You can think what you want of Helene Fischer – at least it was refreshing so far that, unlike so many others, she didn’t necessarily give the impression of wanting to appear approachable. In front of thousands of people she performed everything and everyone, floated from the ceiling above her audience, put a crown on herself. Your “Helene Fischer Show” on ZDF was somewhere between Roland Emmerich and Roland Kaiser, a lot of fire, a lot of humtata.
After the spectacle had to be canceled last December due to corona and was also canceled for this year, the singer switched to the private broadcaster Sat 1. He promised in advance a show with “unusual and new insights” into the life and career of Helene Fischer. And even hired Stefan Raab as “Music Supervisor”, whatever that means.
The new format has about as much to do with the old Fischer programs on ZDF as a hand fan with a wind machine. Everything that has made up the “Helene Fischer Show” so far is missing on this evening: There are no acrobatics, no guest stars, no sequins. Not even an audience. Instead, a backdrop of fluffy carpets and flea market lamps. The singer performs a few songs from her new album without changing outfits and in flat shoes (yes, she is pregnant). Interview sequences in which she answers questions from moderator Steven Gätjen are cut somewhat awkwardly in between.
A slightly shortened sample: “When I imagine a completely normal Sunday like this. What kind of outfits do you loll around in at home and maybe fart in your jogging suit?” – “I love Sundays, these are absolutely my favorite days.” “Why, very briefly?” – “I don’t know, maybe it’s because I was born on Sunday.”
Favorite fruit: apples, role model Celine Dion
Helene Fischer masters this balance perfectly: Her answers are just so specific that almost everyone can identify with them – and so irrelevant that they don’t offend anywhere. “Wild or English garden?” – “I don’t really like all these little flowers, even if I find it delightful when I walk past a field. But also not the English garden, that’s too stuffy for me.”
After more than two hours of broadcasting, the singer continued to learn that she likes to cook “something delicious”, that stiff clothes are a “no-go” and that her album was preceded by a “musical development process”. In feature films, more and less prominent people can take turns admiring Fischer and asking her even more questions, for example about her favorite fruit (apples) and her role model (Celine Dion). Of course, you don’t get much closer to the singer than in her previous shows – and it’s a lot less fun.
The evening babbles away so poorly that after the second commercial break at the latest you can hear “Laaangweilig!” and would like to insert a DVD from a Helene Fischer concert from pre-pandemic times. It wasn’t all bad about pyrotechnics and wind machines.
Kathrin Müller-Lancé would like to claim that she only visits the Arte media library. But then she likes to look exclusively at RTL to see what the celebrities are doing.