Advent Calendar - 10th December
I'm hoping to catch up with the Calendar over the weekend which will be dedicated to some major cleaning work. My apartment looks like a pigsty. Seriously. There won't be any before-after picture because the before is too embarrassing. But there will be after pics. This is my motivation for cleaning. Promising you the after pics now means I really have to clean up!
Mmm I wanted to make this a very funny entry but a friend of mine just made me cry (nothing bad, just very emotional), so this might end of not as funny as I had planned. Still, I want to post this tonight.
I might have mentioned before that I'm a geek ;) and I think that the shows I enjoy the most are pretty damn good shows with excellent writers, directors and actors. Now that doesn't mean I ONLY watch high quality TV. On the contrary: I'm quite infamous for watching some really crappy shows like Germany's Next Top Model, German Idol and Popstars. Casting shows FTW! :D
10 December was the finale of this year's Popstars season and - surprise surprise - my FAVORITE actually won. That just NEVER happens!! (You might remember my prolonged rants about my favorite Fady Maalouf losing to Thomas Godoj at German Idol um... last... year?)
So this calls for a celebration!!!
Popstars is really popular in Germany although not all bands actually become famous afterwards. It's some weird thing that people just like to watch it, mainly because of the bad contestants but the they look down at the winners. Some are really not that bad but they are kinda marked as "winner of a casting show" which in the eyes of the German audience equals "crap". Some (most?) major radio stations even refuse to play their songs (and they openly admit that they won't). They will play Kelly Clarkson or Leona Lewis because they are "international successful stars" but no winner of German shows. No, it doesn't make sense to me either. It also seems that the producers of the shows (and the following albums) are only interested in making quick money, release one CD as long as the hype following the show is going and then drop the bands/singers like hot potatoes. The CDs they release are usually low quality, quickly produced, soulless songs, the bands are given ridiculous names and the whole thing just screams rip-off.
During my BE courses, towards the end of it, I encourage my students to have open conversations about a certain topic. One topic is usually music, so I allow them to bring a CD with their fave song or a song with a special meaning for them, to class. We read the lyrics and talk about them and then listen to the song. Improves their reading, speaking and listening skills. :D
Anyway, during my last course one of my students brought the CD of one of the casting bands (I think it was Monrose) and we looked at the lyrics that were printed in the booklet of the CD. OMG I was SHOCKED. The lyrics were FULL of mistakes. Grammar, spelling... it was BAD. Of course I pointed this out to my students but really it just shows how much care the producers put into the release of these CDs.
A couple of weeks after the finale, the show starts casting the new band, so the old one is quickly forgotten. This was different when the first season of Popstars aired, back in 2000, when casting shows was something exciting and new. Popstars back then, was the first ever casting show to air in Germany.
So here's a bit of a memory lane of 9 years and 9 seasons of Popstars. :)
2000
That year, Popstars was looking for the German answer to the Spice Girls and they did find them. 5 girls were cast as the "No Angels", up to today they are still the most successful girl band not only in Germany but continental Europe.
This was their first song:
This is the US version of their music video. The original version is better but was obviously "too sexy" for the US market. (and I couldn't find it on youtube)
Bit of trivia: one of the girls is the granddaughter of the actor that dubbed Darth Vader in German in the original movies who used to live *dun dun dun dun* here in Co! (He passed away a couple of years ago.)
Second bit of trivia: That actor used to live near the principal of my old school whose breathing sounded just as Darth Vader's.
2001
To avoid casting direct competition to the No Angels, Popstars now looked for a mixed band. The plan was to have 2 boys and 2 girls. In the end the judges couldn't choose which guys to keep, so they decided to keep 4 of them, plus 2 girls. The band Bro'Sis (back then we thought THAT name was bad!) ended up being pretty successful before they split up. One of them is a moderator now, married to a Brazilian model who do reality shows about their life (kinda like Jessica Simpson) and one of the other guys can be seen on various reality shows like "I'm a star, get me out of here!".
I never liked them that much.
2003
Popstars Rivival... this time it was a duel. Two bands were cast, a boy band and a girl band and then in the finale show, the audience got to vote for the winning band. Only the winning band was supposed to get a contract. That was the plan. In the end the boyband (Overground) won but the girl band (Preluders) was more successful and sold more albums. Yeah, they both got contracts.
