The Show before the Show
Behind the stage of ”The Voice of Germany”
Light, sound, make-up, dress: all of these things are rehearsed and checked hours before the show to prevent mistakes from slipping in. In total, around 300 people work behind the stage of ”The Voice of Germany”.
One of these people is Christian Oberfuchshuber. Once the cameras are running, the audience is clapping excit-edly, and the show begins, his job is done. As the warm-upper, he is the foreplay-guy, responsible for putting the audience in a good mood. Oberfuchshuber is always involved whenever something is recorded at the studios in Adlershof. “Starsearch“, “Hit-Giganten“, or “The Voice of Germany“ – he is in charge of the show before the show.
Oberfuchshuber is one of the best warm-uppers you can find in the German television landscape. He does roughly 300 shows every year. A sense of humour, spontaneity, and a knack for improvising are important. Now and again, he likes to warn the “The Voice of Germany“ audience: “There are tasers under every chair, for the people who don't join in.“ The stage is his for 15 minutes. That is all the time he has to get the audience warmed up.
Manuel da Costa's greatest fear is a power cut. Da Costa is the master of light at “The Voice of Germany“ – more than 300 flexible lights. “Light transforms a stage,“ da Costa says. Due to the large number of different songs, the light concept has to be flexible and allow for creativity. It is all about producing something special that matches the song and the artist on stage. “We want to make something visually spectacular without overdoing it. Otherwise the artists themselves get lost in the process.“ Producer Dirk and his team make sure that they are standing in the right place at the right time.
The artists' transformation, or “talents“ as they are called in the show, starts with make-up and dress: a girl from the streets turns into Cleopatra. Backstage host Doris Golpashin praises the gifted hands of the show's make-up artists. Doing make-up on TV is hard because every artist has his or her own ideas and preferences and it has to also match the outfit.
The candidates have spent the entire day at the studio. Rehearsal with vocal coaches, costume fitting, dress rehearsal, and the rehearsal with Lillo Scrimali and his band. The latter is the musical director, and a band member, for artists such as Die Fantastischen Vier, Joy Denalane, Roger Cicero, and Max Herre and he also did the arrangement of the legendary MTV Unplugged with Die Fantastischen Vier. Scrimali and his seven bandmates are the musical heart of “The Voice of Germany“. The case room – the place where stage fright is at its peak – then leads you to “the door“ and on to the stage in front of 1,400 people: The show begins.
By Rico Bigelmann for Adlershof Special