Quick Facts
Biography
Stefan Konrad Raab (born 20 October 1966) is a German entertainer, comedian, musician and former television host. Raab began his television career hosting the comedy show Vivasion in 1993. He became well known in 1994 after composing a hit single spoofing national football coach Berti Vogts. From 1999 to 2015, he hosted the late-night comedy show TV total and has also created a number of other television shows, such as Schlag den Raab and Bundesvision Song Contest. In the early 2010s, Raab was considered the "most powerful man in German entertainment television".
Raab is also known for his recurring role as producer, writer and performer of German entries to the Eurovision Song Contest beginning in 1998. He was the initiator of the national pre-selection show Unser Star für Oslo (Our Star for Oslo), in which Germany's winning entry at the 2010 contest in Oslo was determined.
Early life and family
Raab grew up in Cologne with his sister and his parents, who owned a butchers shop. He attended Jesuit boarding school Aloisiuskolleg in Bonn. Before entering the entertainment business, he worked as a butcher in his parents' shop and studied law before dropping-out of university after five semesters. Raab lives in a suburb of Cologne and has two daughters (born 2004 and 2006) with his girlfriend Nike. Other than this, very little is known about Raab, who deliberately hides his private life from the media.
Career
Television
Stefan Raab became popular as host of the comedy show Vivasion for the German music television channel VIVA from 1993 to 1998.
In 1999, he created TV total which began airing in April 2001 on ProSieben, four times a week. While TV total started as a comedy format mainly showing and satirizing funny and embarrassing sequences from other television programs, it soon came to be more of a late night show featuring musical performances-- in some ways similar to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
After a boxing match against Regina Halmich in 2001 (rematch 2007) and a speed skating race against Claudia Pechstein in 2002, he also created several other celebrity sports events that are produced regularly, including TV total Turmspringen (high diving) and TV total Stock Car Crash Challenge (stock car racing). He also brought fun and variety to the show by invented new sports: In November 2003, he initiated the first "official" World Wok racing Championship in Winterberg, Germany. Modified Chinese woks are used to make timed runs down an Olympic bobsled track. The championship has taken place every year since, most recently in March 2011 in Innsbruck. The first Autoball EM, autoball being a version of football played in cars and using an exercise ball to score goals was made in 2007.
In 2006, Raab invented the game show Schlag den Raab (German for Beat the Raab, remade for British television as Beat the Star and as "Beat your host" in several other European countries), in which he competes against a contestant in various disciplines – some episodes of the show lasted more than five hours with excellent quotas.
Raab frequently organizes PokerStars.de Nacht, a poker event featuring some celebrity names in German entertainment.
In September 2012, he announced that he will be hosting a new talk show on ProSieben which will include political guests and begin airing on 11 November 2012. It will stand in direct competition with the self-titled talk show hosted by Günther Jauch.
In September 2013 Raab was one of four hosts (one from each big television network) at the federal election debate between chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger Peer Steinbrück.
In mid-2015, Raab announced his retirement from television and stated that he would remain hosting until the end of the year. The last episode of his show TV total aired on 16 December and the last episode of Schlag den Raab aired on 19 December 2015.
Music
Raab began working as a freelance producer and composer of jingles and radio commercials in 1990 at his own studio in Cologne.
From 1994 onwards, he produced a number of popular songs, including "Böörti Böörti Vogts" (a song about Berti Vogts), "Hier kommt die Maus" ("Here comes the mouse", a tribute to the children's television series 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" ("Get me a bottle o' beer", containing samples from then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder), and "Space Taxi" from the soundtrack of the movie Traumschiff Surprise - Periode 1.
He wrote the song for the German entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1998, Guildo Horn's "Guildo hat euch lieb!", and in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 he took part himself, performing the nonsense song "Wadde hadde dudde da?". Raab cast the German entry for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest in a talent show contest 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, DSDS). The winner, 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 features representatives from each of the 16 states of Germany and stipulates that their song has to be at least partly in German.