Or maybe I just liked the girls better. ;)
During the casting my favorite singer, Anne, was sent home. The judges thought she was too young to handle the pressure (I think she was 16 at the time?) When the bands (both of them) produced their first song in the studio, they did so poorly that Anne (and another guy) were brought back into the band.
Anne is the blonde girl. After the Preluders broke up, she joined "Milk&Honey" and one of their singles reached #16 in the charts.
Just because I love Anne:
2004
The 4th and "definitely last" Popstars season was trying to cast a kickass rock band. Um yeah... it was worth a try?
I thought they were kinda funny...
2006
New Angels... trying to find a replacement for the No Angels after they split up at the end of 2003. Monrose is my 2nd fave Popstars band with another one of my favorites, Bahar.
Bahar singing the song alone in one of the finale shows. Her performance just still blows me away!
*goosebumps*
Monrose is still around and quite successful.
2007
This time the plan was to cast a group of singers and a a group of dancers. The suddenly the dancers were supposed to sing, the singers supposed to dance, the jury noticed that none of them could either, so did some recasting in Holland, the show started to focus on the love story between two contestants, and in the end they even found out that the band name "Room 2012" had already been taken by a Welsh band. Big mess from the start, the band released one single and was never heard of ever again. I don't think anyone misses them. I know I don't.
This is actually their 2nd single. Personally I think the song is better than the first one which might be because the self-proclaimed "German Justin Timberlake" is less noticable but ah well. The video is a bit like a soft porn movie.
2008
After the disastrous previous season, they went back to the concept that seemed to work best for Popstars: Casting a girl band.
Don't like "Queensberry" but they're still around, making music.
2009
This time they were looking for a duo. Honestly, I think they never had such a bad group of contestants and I really doubted they would really find 2 singers that were half-way decent. I started to root for Leo quite early in the season for the simple reason that he looks really cute. ;) But in the end I thin he and Vanessa deserved to win and are known as "Some&Any" (the audience actually boo'ed when the name was announced).
For quite a while the favored duo was Nik&Elif. At one point during the show last night they had (presumably) 63% of the votes. Then Leo&Vanessa sang this song:
The rest is history. :D
Mmm I wanted to make this a very funny entry but a friend of mine just made me cry (nothing bad, just very emotional), so this might end of not as funny as I had planned. Still, I want to post this tonight.
I might have mentioned before that I'm a geek ;) and I think that the shows I enjoy the most are pretty damn good shows with excellent writers, directors and actors. Now that doesn't mean I ONLY watch high quality TV. On the contrary: I'm quite infamous for watching some really crappy shows like Germany's Next Top Model, German Idol and Popstars. Casting shows FTW! :D
10 December was the finale of this year's Popstars season and - surprise surprise - my FAVORITE actually won. That just NEVER happens!! (You might remember my prolonged rants about my favorite Fady Maalouf losing to Thomas Godoj at German Idol um... last... year?)
So this calls for a celebration!!!
Popstars is really popular in Germany although not all bands actually become famous afterwards. It's some weird thing that people just like to watch it, mainly because of the bad contestants but the they look down at the winners. Some are really not that bad but they are kinda marked as "winner of a casting show" which in the eyes of the German audience equals "crap". Some (most?) major radio stations even refuse to play their songs (and they openly admit that they won't). They will play Kelly Clarkson or Leona Lewis because they are "international successful stars" but no winner of German shows. No, it doesn't make sense to me either. It also seems that the producers of the shows (and the following albums) are only interested in making quick money, release one CD as long as the hype following the show is going and then drop the bands/singers like hot potatoes. The CDs they release are usually low quality, quickly produced, soulless songs, the bands are given ridiculous names and the whole thing just screams rip-off.
During my BE courses, towards the end of it, I encourage my students to have open conversations about a certain topic. One topic is usually music, so I allow them to bring a CD with their fave song or a song with a special meaning for them, to class. We read the lyrics and talk about them and then listen to the song. Improves their reading, speaking and listening skills. :D
Anyway, during my last course one of my students brought the CD of one of the casting bands (I think it was Monrose) and we looked at the lyrics that were printed in the booklet of the CD. OMG I was SHOCKED. The lyrics were FULL of mistakes. Grammar, spelling... it was BAD. Of course I pointed this out to my students but really it just shows how much care the producers put into the release of these CDs.
