The year is 2002: The casting show Deutschland sucht den Superstar flickers across the screens for the first time. The show immediately becomes a mega hit. When normal people dared to show off their talent in front of pop titan Dieter Bohlen, then the whole of Germany was sitting in front of the TV. Even with the top dog at the time, Bet That…? could rival the show in its heyday.
Today the hype seems to have completely disappeared. Whoever won is usually only of interest to die-hard fans. None of the superstars have been able to start a sustainable career in the music business for years. What did the first winners look like? We researched: This is what happened to the first DSDS stars.
You won DSDS: What are the first superstars doing today?
Alexander Klaws – Season 1 (2002)
He was the first DSDS winner ever and is still mega-successful more than 20 years later. Alexander Klaws impressed at the casting show as a radiant milk boy who made the fans’ hearts beat faster. Today the 41-year-old has established himself primarily as a musical actor. His roles could hardly be more varied: he has appeared on stage as Jesus, Tarzan and most recently even as Winnetou. In 2021 he won the hit show The Masked Singer – showing that he can convince with his voice even without a face.
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Elli Erl – Season 2 (2004)
Do you remember? Elli Erl sneaked into the hearts of those watching as a freaky rock singer. With her eccentric short hairstyle and strong voice, she won in 2004. Hard to believe: Until pop star Beatrice Egli won in 2013, no other woman had made it to number 1. Apparently Erl didn’t get along particularly well with Bohlen and the collaboration ended quickly after the show. The 45-year-old occasionally appears on smaller stages, but her full-time job has been elsewhere for years: as As a secondary school teacher, she teaches music and sports.
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Tobias Regner – Season 3 (2005)
Tobias Regner lives for rock music – then and now! The red-haired rock singer was able to prevail against his competition on DSDS in 2005, and the rocker continued musically after the show. The 42-year-old achieved some solo success and later toured with his own band. Since 2023, the rock fan has been heading to new realms: with the band “ORION Band & Orchestra” he is touring Europe and performing a mixture of classical and rock. Today he works primarily as a speaker.
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Mark Medlock – Season 4 (2007)
Mark Medlock is a very special case in DSDS history. After his victory in 2007, the singer was extremely successful for a few years – thanks to his collaboration with Dieter Bohlen. Together, the two released several albums that sold millions in total. In 2011, the musician wanted to change and separated from Bohlen. After that, the chart successes were unfortunately over. Medlock moved to Sylt and in 2011 largely disappeared from the public eye.
The singer tried again and again to make a comeback, but there were no successes. Since then, there have been wild rumors surrounding the former DSDS darling. Nobody really knows what became of him. The 46-year-old is now traveling as a painter. He presents insights into his work on Facebook:
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Thomas Godoj – Season 5 (2008)
Similar to winner Tobias Regner, Thomas Godoj’s career is all about rock music. At the show he shone with his unique voice and the audience totally celebrated him for it. Every episode he received the most votes in caller voting; A victory was rarely so clear-cut. The German-Pole is also successful after DSDS. The singer no longer wanted to have anything to do with DSDS and RTL; Godoj wanted an independent career.
Exciting: Thomas Godoj shouted In 2014, his fans crowdfunded for the first time to finance the next album. This proved to be so successful that he stayed true to this strategy in later releases. He is always on tour with his rock music.
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DSDS 2024: All broadcast dates at a glance
If you want to know exactly when DSDS is on RTL, you can see an overview of the remaining episodes here. All previous episodes can be streamed on RTL+.