Stefan Raab

Stefan Raab's self-produced show called "TV Total" is the signature broadcast of one of the country's major channels, and the Cologne-born singer's songs regularly land him in the charts.

That all amounts to a stellar career for someone who started out with a quite different goal in mind. Raab trained as a butcher in his family's butchery, receiving highest marks along the way.

That's a rap!

But the butcher found he was better at cutting up on stage, joking with audiences and making fun of Germans. The public responded quickly to the quirky entertainer from Cologne, voting him the country's most popular host in 1993.

A year later, his unconventional take on soccer reporting during the World Cup in the United States made him a cult favorite, especially among young people.

His first hit in the German music charts came by way of an ironic rap ode to then coach of the German national team, Hans-Hubert Vogts.

Raab landed even higher in the singles charts two years later - reaching number two with "Hier kommt die Maus" ("Here Comes the Mouse") - when he reprised his performance as a rapper to reinterpret the title melody of a favorite children's television show.

Not exactly highbrow

In 1998, Raab joked his way into achieving another musical milestone. Alongside Schlager singer Guildo Horn, Raab represented Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest with a tune called "Guildo hat euch lieb" ("Guildo Loves You!"). The duo came in at a respectable seventh place of 25 competing countries.

Raab hit the Eurovision stage again two years later as a soloist performing the gleefully senseless "Wadda hadde dudde da" and slid up to number five in the competition.

Along the way, Raab created a TV format called "TV Total" - his own show that still draws countless viewers to the couch four nights a week. Perhaps true to his butcher background, Raab often finds inventive ways to cut clips from other shows into his own and sometimes even splices them into songs.

That was the case with his wacky 1999 number, "Maschen-Draht-Zaun" ("Chain-Link Fence"), in which a TV clip showing an argument in heavy dialect between neighbors became the stuff of a country song.

But "TV Total" isn't all light-hearted farce. The show has seen its share of controversy in its more than a decade-long run.

Various people who were satirized in the show have sued the entertainer, and many have also charged him with going below the belt when making jokes. He's been criticized for insensitivity when talking about Germany's Muslim and other minority populations.

Eurovision, once again

Heading up to the 2011 contest, Stefan Raab was back in the Eurovision spotlight - vicariously. He came up with a casting show called "Our Star for Oslo" that would determine Germany's 2011 entrant.

The winner by a wide margin was Lena Meyer-Landrut, the singer who took home the Eurovision title for Germany in 2010. Like her multi-talented mentor, she will hit the Eurovision stage for a second time in May 2011.

It's impossible to think of the German pop landscape these days without Raab. And even if his humor raises some questions, one thing seems certain: he has a knack for creating what audiences want to hear.

Author: Ralf Kennel / gsw
Editor: Louisa Schaefer