A couple of weeks after the finale, the show starts casting the new band, so the old one is quickly forgotten. This was different when the first season of Popstars aired, back in 2000, when casting shows was something exciting and new. Popstars back then, was the first ever casting show to air in Germany.
So here's a bit of a memory lane of 9 years and 9 seasons of Popstars. :)
2000
That year, Popstars was looking for the German answer to the Spice Girls and they did find them. 5 girls were cast as the "No Angels", up to today they are still the most successful girl band not only in Germany but continental Europe.
This was their first song:
Click to viewThis is the US version of their music video. The original version is better but was obviously "too sexy" for the US market. (and I couldn't find it on youtube)
Bit of trivia: one of the girls is the granddaughter of the actor that dubbed Darth Vader in German in the original movies who used to live *dun dun dun dun* here in Co! (He passed away a couple of years ago.)
Second bit of trivia: That actor used to live near the principal of my old school whose breathing sounded just as Darth Vader's.
2001
To avoid casting direct competition to the No Angels, Popstars now looked for a mixed band. The plan was to have 2 boys and 2 girls. In the end the judges couldn't choose which guys to keep, so they decided to keep 4 of them, plus 2 girls. The band Bro'Sis (back then we thought THAT name was bad!) ended up being pretty successful before they split up. One of them is a moderator now, married to a Brazilian model who do reality shows about their life (kinda like Jessica Simpson) and one of the other guys can be seen on various reality shows like "I'm a star, get me out of here!".
I never liked them that much.
2003
Popstars Rivival... this time it was a duel. Two bands were cast, a boy band and a girl band and then in the finale show, the audience got to vote for the winning band. Only the winning band was supposed to get a contract. That was the plan. In the end the boyband (Overground) won but the girl band (Preluders) was more successful and sold more albums. Yeah, they both got contracts.
Or maybe I just liked the girls better. ;)
During the casting my favorite singer, Anne, was sent home. The judges thought she was too young to handle the pressure (I think she was 16 at the time?) When the bands (both of them) produced their first song in the studio, they did so poorly that Anne (and another guy) were brought back into the band.
Anne is the blonde girl. After the Preluders broke up, she joined "Milk&Honey" and one of their singles reached #16 in the charts.
Just because I love Anne:
2004
The 4th and "definitely last" Popstars season was trying to cast a kickass rock band. Um yeah... it was worth a try?
I thought they were kinda funny...
2006
New Angels... trying to find a replacement for the No Angels after they split up at the end of 2003. Monrose is my 2nd fave Popstars band with another one of my favorites, Bahar.
Bahar singing the song alone in one of the finale shows. Her performance just still blows me away!
*goosebumps*
Monrose is still around and quite successful.
2007
This time the plan was to cast a group of singers and a a group of dancers. The suddenly the dancers were supposed to sing, the singers supposed to dance, the jury noticed that none of them could either, so did some recasting in Holland, the show started to focus on the love story between two contestants, and in the end they even found out that the band name "Room 2012" had already been taken by a Welsh band. Big mess from the start, the band released one single and was never heard of ever again. I don't think anyone misses them. I know I don't.
This is actually their 2nd single. Personally I think the song is better than the first one which might be because the self-proclaimed "German Justin Timberlake" is less noticable but ah well. The video is a bit like a soft porn movie.
2008
After the disastrous previous season, they went back to the concept that seemed to work best for Popstars: Casting a girl band.
Don't like "Queensberry" but they're still around, making music.
2009
This time they were looking for a duo. Honestly, I think they never had such a bad group of contestants and I really doubted they would really find 2 singers that were half-way decent. I started to root for Leo quite early in the season for the simple reason that he looks really cute. ;) But in the end I thin he and Vanessa deserved to win and are known as "Some&Any" (the audience actually boo'ed when the name was announced).
For quite a while the favored duo was Nik&Elif. At one point during the show last night they had (presumably) 63% of the votes. Then Leo&Vanessa sang this song:
The rest is history. :D