Tonight is the final of D.S.D.S (Deutschland Such Dem Superstar, the German version of Idol) sixth season between Daniel Schuhmacher and Sarah Kreuz. I'm really looking forward to it.
I was first lured to the show in the first season. I didn't really watch so many of the shows but the single "We Have a Dream" (a song sung by the top 10 finalists) released during the show's run received a lot of radio play and I have a fond memory of listening to the song on the radio at the hospital just after my youngest daughter was born. I watched the final of the first season along with an estimated 12 million people. Alexander Klaws (here is his Wikipedia bio and website) beat Juliette Schoppman (here is her Wikipedia bio and website) singing Take Me Tonight. Alexander seemed like a very nice guy, whom Dieter Bohlen (a jury member of every season) said seemed like the kind of guy that you'd want to date your daughter (or something to that extent).
I didn't see any of the shows during the second season until the Final. This was primarily due to working in the Netherlands and the time. Elli Erl (her Wikipedia bio and website) was the winner that season.
Season three is probably my favorite of all that have aired so far. There were four singers that I really liked that season. Nevio Passaro (his Wikipedia bio and website) was of Italian heritage and Dieter convinced him to sing a song in Italian, which was very good. He finished 4th that season. Not too long ago he released a cd called Nevio, which contained songs in English, German, and Italian, I bought it and listen to it from time to time. A relationship blossomed between Vanessa Jean Dedmon (her Wikipedia bio) and Mike Leon Grosch (his Wikipedia bio and website) apparently going back to a duet that the two of them sang at the beginning of the show in Berlin. Lady Vanessa, as the jury referred to her, sang songs from Whitney Houston very well. I was hoping that she'd have a career but I haven't heard about her landing any recording deal or anything. Mike had a very soulful voice and sang Seal and Joe Cocker very well. Tobias Regner (his Wikipedia bio and website) was the winner and the first his Straight cd was I Still Burn. Tobby was the first "rocker" to win the show and he seemed to be able to sing almost anything from Metallica to Frank Sinatra. Tobby and Mike went on tour and I went to see the two of them. I believe that this is the only concert I've been too since monving to Germany. Because Tobby's style is so much different than Dieter Bohlen, it seems that he didn't get a lot of promotion after winning.
Mark Medlock (his Wikipedia bio and website) won season four and has no doubt been the most successful of all the Superstars so far. His story is inspiring when you consider he was unemployed before the show and on welfare (Hartz IV) with not much of a bright future and now he has released several well selling cds. Mark faced off against Martin Stosch (his Wikipedia bio and website) in the final. Lisa Bund comes from Wiebaden, and sang like Kelly Clarkson, she did release a cd last year or so. The rest of the top 10 from that seaon included the Enns brothers (Thomas and Jonathan), Francisca Urio, Max Buskohl, Lauren Talbot, Laura Martin, and Julia Falke
Thomas Godoj (his Wikpedia bio and website) beat Fady Maalouf in the finals of season five. Thomas was another rocker to do well in the show. It was said that he had "no plan B" that he had pinned all his hopes on winning the show. He did great versions of songs "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" from U2, "Behind Blue Eyes" from the Who, and a very memorable version of "Let It Be" from the Beatles. The remaining Top 10 included Benjamin Herd, Collins Owusu, Jermaine Alford, Linda Teodosiu, Monika Ivkic, Rania Zeriri (her Wikipedia bio and website), Sahra Drohne, and Stella Salato.
Season six has had quite a bit of controversy. Annemarie Eilfeld has managed to get her picture in the Bild (the German tabloid newspaper) what seems like every week. In last week's show she sang her final number with a snake around her neck. Vanessa Neigert was a cute young girl that sang popular older German songs that people liked (espeically those of people that aren't teenagers anylonger) but weren't exactly what you'd consider Top 40 of today. Holger Göpfert was dubbed Chaptain Entertainment and it was amuzing to watch him dance around but there were definitely better singers that were kicked off before he was finally kicked off. Cornelia Patzlsberger was kicked off relatively early. She played the harp and had a great voice, but it seems that she became too identified with the harp and therefore when she was playing it, it apparently didn't seem right to the jury and audience. Benny Kieckhäben was entertaining, maybe to the point that it distracted people from his singing and he might have seem too flamboyant for many people's taste.
Dominik Büchele sang like an awful lot like James Blunt. The jury commented on that point very often, to the point that it was hard to hear him sing without hearing James Blunt. He always sang his songs well, but his performances didn't have the intensity that the jury seemed to be looking for. For the longest time I had expected that Daniel and Dominik would be in the Final of this season. Sarah Kreuz has a great voice and there was one show where they had someone work with her on being more of a diva. Daniel Schuhmacher has a very unique voice that you can tell immediately is his, he recently sang a famous Joe Cocker song and didn't try to sing it like Joe, but he did his own version and made it his own.
For the last weeks I've been playing the songs sung on DSDS on Blip.fm,where possible I would play the original version of the song or one that might have inspired what was sung on DSDS. If you like to read more about DSDS there is a lot of information on Wikipedia and of course there is the RTL offical DSDS website. I wrote a post last year in preparation for the finals as well. While I don't know who will win, I'm sure that it will be a good show.
Photo credit: retro singing girl courtesy of stefa.