In 2009, Raab was approached by the public broadcaster NDR, a member of the ARD broadcasting consortium, to jointly organise a national preselection in order to determine the German entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. It was revealed that Raab initially refused the request, but that his television network ProSieben accepted the offer to work with ARD/NDR. As a result of the cooperation, the talent show contest Unser Star für Oslo (Our Star for Oslo) took place from 2 February 2010 onwards, stretching across 8 shows. Raab took a lead role in the programmes as head of the jury. In the national final on 12 March 2010, Lena Meyer-Landrut emerged as winner. On 29 May 2010, Meyer-Landrut won the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Satellite", claiming the first German Eurovision victory in 28 years.
As a musician, Raab is an autodidact, playing various instruments, such as piano, drums, guitar, ukulele, and some wind instruments.
Participation at the Eurovision Song Contest
| Year | Place of Event | Artist | Song | Involvement as | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ! 1998 | Birmingham, England | Guildo Horn | Guildo hat euch lieb | Composer | 7 | 86 |
| 2 ! 2000 | Stockholm, Sweden | Stefan Raab | Wadde hadde dudde da? | Performer, composer | 5 | 96 |
| 3 ! 2004 | Istanbul, Turkey | Max Mutzke | Can't Wait Until Tonight | Discoverer, composer, Mentor | 8 | 93 |
| 4 ! 2010 | Oslo, Norway | Lena Meyer-Landrut | Satellite | Initiator and Jury-President of Unser Star für Oslo, Mentor | 1 | 246 |
| 4 ! 2011 | Düsseldorf, Germany | Lena Meyer-Landrut | Taken by a Stranger | Initiator and Jury-President of Unser Song für Deutschland, Mentor, Host | 10 | 107 |
On 19 May 2011 Raab eventually ended his Eurovision involvement as a host, chairman of the jury, composer and musical producer.
Awards
For his television show Vivasion Raab received the Goldener Löwe (Golden Lion), the predecessor to Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Award), in 1996. For TV total he received the Deutscher Fernsehpreis in 1999 as well as the comedy award Rose d'or in 2001.
For his talent show SSDSGPS he was awarded the Adolf-Grimme-Preis in 2005 in for the "discovery and support of young music talents". On 29 May 2005, Stefan Raab received the Deutsch-Türkischer Freundschaftspreis (German-Turkish Friendship Award) for his TV total specials from Istanbul in preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. He won the Bravo Otto in the category "Comedystar" from 2000 to 2003. In 2000 and 2005 Raab was awarded the ECHO (German music award) as "Best National Producer". In 2005 he also received the ECHO award as "media partner of the year").
On 29 September 2007, Raab received the Deutscher Fernsehpreis for "best entertainment show" for the fifth episode of Schlag den Raab. On 6 February 2008 the show was awarded the Goldene Kamera (Golden Camera). Furthermore, Raab received the media award Bambi on 27 November 2008. In 2009 Raab won the Herbert Award 2009 for best television sports show with the TV total Turmspringen.
Madame Tussauds in Berlin displays a wax figure of Stefan Raab since April 2009.
As the initiator and president of the jury of the show Unser Star für Oslo he was awarded the Bayerischer Fernsehpreis (Bavarian television award) in 2010.
On 12 November 2011, Stefan Raab came second in Synchronspringen teaming with Elton in Munich at the TV Total Turmspringen 2011 event. This was his first ever podium along with Elton at this event.
Controversies
Raab has been the subject of lawsuits throughout his career, some of which have gained public attention. The two most referenced cases are:
- The case of then 16-year-old model Lisa Loch, who was 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 classmates and in public and as a result suffered sleeplessness and was afraid to leave her home. A court in Hamm ordered Raab to pay €70,000 in compensation due to infringement of personal rights.
- In an episode broadcast on 6 September 2004, Raab showed a clip, originally destined for a news broadcast, of a 28-year-old Turkish mother Nil S. holding a Schultüte (a cardboard cone, typically full of sweets, traditionally given to children in Germany on their first school day). Raab's comment, "Unbelievable! The drug traffickers are disguising themselves better and better" ("eine Tüte" also means "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.