Is it the homage to his lifelong mentor, his grandfather, that made 22-year-old Julian Pförtner from Heidelberg choose Peter Maffay as his coach? At the age of five, Julian accompanied his musical grandfather (“I just put him on the speakers”) at performances at parties and in marquees. Her favorite song was always one of the most well-known Maffay anthems: “Nessaja”, the “I never wanted to grow up” song from “Tabaluga or the Journey to Reason.”
Both artistically and biographically, the dream team has now come full circle with “The Voice of Germany”: First, Julian sings himself with “Shivers” by Ed Sheeran (Stefanie Kloß: “You can really fail with his songs here”) soul out of the body. After a huge praise from Maffay (“I’ve had many interesting encounters on stage in 50 years. If you put your trust in me, you’re the latest”) Julian and his grandfather, who is bursting with pride, can’t help it: When the first notes of “Nessaja “ sound out, Maffay actually winces, grabs the microphone and the first big moment of goosebumps of the first blind audition is perfect.
It’s not just coach Stefanie Kloß who sheds tears (“How great is that”). At the same time, the emotional direction of the new “Voice” season becomes clear: in addition to the already traditionally appreciative atmosphere, there will be a mountain of show routine, garnished with wise depth and the occasional flabbering.
Because although Peter Maffay insists on riding his motorcycle in style on his first appearance as “Voice” coach, his attitude is not that of a hardened rocker, but of a good, experienced show spirit. A spirit who also politely formulates: “Tell us something about your musical concerns,” he asks 31-year-old Bella Robin, who shines with a song by Céline Dion. With Richard “Richie” Tedjen (19), Maffay clearly feels “dumplings in the throat”, which also does nothing for the following reason: “I noticed that you burn for music. You need that to set others on fire.”
The single mother and aspiring speech therapist Bella (Mark Forster: “Can you please drive out Rea’s Irish accent?”) and high school graduate Richie choose other coaches. Overall, however, Peter Maffay creams off the most talent right from the start. In addition to four-person buzzer Julian, who, according to his mother, “becomes a different person on stage”, Sissi Engel also decides to learn from the veteran.
The 31-year-old from the Hessian town of Rosenthal is “the friendly voice on the phone” in a law firm’s main job. By the way, she actually loves rock. A huge fan of the “Foo Fighters” she has been singing in cover bands since school. “You have amazing energy,” Maffay attests after her performance of Pink’s “Just like a Pill”, which he can continue to convince himself of in the next few sessions.
And maybe the 72-year-old star on “The Voice” even goes back to singing school? After all, he is the only coach to push the buzzer for the trained classical singer Nel Lewicki (32) from Hamburg. The mixture of pop and opera with which she interpreted Sia’s “Chandelier” left some of the coaches unsure: “If I don’t feel firm in a genre, I hold myself back,” admits Stefanie Kloß: “I asked myself what else could I teach you?”
Peter Maffay tends to listen to his gut feeling: “At some point I no longer analyzed while listening, I just enjoyed it.” The question is whether coaching will continue like this. When Maffay hears that Nel earns her money with singing lessons, he is quite willing to learn: “We’ll just swap roles.” Sympathetic understatement, with which the legend outlines his motto for the upcoming “Voice” auditions: “To go into the To go from the heart, music must also come from the heart.”
The original of this post “Peter Maffay mixes up “The Voice of Germany” comes from Teleschau.
