Herbert Grönemeyer

About Herbert Grönemeyer

Herbert Grönemeyer is a singular figure – an artist unique in the German music scene. He is an artist who never stands still and never stops changing – and yet he never comes across as arbitrary, pointlessly brash, or eccentric, because each of his transformations reflects changes in the world around him.

He has always been ahead of his time and, for that very reason, a true expression of the age he lives in. In the course of his career, he has sold more than 17 million albums and during that time, about the same number of people has seen him on tour and in concert. In 1984 his breakthrough came with his fifth album, Bochum, one that touched a nerve in the post-punk and new wave generation, as well as reaching everyone who resists categorization into a specific movement or generation. In 1984, It was the most successful album of the year in Germany, even more successful than Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

The record that emerged from that deep personal crisis would become his masterpiece. Mensch is a magnum opus of German pop music; it is music that exudes so much wisdom and pain, courage and vulnerability, that nobody who still feels anything while listening to music can escape its power. More than two million people saw one of the concerts during the extended Mensch tour.

If Herbert Grönemeyer is a German national artist, then he represents a nation that is open and diverse, a nation of people who are curious and who want to reach out into the world – and invite the world in.

Photo: Antoine Melis