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Deutschland sucht den Superstar
DSDS title card
Genre	Interactive reality show
Creator(s)	Simon Fuller
Starring	Marco Schreyl Tooske Ragas Dieter Bohlen Anja Lukaseder Heinz Henn
Country of origin	Germany
Production
Executive producer(s)	Nigel Lythgoe Ken Warwick Simon Fuller
Running time	Varies
Broadcast
Original channel	RTL
Original run	2002 –
Links
Official website
IMDb profile

Deutschland sucht den Superstar is a German television program, also commonly known by its initials DSDS. It is the German version of Pop Idol, broadcast on RTL. The producers were not allowed to use the words "pop" or "idol" in the title (Frank Farian has held title rights to "idol" since the 1970s, and a deal with the creators of Popstars forbids the use of the word "pop" for Pop Idol editions outside the UK).

Contents 1 Season 1 2 Season 2 3 Season 3 4 Season 4 4.1 Jury 5 Audition cities 6 Biographies (by season and in alphabetical order) 6.1 First Season contestants 6.1.1 Nektarios Bamiatzis 6.1.2 Stephanie Brauckmeyer 6.1.3 Andrea Josten 6.1.4 Daniel Küblböck 6.1.5 Daniel Lopes 6.2 Second Season contestants 6.2.1 Kemisola Awosogba 6.2.2 Judith Burmeister 6.2.3 Steffen Frommberger 6.2.4 Gunther Göbbel 6.2.5 Aida Iljasevic 6.2.6 Benjamin Martell 6.2.7 Ricky Ord 6.2.8 Anke Wagner 6.2.9 Lorenzo Woodard 6.3 Third Season contestants 6.3.1 Stephan Darnstaedt 6.3.2 Vanessa Jean Dedmon 6.3.3 Carolina Escolano-Fernandez 6.3.4 Didi Knoblauch 6.3.5 Daniel Muñoz-Repko 6.3.6 Dascha Semcova 6.4 Fourth session contestants 6.4.1 Lisa Bund 6.4.2 Julia Falke 6.4.3 Mark Medlock 6.4.4 Francisca Urio 6.4.5 Lauren Talbot 6.5 References 6.6 External links

[edit] Season 1

Main article: Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Season 1)

The first season of Deutschland such den Superstar debuted without a lot of hype in October 2002 on the RTL network. The show's co-hosts were Swiss actress Michelle Hunziker and former soap opera actor Carsten Spengemann, and the jury consisted of music producer, composer and half of former duo Modern Talking, Dieter Bohlen, radio host Thomas Bug, British music journalist Shona Fraser, and the former president of BMG Germany, Thomas M. Stein.

Through word of mouth generated by the appeal of its contestants and the presence of Bohlen's acid-tongued commentary, the show grew into a phenomenon ending with a finale viewed by an estimated twelve million viewers in March 2003. Following such a success, the second season was moved to air the upcoming fall during the higher profile 2003 fall schedule. The number of episodes increased, as did the show's budget and the charge for commercial spots.

Winner Alexander Klaws signed with BMG, the label in partnership with DSDS. Immediately post-finale, Klaws released three singles, most notably the coronation song "Take Me Tonight" which was written by Bohlen and debuted on top of the German singles chart, eventually becoming the second biggest selling single of 2003 - only losing to "We Have a Dream", the pre-released recording of all ten finalists. As part of the promotion planned for the show's first winner, the song had been prerecorded ready to air on radio stations the week after the finale. Appearances on numerous entertainment/news shows followed, as did videos for the singles that began airing on MTV Central and VIVA. Klaws has subsequently had three albums and several hit singles mostly from his more successful first album. While his debut, Take Your Chance (2003, and its follow-up, Here I Am (2004), saw nationwide success and garnered him several ECHO nominations, his independent 2006 release, Attention failed to link on previous sales figures.

