Michael was born in 1990. In 2012 he placed third in "The Voice of Germany". The singer has a few studio albums. His songs are inspired by real life stories and experiences. He has been a fan of Eurovision for years and now his dream to take part in the contest has come true.
How do you feel after the Final in Germany?
I feel very, very good. It all feels like a dream – winning the preselection and going to Lisbon for Germany. It could not be any better than this! Of course.
Your win in Unser Lied was undeniable – what does all the support from the German and international juries, as well as from the audience, mean to you?
The support in Germany is amazing and totally overwhelming. Everyone is whishing me all the best and I’m getting hundreds of messages every day. That makes me very happy, of course! Also I’m getting a lot of messages from other countries and they are all so positive. So I have a feeling that my song has a chance to do good in Lisbon. Top10 would be a dream come true!
Your career starts with making covers on YouTube. How did you decide to record yourself and show your talent to the whole world? Do you remember how you felt after publishing your first video almost 10 years ago?
I discovered YouTube in 2006 and it was a perfect opportunity for me to show my music to many people. I was kind of a shy boy back then and didn’t play any concert. So I could show my music tot he world without leaving my comfort zone.
I definitely remember posting my very first video in 2006. It was a cover of „Tears in Heaven“ by Eric Clapton and I was very nervous about it because I had the fear that maybe no one would like it. But they did like it and I kept posting videos!
What inspires you the most? What is the most common topic you write songs about?
I write all my songs about stories that I experienced myself or stories of my sourroundings, like friends or family. So they are all very personal and real. This is important to me because I feel much more on stage singing about topics I can connect with.
How did you feel when you sang with Ed Sheeran? Have you ever imagined that this would happen to you? Would you like to work with him one day?
Ed Sheeran is an amazing artists and it was a great honor singing with him! He’s very down to earth and just a normal guy like you and me. I would toally love to work with him again!
You’ve mentioned that you prefer singing in English, than in German. Does this help you or it’s harder to get noticed like this? What do the German people think about this decision?
Yeah, that’s true. In Germany this makes it a little harder to get attention because many people like german singing artists at the moment. But then again I have many listeners outside of Germany, which I am super proud of! I wouldn’t have that when I would sing german. Much more people then just the 80 million people in Germany are able to understand what I am singing.
Your Eurovision song “You Let Me Walk Alone” is incredibly emotional. What is the story behind it?
Well.. it’s not that easy to talk about the meaning of my song, as it is very personal to me. I had never before talked about this in public, but I felt like after all these years, it’s now ok to share this story. The song is a piano ballad and I am singing about the loss of my father 13 years ago. I wrote it together with Nisse Ingwersen, Katharina Müller and Thomas Stengaard (who was one of the writers of the Danish winning song in 2013). The song is very special to me and I hope that the audience in Lisbon will somehow be able to feel that too.
Do you want to say anything to all people who are going through hard times at the moment? How do you deal with such situations?
I get many messages that some of my songs did help in moments where people lost an important person. And that’s exactly what I hoped for. The meaning of my song for Eurovision is: Appreciate every moment with your parents, because you never know how long you will be on this earth together.
What are your expectations from Portugal and Eurovision? What do you want to achieve with your participation?
This is a already dream come true for me. I’ve always been a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest, watching it every year with my entire family. Always was one of my highlights of the year. Now that I figured my music seems to be very international, I came up with the idea “Hey.. wait. I’m a ESC Fan, my music has more than 2.0 million streams a month in countries like Sweden, Norway, UK, US.. isn’t that perfect for the ESC?”. As I always had that big dream of one day performing at the ESC, I somehow all of a sudden felt: now’s the time!
So I applied at the NDR and now, a few months later, I really did it! I am very much looking forward to Lisbon and my performance on such an amazing stage and so many viewers. That will by far be the craziest and most beautiful moment in my life. Also I hope to get to know many cool people from the Eurovision Community from all different countries. My main goal is to be happy about my performance myself. I wanna go down from the stage and think “I gave my very best and am happy with this performance!”. Also I of course hope that many people will like what I do and connect with my music.
Did you hear any of the other countries’ songs? If yes, which ones and what do you think about them? Which participants seem the most interesting to you?
I actually know them all. I’m following all the preselection since January and really do know all songs that are released until today. Right now I like the songs from France and Czech the most. But there are many good songs!
Hear "You Let Me Walk Alone" here:
