catwalk show
With manpower – season opener of “Germany’s Next Top Model”
Heidi Klum presents “Germany’s Next Top Model”. photo
© Jordan Strauss/AP/dpa
The 19th season of “GNTM” has started. Everything is as usual – and yet different: men mingle with the models and fight for victory.
Two innovations bring a breath of fresh air to the new season of “Germany’s Next Top Model” (GNTM). For the first time, it’s not just women walking the catwalk – male models are also allowed to take part in the ProSieben casting show this time.
This means that at the end of what is now the 19th GNTM season, there will be two winners for the first time – a man and a woman. Both will receive 100,000 euros in prize money and will be featured on the cover of the fashion magazine “Harper’s Bazaar”. Never before has a male model made it onto the cover of the magazine.
Met Heidi on the plane
The start of the season on Thursday was clearly dominated by male participants: 30-year-old Niklas from Norderstedt was there. He is the first male model that Heidi Klum discovered for her show. “Model mom” Klum saw him on a flight to his summer vacation. He worked there as a cabin boss.
“It started like a normal day and at the end I called my friend and said: “Oh, by the way: I had Heidi Klum on board and now I’m on Germany’s Next Top Model,” says Niklas, describing his recruitment as the first male GNTM participant .
The two 24-year-old twin brothers Julian and Luka also want to go far in the show. The brothers from Frankfurt are almost inseparable – they just don’t take each other on dates, they reveal. “Our dream is to win the show – to be the first men. Even though it’s probably not possible for both of us to win,” the brothers joke.
Klum: “Very positively surprised”
Participant Fabienne (20) is delighted with her male model colleagues: “I think it’s really cool. I never thought there were so many different types of men.”
Refugee Grace from Syria is also taking part in this year’s season. Her wish is to become a model. She says she didn’t have the opportunity to do this in her home country. “In Syria we have different dreams. All you can think about is: How am I going to survive?”
Actually, everything is the same as always on GNTM – young, attractive people have the dream of one day becoming models and being on the cover of a big fashion magazine – only now there are men who make the same dreams come true want. Heidi Klum is enthusiastic about the new manpower: “I am very positively surprised.”