Besides Klaws, all finalists with the exception of then-pregnant Andrea Josten signed record deals with various companies. Runner-up Juliette Schoppmann also signed with BMG, but in contrast to public expectations she denied working with Bohlen. Schoppmann instead released three independent singles (of which two entered the Top 10) and a solo album, Unique which eventually debuted in 2004. Due to moderate sales BMG dropped her shortly after its release. She is currently working on a comeback.

Third-placed Daniel Küblböck also expanded his nationwide but extremely polarising popularity with a contract with BMG. Until June 2004 he released four major succeeded hit singles and a number-one album, titled Positive Energien. However, further efforts failed on the charts after a controversial participation in the German version of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! and the release of his flopped motion picture Daniel - Der Zauberer.

Vanessa Struhler became the protegé of Hip-Hop producer DJ Tomekk and saw solid commercial success with her first album, Ride With Me. Her second 2004 release failed to link on previous sales figures. Gracia Baur also was signed to BMG, but was dropped after her moderate succeeded Rock debut. She then signed with Bros Music and was selected to represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Run & Hide". However, the track placed last (24th). Nicole Süßmilch (sixth), Daniel Lopes (seventh), and Nektarios Bamiatzis (eighth) have had little success after the show.

Elimination chart
NOTE: Not in every case these were the people revealed by RTL in the results shows

Date	Bottom Three
December 21	Stephanie Brauckmeyer	Gracia Baur	Andrea Josten
December 28	Andrea Josten (2)	Daniel Lopes	Nektarios Bamiatzis
January 4	Nektarios Bamiatzis (2)	Gracia Baur (2)	Vanessa Struhler
January 11	Daniel Lopes (2)	Juliette Schoppmann	Vanessa Struhler (2)
January 18	Nicole Süßmilch	Vanessa Struhler (3)	Juliette Schoppmann (2)
	Bottom Two
February 1	Gracia Baur (3)	Vanessa Struhler (4)
February 8	Vanessa Struhler (5)	Daniel Küblböck
March 1	Daniel Küblböck (2)
March 8	Juliette Schoppmann (3)	Alexander Klaws

[edit] Season 2

In Season 2, co-hosts Hunziker and Spengemann and all four jury members reprised their engagements in the show. In contrast to the first season, the second (which aired a half year after the first season's finale) soon found its main audience but never reached the overwhelming hype and demand which the first season had captured. This fact was underscored by decreasing phone votes and ratings, which were released after the show's final.

This time, Elli Erl emerged as the winner with Denise Tillmanns as runner-up. Though Erl agreed to release the Bohlen produced coronation song "This Is My Life" in a remixed edition, she denied collaborating with him on her debut album due to musical and personal conflicts. Elli instead released a self-written song, "In My Dreams", which saw minor success only with a chart peak at number 40. Her debut album Shout It Out saw similar success, when it eventually debuted in October 2004. Two further singles were released afterwards but none of them became a commercial hit. A second solo album is now scheduled for spring 2007.

Unlike in season one, the other finalists hit on major problems when they watched out for record deals. Third-place finisher Phillipe Bühler released two R&B influenced singles, "Warum?" and "Ich Kann Dich Lieben"; both of them entered the Top 40 of the German singles chart in winter 2005 and spring 2006 respectively. Anke Wagner (sixth) signed with independent label Perleberg, but neither her debut single nor her album entered the Top 100. Benjamin Martell (third) was signed to BMG, but was dropped when he demanded to write the album by himself. Fifth-place finisher Gunther Göbbel became part of the R&B duo Lemon Ice, whose cover single "Stand by Me" entered the German top 20 in fall 2006. Lorenzo Woodard (eighth) didn't release any music but enjoyed short popularity when he appeared on various reality-tv shows.

