Mark Forster: A superstar with Polish roots

The musician’s spectacular success completely turned his life upside down. Forster became a superstar more or less overnight. He gave countless concerts, mostly in sold-out halls, and became a teen idol. His popularity was given another push by the casting show “The Voice Kids” on SAT.1, on which he has been a judge since 2015. During his time on the show, Forster met his future wife, the singer Lena Meyer-Landrut, and the couple had a child in 2021.

In 2015, Mark Forster also took part in a competition. He entered the Bundesvision Song Contest for Rhineland-Palatinate, winning with the song “Bauch und Kopf”. In 2016, his third studio album “Tape” was released which again enjoyed great success. His songs were now more optimistic. They were no longer marked by the melancholy and pensiveness which Mark’s fans had become used to. In an interview, Forster admitted: “I’m in a good phase right now, I feel happy and want to share these feelings with my fans.”[3] Given this run of success, it is indeed hard to deny him his happiness. In summer 2016, his song “Wir sind groß” became the official song on ZDF for the broadcast of the Football European Cup in France. The earworm was played before and after every broadcast pairing of the tournament. This was followed a few months later by the song “Chöre”, which again stormed the charts. On the strength of this, Mark Forster was crowned the most popular German singer. He is loved by the public, he has voiced one of the characters in the American animation “Trolls”, and he is involved in a number of TV formats.

In a television programme, which was broadcast in 2017 in the fourth season of “Sing meinen Song – Das Tauschkonzert” , Mark Forster performed the Christmas carol “Lulajże, Jezuniu” (Sleep, baby Jesus, sleep) in Polish, which not only surprised the viewers, it also astonished his own family. This performance resonated with the Polish media who paid tribute to the singer with Polish roots by praising his passionate and emotive performance of the song and his perfect pronunciation. Mark Forster’s fan base in Poland grew even more as a result and he dreams of performing in front of a Polish audience. In interviews, the singer talks opening of his heritage and makes no secret of the fact that he would like to live in Poland for a year or two. In 2018, as an homage to his fans there, he recorded the song “Like a Lion” in Polish. It was previously released as a single with the Reggae musician Gentleman sharing the vocals. Mark also released his fourth album entitled “Liebe”, which achieved gold status in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

During the pandemic when it wasn’t possible to play concerts, Mark Forster used the time to record more songs, including the single “Ich frag die Maus”, which was created for the 50th anniversary of the “Sendung mit der Maus”, the cult TV programme for children. In April 2021, he released the single “Drei Uhr nachts”. This song about loneliness after a separation was recorded as a duet with the singer Lea. And although Forster has been in a happy relationship with Lena Meyer-Landrut for many years, he assures us that his songs tell stories from his life. And perhaps it is precisely this authenticity created by singing about his own experiences and combined with his musical qualities, that is the secret to Mark Forster’s success.

Monika Stefanek, June 2021