Irony rather than pathos

He was born Mathias Otto in 1962 in Lünen, Westphalia. The only vinyl record that his parents owned became a favorite of his as a young child. In the cheerful music of the German song “Ich bin verrückt nach Hilde” (Crazy About Hilde) he discovered, and became fascinated with, a certain touch of melancholy back then. That was perhaps a formative experience or premonition, pointing the way to the future.

He was an altar boy, a boy scout and sang in the church choir. He knew early on that he wanted to be a singer. After high school, he moved to Berlin, took singing lessons in the evening, worked by day in various plant nurseries, cleaned hallways. He also once took a one-week vacation to Italy with 30 marks in his pocket, walking from Florence to Assisi, sleeping under the stars. He stowed his backpack somewhere and strolled through town with polished shoes, sport jacket and pressed slacks (he never wanted to appear “ragged”). During those years he had his first performances. At the age of 24 he founded the Palast Orchester with a group of friends. From 1988 to 1995 he was schooled as a baritone.

Today, he and his Palast Orchester are popular with audiences in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Moscow, Montreux, Rome, Amsterdam, Vienna, of course in Berlin and in many other cities. His musical repertoire and his style embody his love for the famous roaring 1920s in Berlin: however, his music is never a mere copy or pure nostalgia but, as he himself once explained in an interview, a “reflection”. “These songs never depicted reality, not even when they were written long ago. That was the time of the Great Depression, and numerous song texts dealt with crazy stuff, like Amalie, who goes swimming with a man made of rubber. Others were packed with quick-witted humor, yet spiked with underlying fatalism and melancholy. “Ich lass mir meinen Körper schwarz bepinseln / I’ll have my body painted black” by Friedrich Hollaender, for example, actually mirrors the times when he finally sings ‘I want to leave Germany for that place – like in the song – that is wonderfully new … We want to do justice to these pieces and, at the same time, want to emphasize the timelessness of this music.”

When Max Raabe belts out his German evergreens “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz”, “Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus” or “Bel ami”, hits from bygone days, he astounds his listeners with his precision and sober yet exciting perfection, removing any semblance of remake and giving them new life and fresh meaning, with a touch of irony. He is able to do the same when he covers contemporary pieces, as in the songs “Sex Bomb” from Tom Jones or “Oops! ... I did it again” from Britney Spears. He is also able to turn these into something new and very much his own.

“Fascinating and flawless” was how the New York Times described his 2008 sold-out appearance at Carnegie Hall. No matter where he performs, Max Raabe sings in German, authentically, in the language in which the songs were written. His listeners love that and appreciate the humor and hidden irony of his performances. Of course, he explains the content prior to each song - naturally, in English.