Elimination Chart
NOTE: Not in every case these were the people revealed by RTL in the results shows

Date	Order from bottom (from left)
November 22	Ricky Ord	Jessica Houston	Steffen Frommberger
November 29	Steffen Frommberger (2)	Kemi Awosogba	Lorenzo Woodard
December 13	Lorenzo Woodard (2)	Kemi Awosogba (2)	Judith Burmeister
December 20	Kemi Awosogba (3)	Benjamin Martell	Judith Burmeister (2)
January 10	Judith Burmeister (3)	Gunther Göbbel	Elli Erl
January 17	Aida Ilijasevic	Gunther Göbbel (2)	Benjamin Martell (2)
January 31	Anke Wagner	Gunther Göbbel (3)	Elli Erl (2)
February 7	Gunther Göbbel (4)	Elli Erl (3)
February 14	Benjamin Martell (3)	Elli Erl (4)
February 21	Phillipe Bühler
March 13	Denise Tillmanns	Elli Erl

[edit] Season 3

After an absence of two years, the third season introduced several new elements. Neither Hunziker nor Spengemann were asked back as the show's hosts as the studio wanted a new complexion on the season. They were replaced with Marco Schreyl and Dutch co-host Tooske Ragas. The jury cast also went through radical changes; Dieter Bohlen remained the only original member, and was eventually joined by music producer Sylvia Kollek and former manager Heinz Henn.

Elimination Chart
NOTE: Not in every case these were the people revealed by RTL in the results shows

Date	Theme	Order from bottom (from left)
January 7	Greatest Hits	Carolina Escolano	Lena Hanenberg	Daniel Muñoz
January 14	80s	Dascha Semcov	Daniel Muñoz (2)	Lena Hanenberg (2)
January 21	Rock Hits	Lena Hanenberg (3)	Daniel Muñoz (3)	Nevio Passaro
February 4	Big Band	Daniel Muñoz (4)	Nevio Passaro (2)	Didi Knoblauch
February 11	Love Songs	Anna-Maria Zimmermann	Tobias Regner	Nevio Passaro (3)
February 18	#1 Hits	Didi Knoblauch (2)	Vanessa Jean Dedmon
February 25	Soul	Nevio Passaro (4)	Vanessa Jean Dedmon (2)
March 11	Ballads	Vanessa Jean Dedmon (3)
March 18	Final Two	Mike Leon Grosch	Tobias Regner

[edit] Season 4

Main article: Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Season 4)

Because of the success of season three, RTL decided to create a fourth season for 2007.

These are the last 10 contestants for the big live shows debuting on February 24 and probably ending on May 5: Lauren Talbot, Francisca Urio, Lisa Bund, Laura Martín, Julia Falke, Jonathan Enns, Thomas Enns, Martin Stosch, Mark Medlock and Max Buskohl.

The cast album for this season, called Power of Love, will be released on 19 March 2007 and features these songs: ^[1]

1. Francisca Urio: If I Ain't Got You (Alicia Keys)
2. Max Buskohl: Here Without You (3 Doors Down)
3. Lauren Talbot: True Colors (Cindy Lauper)
4. Mark Medlock: Endless Love (Lionel Richie)
5. Lisa Bund: (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Aretha Franklin)
6. Martin Stosch: If Tomorrow Never Comes (Ronan Keating)
7. Laura Martin: Woman In Love (Barbra Streisand)
8. Thomas Enns: I Want To Know What Love Is (Foreigner)
9. Julia Falke: Angel (Sarah McLachlan)
10. Jonathan Enns: All Or Nothing (O-Town)
11. DSDS Top 10: If You Don't Know Me By Now (Simply Red)

[edit] Jury

• Dieter Bohlen
• Heinz Henn
• Anja Lukaseder

Elimination Chart
NOTE: Not in every case these were the people revealed by RTL in the results shows

Date	Theme	Order from bottom (from left)
February 24	Greatest Hits of All Time	Laura Martin	Julia Falke	Jonathan Enns	Martin Stosch
March 10	Greatest Hits of 80s and 90s	Jonathan Enns (2)	Thomas Enns	Martin Stosch (2)	Max Buskohl
March 17	Power of Love	Julia Falke (2)	Lauren Talbot	Thomas Enns (2)	Martin Stosch (3)
March 31	Hits of Today

