Stefan Raab

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 music 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. Raab still continues to do regular song contests within his TV show, TV Total.

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 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 total

Stefan Raab can be called the inventor of wok racing, when 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. He also arranged and took part at different Sport-Events, like 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 TV total is the PokerStars.de Night, usually not with real poker stars but general celebrities. Whatever activity is organised, it always seemed most essential for the show to include celebrities. ulf streekman.

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.