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Stefan Raab
Background information
Birth name	Stefan Konrad Raab
Born	October 20, 1966 (1966-10-20) (age 43)
Origin	Cologne, Germany
Genres	Rock music, Pop, Comedy
Occupations	entertainer, singer, comedian, music producter
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Drums
Labels	Raab TV

Stefan Konrad Raab (born on October 20, 1966, in Cologne) is a German entertainer, music producer, singer and comedian. He attended Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn. Before entering the media world, he worked as a butcher^[1] and studied law before dropping out of college after five semesters.

Musical career

Raab began working as a freelance producer and composer of Jingles and Radio commercials in 1990 at his own studio in Cologne.

He wrote the song for the German entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, Guildo Horn's "Guildo hat euch lieb!", and in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 he performed himself with the nonsense song "Wadde Hadde Dudde Da?". Other famous songs include "Böörti Böörti Vogts" (a song about Berti Vogts), "Hier kommt die Maus" ("Here comes the mouse" a tribute to the TV show Die Sendung mit der Maus), "Maschendrahtzaun", "Wir kiffen", "Gebt das Hanf frei!" ("Legalise Dope!", featuring Shaggy and samples from German politician Hans-Christian Ströbele), "Hol' mir ma' 'ne Flasche Bier", containing samples from chancellor Gerhard Schröder, "Space Taxi" and other soundtracks from the film Traumschiff Surprise - Periode 1.

Raab cast the German entry for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on his show in a competition he called SSDSGPS ("Stefan sucht den Super-Grand-Prix-Star", "Stefan seeks the super Grand-Prix star", satirising the title of the German Idol series Deutschland sucht den Superstar). The winner of this casting, Maximilian Mutzke, came in eighth place.

Bored with the Eurovision Song Contest, Raab came up with the Bundesvision Song Contest in 2005 (Bundesrepublik Deutschland = Federal Republic of Germany). The contest featured representatives from each of the 16 states of Germany (Bundesländer) and stipulated that their song had to be (at least partly) in German. The first contest in 2005 was won by the band Juli from Hessen, followed by Seeed from Berlin in 2006, Oomph! from Lower Saxony in 2007, Subway to Sally from Brandenburg in 2008 and Peter Fox from Berlin in 2009.

He is an autodidact, playing various instruments, such as piano, drums, guitar, ukulele, bass and some wind instruments.

TV career

Stefan Raab became popular as host of the comedy show Vivasion for the German music TV channel VIVA in 1996.

Since 1999 he has been the host and creator of TV total, which currently airs on ProSieben four times a week. While TV total started as a comedy format mainly showing and commenting on funny and embarrassing sequences from other TV programs, it soon turned into a late night show featuring musical performances, remotely similar to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Raab also occasionally attends the game show Schlag den Raab (translated Beat Raab, remade for British TV as Beat The Star), in which he competes against a contestant in various disciplines. He created several other sports events that are produced yearly, including TV total Turmspringen (high diving) and Autoball EM, Autoball being a version of football played in cars and using an exercise ball to score goals.

In November 2003 he initiated the first "official" World Wok Racing Championships in Winterberg, Germany. While Raab won the title in 2003, he subsequently lost to Olympic luger Georg Hackl in 2004 and 2005, and then Joey Kelly in 2006. Special Guest since 2004 is the Jamaican Bobsled Team, which became famous through the film Cool Runnings.

Raab's other projects include two boxing-matches against Regina Halmich (WIBF's world champion), an ice-skating race against Claudia Pechstein, show jumping and stock car racing. He has lost both boxing-matches but has at least been able to stay in the boxing-ring until the last round. Another activity frequently organised by Raab is the PokerStars.de Night, usually not with real poker stars but general celebrities.

Private life

There is little known about Raab's private life, which he keeps hidden from the media at all times. He has a girlfriend who is 8 years younger and two daughters (born 2004 and 2006). He enjoys sailing and American country music.

Controversies

Stefan Raab has been the subject of many lawsuits throughout his career, some of which have gained public attention. The two most referenced cases are:

• The then 16-year-old model Lisa Loch that was excessively ridiculed during some shows through Raab's assertion that her name ("Loch" meaning "hole" in German) made her more likely to find a job as an actress in pornographic movies. Loch claimed she received anonymous obscene telephone calls, was mocked by her classmates and in public and as a result suffered sleeplessness and was afraid to leave her home. The court in Hamm eventually ordered Raab to pay €70,000 in compensation due to gross infringement of privacy.

• In an episode broadcast on 6 September 2004, Raab showed a clip, originally destined for a news broadcast, of the 28-year-old Turkish mother Nil S. holding a Schultüte. Raab's comment, "Unbelievable! The drug traffickers are disguising themselves better and better" ("eine Tüte" means also "a marijuana joint" in German slang, hence the pun), resulted in repeated lawsuits, and after a Munich court ruled against Raab, Nil S. settled for €20,000 compensation accompanied by a written apology.

References

External links

• Stefan Raab at the Internet Movie Database
• Official TV total website features clips from past shows (in German)