[edit] Audition cities

• Berlin (All 4 seasons)
• Munich (All 4 seasons)
• Cologne (Season 1,2 and 4)
• Erfurt (Seasons 1-3)
• Leipzig (Season 2)
• Wuppertal (Season 3)
• Hamburg (All 4 seasons)
• Mallorca (Spain) (Season 4)
• Frankfurt (Season 4)
• Dresden (Season 4)
• Stuttgart (Season 4)
• Wiesbaden (Season 4)

[edit] Biographies (by season and in alphabetical order)

[edit] First Season contestants

[edit] Nektarios Bamiatzis

Nektarios Bamiatzis was born on 7 October 1975 and is of Greek descent. He placed 8th in the competition. Since the show, Bamiatzis has released two singles. His solo single, "Looks Like We Made It", was released in 2003. In 2005, Bamiatzis teamed up with three other fellow DSDS alumni to form "4 United". The group only released one single, titled "Don't Close Your Eyes".

[edit] Stephanie Brauckmeyer

Stephanie Brauckmeyer was born on 5 November 1980. Brauckmeyer joined the top 10 on December 14 2002. She was in the third group of the 30 semi-finalists. However, she was the first member of the top 10 to be eliminated. After Idol, Stephanie only released one single, "Don't Close Your Eyes", as part of a group called "4 United", consisting of her and three other DSDS alumni.

[edit] Andrea Josten

Andrea Josten was born Andrea Lopez on 9 September 1985. Josten is from Chile and was adopted by her German stepfather. Andrea received 9th place in the show. After the show, it was revealed that she was pregnant. Her son Jeremy was born October 19 2003 in Frankfurt. Since the show's end, Josten has largely disappeared from the public eye.

[edit] Daniel Küblböck

Daniel Küblböck, born 8 August 1985 in Hutthurm, Bavaria, Germany, received third place in the show, after which he signed a contract with BMG. Until June 2004 he released four major hit singles and a #1 album. As a public persona, Küblböck is extremely polarising due to his carefully cultivated image as der schräge Daniel (Wacky Daniel), a boy-girl persona with a distinctly Bavarian dialect, who, according to reliable yellow-press reports, loves to wear girlish clothes, use cosmetics and make-up, and collect perfumes and incense. After a controversial participation in the German version of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, his popularity faltered. He was voted by the viewers of the German TV channel Pro7 as the most annoying personality of 2003, and the second most annoying person in 2004.

[edit] Daniel Lopes

Daniel Lopes was born on 12 November 1976 in Brazil, and was adopted by his German stepfather. During the show he dated fellow contestant Juliette Schoppmann; they have since broken up. Daniel was eliminated on January 11 2003, and got 7th place on the show. After his elimination, Lopes was signed to a record label. His album "For You" was released in February 2003, while the competition was still going on. Because of this, he was apparently dropped from the tour. Lopes released 2 singles, "For You": "Shine On" and "I Love You More Than Yesterday". He has released two other singles including "Last Christmas/I Used To Cry" in late 2003 and "Change The World" in 2005.

[edit] Second Season contestants

[edit] Kemisola Awosogba

"Kemi" Awosogba was born on 15 November 1982. Her father is a native of Nigeria. Kemi joined the top 13 on October 22 2003 along with Benjamin Martell. She was eliminated on 20 December 2003 after receiving 3.54 percent of the votes in the top 9.

[edit] Judith Burmeister

Judith Burmeister was born 9 September 1986. Burmeister joined the top 13 after getting into the top 2 vote-getters of her group along with Ricky Ord. She was eliminated in the top 8 after receiving 5.97 percent of the vote.

