Max Mutzke took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for Germany in 2004. This is how the singer remembers that experience.
Max Mutzke’s (40) career got a big boost in 2004 when he won the Stefan Raab (54) show “Stefan sucht den Super-Grand-Prix-Star” (“SSDSGPS”) and then Germany with his song “Can’t Wait Until Tonight “at the Eurovision Song Contest. The musician landed in a solid eighth place at the time.
17 years later, Mutzke remembers his appearance right on time for the ESC final 2021 on May 22nd and reveals in an interview with the news agency spot on news whether he would take part in the competition again. In addition, the singer, whose new song “Wunschlos süchtig”, has been on the market since Friday (May 21), tells about the role Stefan Raab played in the further development of his career.
In 2004 you took part in the Eurovision Song Contest. What do you particularly remember?
Max Mutzke: It was an incredible time in my life. Before that, I was still a student and had a very clearly defined everyday life in which the parents and teachers provided social support. And suddenly you become completely independent and get to know your worldview all over again because you are suddenly 500 kilometers away in a media city like Cologne and get to know the greatest of the greatest every week through “TV total”.
Then suddenly you meet guests like Eminem or Will Smith and think to yourself: “What’s going on now?” Then you win the casting show and later the preliminary decision against totally established artists like Scooter, you are at number one in the charts – it was all very difficult to understand and totally overwhelming.
Then the ESC went to Istanbul with Stefan Raab by my side, who had a very clear claim: “You have to deliver without end”, although the number is really difficult. At the end there is this octave jump where it feels like Russian roulette every time, whether you get the tone or not. In addition, I gave 50 to 60 interviews every day, which is why my voice was also very busy. In the end you stand on stage at the peak of this story and know that 100 million people are watching … one superlative came after another.
Stefan Raab’s show “SSDSGPS” and the subsequent ESC participation meant her breakthrough. What role did Stefan Raab play in your career?
Mutzke: For me it didn’t even start in 2004, but in 1981 when I was born in a very musical household. So from the first band at 11 to studying music at 16, I’ve been making music all my life. That’s exactly what Stefan recognized when I went to his casting show, because he had a completely different understanding of music than other formats. I still have a very close friendship with Stefan personally. We don’t see each other every month, sometimes not at all for six months. But then the moments come again when you have to do very closely with each other.
I have a very strong relationship of trust with him and I am very grateful to him because he has often saved me from many faux pas that I would otherwise have been guaranteed to have stepped into. For example, he advised me early on to only work with high-quality musicians and only do quality projects instead of making quick money. I would not have been aware of any of this without him. So he was a very important person to relate to for a long time and was always the first person I called when I had questions.
Would you take part in the ESC again?
Mutzke: When I left the stage in Istanbul at the time, I had the feeling that I wouldn’t want to do it again. It’s a huge event with an incredible number of fans, who absolutely have their right to exist, but I don’t see myself there anymore. I cannot say whether that will change at some point.
You have been a guest on many TV shows and won “The Masked Singer” 2019 as an astronaut. Which show would you like to participate in?
Mutzke: I would very much like to go to Ina Müller’s show, because I’ve never been there. Which is a bit funny because her husband, Johannes Oerding, is a very close friend of mine and I also know Ina very well. Through my own show “Lebenslieder”, I quite unconsciously slipped into the television industry, and there are currently very interesting inquiries that didn’t exist in the past.
Due to my connection to ProSieben, for example, I was not so interesting for other broadcasters for a long time, fortunately that has now changed. In the past, however, I could never imagine that moderation would be a lot of fun and that I would build up a second mainstay on television.
You have had your own “Lebenslieder” TV format since the beginning of the year. Which other exciting guests would you like to invite and why?
Mutzke: It is very important to me that we have a very diverse guest picture – that we distributed women and men equally and that there are people with backgrounds from all over the world. For example, I think Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim is fantastic, but Hazel Brugger would also convey completely new impressions. Hugo Egon Balder could certainly tell a lot of exciting things through his long career, just like Bastian Pastewka, who is absolutely unique in character and would be a lot of fun as a guest.
I also think Nelson Müller is great because he is a good musician and is guaranteed to have a lot of moving stories to tell. As a POC (Person of Color, editor’s note), who grew up in Germany, he could certainly make people understand through great stories that we are a very colorful society. This is exactly the show’s great opportunity: the key element of music shows viewers how many emotions and stories there are behind a person, regardless of where they come from.