventor the singer is kind of helpless. Number 55 in the week of its release means: this star is sinking rapidly. – Even if Mark now is more natural, more authentic or more lucky, the question still is around: is being ones a superstar of Dieter Bohlen a thing you ever could ignore? Is a career after the casting itself possible without damage of yourself? Mark Medlock could be the one bringing the answer.



Dethroned Superstars Number 2 are: SCOOTER. They were and they are one of the most successful German bands/acts of all times having 47 charting singles and 23 Top 10 hits under their belt. The last time they had a big hit was in 2009 with the cover of Matia Bazar’s hit Ti Sento. This year they released three singles – and let me tell you, these three singles are the worst sold SCOOTER singles in the whole band history. Their latest offer David Doesn’t Eat tries to copy growing dubstep style and sampling the refrain of A Walk In The Park – a number 3 hit from the Nik Straker Band in 1979. The result is a lame number 67. One could say: 18 years on top is enough – I guess the boys could easily go retired spending their money and having fun for themselves.