[edit] Steffen Frommberger

Steffen Frommberger was born 29 January 1982. He joined the top 13 on October 29 2003 along with Aida Iljasevic. He was eliminated on November 29 2003 after receiving 2.46 percent of the vote.

[edit] Gunther Göbbel

Gunther Göbbel was born 6 May 1979. Gunther was eliminated in the top 5 after receiving 12.58 percent of the vote. Originally, Göbbel did not advance to the top 13. However, he was brought back as a wildcard and advanced then. Since the show, Gunther has released a single, "Caramba!", as a part of the duet "Meant 2 Be". Gunther is currently a member of the band "Lemon Ice".

[edit] Aida Iljasevic

Aida Iljasevic, born 4 January 1976 in Bosnia, was a contestant in the second season, finishing in 7th place.

At the age of sixteen, in 1992, Aida escaped from her home country because of the Bosnian War, and she found a new home in Münster. She became the lead singer of her school's band, and became a back-up vocal for the cover band ROXANE. Interestingly, they were booked to perform on the Clubship Aida.

In the summer of 2003 Aida auditioned for the second season of the famous TV show Deutschland sucht den Superstar and easily made the cut to the top 150. She was eventually eliminated, but was later brought back with six other contestants to perform again. She fought for one of the three positions left in the top 50, finally making it to the semifinals.

After her experience on DSDS, Aida performed a few gigs with her former DSDS rivals Denise Tillmanns and Ricky Ord. Later, she became a member of the girl group CASTAWAY formed by German VJ Mola Adebisi. She continues to live in Münster, Germany.

[edit] Benjamin Martell

Benny Martell was born 1 March 1980. Benjamin was eliminated from the show in the top 4 after receiving 16.91 percent of the vote. Benny joined the top 13 on 2003-10-22 after placing in the top 2 vote-getters of his group. Also joining the top 13 that night was Kemi. Since the show, Benny has released one single as a solo artist "1st Fan Edition". In 2005, he was featured on a single entitled "Once In A Lifetime".

[edit] Ricky Ord

Ricky Ord was born 5 July 1978, was a contestant in the second season. Ord joined the top 13 on October 15 2003 along with Judith Burmeister. He was eliminated first out of the competition after receiving only 2.47 percent of the vote.

[edit] Anke Wagner

Anke Wagner, born 25 January 1975, was a contestant in the second season. Wagner is the oldest contestant to appear on any season of the show. She was eliminated in the top 6 after receiving 8.37 percent of the vote. Wagner joined the top 13 as a wildcard. She was originally in group 5 but was beat out for a spot by Elli Erl and Lorenzo Woodard. Since the show, Wagner has released two CDs: "Close To Me" and "Weihnachten".

[edit] Lorenzo Woodard

Lorenzo Woodard is an Afro-German, born 24 December 1983. He was a contestant on the second season. Lorenzo joined the top 10 on November 5 2003 along with Elli Erl, who later won the competition. He was eliminated on December 13 2003 after receiving only 4.34 percent of the vote. Today he is out as a transgendered woman named Lory Glory. [1]

[edit] Third Season contestants

[edit] Stephan Darnstaedt

Stephan Darnstaedt, born 10 October 1987 was a contestant on the third season. He quit the competition the week of 2006-01-21 due to personal issues and was replaced by Didi Knoblauch. Like most of his fellow top 10 castmates, Stephan had a sibling. She was one year older than him.

[edit] Vanessa Jean Dedmon

Vanessa Jean Dedmon, born 28 April 1987 to Russel and Waltraud Dedmon was a semifinalist in the third season and was voted out by the audience in the Top 3 Show. From March to June 2006 she was going out with former co-competetor Mike Leon Grosch.

In October 2006 her first single Sonnenschein, a duet with German Hip Hop band Rapsoul, entered the German single charts at #17.

[edit] Carolina Escolano-Fernandez

Carolina Escolano-Fernandez, born 19 March 1984 in Pforzheim, Germany, was a contestant in the third season. She is of Spanish ancestry.

