Casting Shows vs German Rap Battle

It is American Lana Del Rey who grabs the crown of the number 1 single of the week. She is the fourth act in 2011 who can reach the top with the very first single. In 2010 we had six new acts doing that – so one could see this as a gentle move in attention back to more known acts, away from the hysterical hype of „new born stars” which really had a hiatus in 2010. – Speaking of new successful acts in 2011 Lana Del Rey is also the second fastest to storm number one. Only Pietro Lombardi managed this year an immediate jump from nowhere right at the top. (I keep Marlon Roudette outisde the statistic cause he had a number 1 as part of Mattafix already – technically he is a newcomer of 2011 as well.) With two track single Video Games / Blue Jeans reaching number 1 Lana Del Rey sets a very high mark for her upcoming album and following single Born To Die. I guess it will be a hard struggle to continue on that high level.

An impressive climber halts at number 7 with Somebody That I Used To Know offered by Australian Gotye. The track is available only as download – the CD release follows on December 16th. For sure we will see the track Top 3 at Christmas time – probably number 1. Depends on how sustainable is the demand for Lana Del Rey …

Third new entry inside to the Top 10 is delivered by Foster The People having the track Pumped Up Kicks reaching number 9 in its fifth chart week.

Seeing all these non Europeans rising the list means we only have four tracks inside the Top 10 with at least participation of an European act. Seems that a very successfull period ends right now – last time we had only four „European“ tracks under the Top 10 was back in May this year.

Tuesday 29th of November the semi final of X Factor was aired with well known effect: Raffaela Weiss chose Someone Like You as her soultrack – the original from Adele rises 6–4. Rufus Martin was chosen to sing It Will Rain – the audience voted him out of the show, nonetheless the song by Bruno Mars rises 26–14 in its 9th chart week. (It had a big support bei German premiere of Breaking Dawn which was the third best in 2011.) Finally German shooting star Tim Bendzko performed at the show. As an effect his two hits Wenn Worte meine Sprache wären and Nur noch kurz die Welt retten rise again to position 20 resp. 22.

X Factor slowly dies ... pardon ends – The Voice Of Germany just starts. With impressive rates beating even the concurrently aired episode of Supertalent. Seems that Nena & Co. really can hold out against Dieter Bohlen. Within the first show on November 24th Nena, Rea Garvey, Xavier Naidoo & The BossHoss performed a German English cover of Heroes originally recorded by David Bowie in 1977. The track never charted before in Germany. Nena and The BossHoss already covered the song – Nena in 2007 on her album Cover Me, The BossHoss in 2009 for Gunter Gabriel and his album Sohn aus dem Volk (Son Of The People).



Propelled by the show also the BossHoss single Don’t Gimme That rises 49–32 giving the band its highest chart position ever reached.

Part 2 broadcasted November 25th also launched a hit. Max Giesinger from Karlsruhe staged with Sex On Fire – the original by Kings Of Leon re-enters at position 47. It is already the 65th chart week for that song.


The second highest German new entry comes in at position 29 and is a scandal surrounded release from the Bushido – Sido collaboration 23. Beginning of November Bushido was awarded with a BAMBI for integration. Once the BAMBI was one of Germany’s most important media awards. Nowadays there are heavy doubts ’bout the relevance of that award, some are asking for quitting the ceremony. However the decoration of Bushido caused a lot of protests. At the show Peter Plathe of Rosenstolz critisized the decision, a few days later Heino returned his BAMBIS. One of the very few defender of Bushido was Peter Maffay. He demanded for giving the rapper a second chance. To underline that opinion he started a collaboration with Bushido and Sido by recording a 2011 version of his hit Nessaja. A few weeks later after the release of the album the lead video got qualified as „youth inappropriate“. A very emotional media discussion also started at TV and finally Peter Maffay broke with the two rappers.

Supported by this kind of media hype the Maffay/23 release Erwachsen sein (Being adult) can land at a proper position 23 after being released as download single. Ironically it is the best position Peter Maffay achieved since 1996. The two rappers still wait for a massive hit in 2011. Usually tracks of both tumble in their second chart week. The track might re-bounce in two weeks time when the physical release is in shelves. Bets can be placed whether Erwachsen Sein can match the success of almost similar Für immer jung offered by Bushido and Karel Gott three years ago. The number 1 success of Scooter’s version on Nessaja in 2002 is something even Bushido/Sido not dreaming of.



Last statistic concerning Erwachsen sein: it is Peter Maffay’s 47th chart entry. He is now matching the discography of Depeche Mode …

One half of 23 – Sido – has a special Christmas/year end’s gift for his fans. On December 29th his movie Blutzbrüdaz (literally: Blood Brothers) starts in German theatres. The movie features Sido and mate B-Tight as actors. The soundtrack is available since beginning of December – leading single Geboren um frei zu sein (Born To Be Free) came a week before. The track features vocals from German Rio Reiser – lead singer of Ton Steine Scherben – who were one of the big protagonists of political (and anarchistic) music in the 70s. Later in the 80s he started a solo career but never really achieving mainstream access. Probably that fact was nothing he was worry about it. In 1996 he died and became honoured by the whole bunch of politicians and society members that he everytime had criticized.

Finding lyrics of Rio Reiser as the main chorus of a track from Sido is a strange thing at first sight. The anger of politically engaged people of the 70s is completely different to the attitude of the multicultural big city boys. Listening to Sido’s rhymes one can find the connection. It is always about getting told what’s right and wrong, it is about the mainstream society that decides what a single person could become or, it is about labeling of people by others. In this single point the term „Freedom” still is the same. For what people use their freedom changed massivly in the past 40 years – of course. The society itself changed too – one can watch that comparing the success of Rio Reiser and Sido. The rapper launches with Geboren um frei zu sein his 23rd solo chart hit – Rio Reiser or his band Ton Steine Scherben never appeared in the singles’ lists.


Watch the full video on Sido’s site