[edit] Didi Knoblauch

Didi Knoblauch (actually Jamie Dwayne Knoblauch), born as Diana Knoblauch 15 December 1980 in Illerkirchberg/Baden-Württemberg, Germany was a contestant in the third season. He is female to male transsexual. He lost against Stephan Darnstaedt in the Top-20 Show but took over Stephan's place after he gave up. Didi Knoblauch performed three times in that show before he was knocked out. After his leaving he had an appearance in the television show TV total and performed a duet with talk show host Stefan Raab. Knoblauch is a member of the Rock 'n' Roll coverband The Cash in Baden-Württemberg.

[edit] Daniel Muñoz-Repko

Daniel Muñoz-Repko born on 28 December 1983, was a contestant in the third season. Daniel is of mixed Spanish and Dutch ethnicity. He has 2 brothers: Ricardo and Raul.

He received the fourth most votes in the first round of voting and despite being in the suggested bottom 4 the second week, he was the first sent to safety and made the top 10. Daniel performed 4 times, until he was knocked out. His personal website is operated by his brother Raul at WWW.DaniMunoz.DE & Best fanpage: WWW.Dani-Munoz.DE

[edit] Dascha Semcova

"Dascha" Semcova was born 30 March 1988 in Kishinev, Moldova. Prior to Superstar, Dascha had been in Germany for only 18 months. Her father Alexej and mother Diana moved from Moldova to Erfurt and currently run and live in a hotel. Dascha has taken roles in 3 musicals including Starlight Express & also is part of the band Soul AG from Weimar. In September 2005, Dascha won first place in the Erfurt Song Contest.

[edit] Fourth session contestants

[edit] Lisa Bund

Lisa Bund was born 31 May 1988 in Frankfurt am Main. She lives with her brother and her parents in Hattersheim. Prior to becoming a contestant she worked for two years in her parents lingerie shop in Mainz.

[edit] Julia Falke

Julia Falke was born 21 June 1988 in Schärding, Austria. She lives with her older brother and her parents in Fürstenzell and attends the 12th class of a high school.

[edit] Mark Medlock

Mark Medlock was born 9 July 1978 in Frankfurt am Main and lives in Offenbach, Hesse. He worked as carer for the elderly before joining the show. His father Lauria came from Georgia, USA and was a gospel singer. Mark was married to a man for five years but they filed for divorce.

[edit] Francisca Urio

Francisca Urio was born 6 February 1981 in Meiningen but grew up in Berlin. She is the only child of her German mother and her father from Tanzania.

After finishing high school she started a career as singer and songwriter. She worked as background singer for Mousse T., Seal, Shakira and Wyclef Jean. ^[2] Together with N’gone Thiam, Boussa Thiam and Priscilla Harris, who was also a DSDS contestant (but was voted out just before reaching the Top-10 'Motto' shows), she founded 1996 the band Silvashado which performed (after first Boussa Thiam and later also N’gone Thiam left the band) as Duo until 2006.^[3] Urio also worked as fashion model and radio presenter for the radio station Jazz-Radio 101,9 ^[4] in Berlin. In the musical show The Magic Night of Dancing Musicals ^[5] she presented five songs as solo singer. ^[6]

[edit] Lauren Talbot

Lauren Talbot was born on 15 March 1990 in Hannover. She is the youngest female contestant in this season and attends the 10th class of a Hauptschule. After living in Edinburgh, Milan, Frankfurt and Hamburg she moved with her mother and stepfather to Winsen (Aller).

[edit] References

1. ^ Amazon.com
2. ^ Francisca Urio Homepage
3. ^ Priscilla Harris Homepage
4. ^ Jazz-Radio 101,9
5. ^ NEWS-on-Tour
6. ^ Article (in German)

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• DSDS
• DSDS News
• Fan-Board
• DSDS Forum