One of my longtime wishes has recently come true. I
never thought in a million years that I would have ever the opportunity to
experience “The Jacksons” live on stage.
But thanks to the show "Art on Ice"the legendary Jackson brothers came all
the way from the USA for the very first time to Switzerland and entertained the
audience with their wonderful songs “Can you feel it”, “I want you back”, “Blame
it on the Boogie”, “ABC”, “I’ll be there” and more.
Knowing that I would actually hear Jackie,
Jermaine, Marlon und Tito Jackson live singing
was such an overwhelming feeling.
Sure “the boys” are older now, but hey their
incredible energy, charisma, likeability and quality as performer and as singer
is still the same. Watching them performing the exact same choreography as
decades ago makes one think that somehow time is standing still. I don’t know
what their secret is, but whatever it is they are doing something right. Needless
to say that Michael was missing on stage. When the four Jacksons entered the
stage my mother and I couldn’t control ourselves, we had tears in our eyes. It
was so emotional.
Michael was an important member of the Jackson 5. But
his spirit was definitely with us. Not only because his brothers performed the
song “Gone too soon” for their beloved brother, but also the FINAL song of the Show that ended with Michaels
song “Black or white” was a tribute to Michael.
This was definitely
the best song choice and a highlight. Michael’s wonderful message of solidarity
and humanity will always keep him alive. Michael would have loved that. His
message of love and tolerance was with us during the entire night. God bless
his soul.
Performing “Black or white” on Art on Ice with Jessi J’s voice was fantastic. Jessi J
was beyond perfect. This beautiful and
multitalented lady makes us woman proud to be a girl. The award-winning British
singer and songwriter is the full package.
She has the look, a fabulous
voice and is a brilliant performer and of course the likeability. I love her
lyrics. Each one of her songs is filled with valuable messages. I knew that she
would be really good live. But she was actually amazing. Seeing the Jacksons was overwhelming. But Jessi’s
performance was without a doubt literary the
cherry on the icing. Jessi made the whole evening special. Thank you for
being so awesome!
Olympia winner, world &
European champions on Ice such as Evgeni
Plushenko, Stéphane Lambiel and more international artists Javier
Fernandez, Tatiana
Volosozhar, Maxim
Trankov, Ksenia
Stolbova, Fedor
Klimov, Gabriella
Papadakis, Guillaume
Cizeron, Elizaveta
Nugumanova and Peter
Gymennikmade the whole evening simply perfect.
Thank you all for a fab night and an unforgettable memory!
God bless U all.
If you like to watch the entire
show, check out the Swiss Television
Channel SF DRS2 on February 28, 2016
at 8:00 pm European time.
All of us have doubts. That’s normal, it’s human. And
we all need stories of courage, believe and hope regardless of our age and life
stories.
Because at the end of the day, we all have the same wishes, dreams,
desires and goals in Life. We want to be happy and satisfied. We want to love
and be loved back. We need to be appreciated, recognized and accepted. We want
to be part of the society! No one likes to be an outsider. No one likes to feel
lonely, unloved and isolated. No one likes to be rejected and be treated badly.
Right?
Therefore I share this wonderful story of a young man
with you today. His name is Menderes. He’s 31 years old, originally from Turkey
but lives in Germany since his childhood. If you asked people in Germany a
month ago “Who’s Menderes?” many if not everyone would have probably first
laughed and then answered patronizingly “Oh dear, he’s a hopeless Want-to-be! He’s a
joke!”
Truthfully I wasn’t sure if I should share Menderes
story on my blog. Because my Blog visitors are from
cross all over the world, who for sure have no clue who this guy is. But his recent
story of success is so inspiring that I just have to write about it. It is a
lecture and prove that if you have a dream don’t care what other people think
or say about you. Believe in yourself and never ever give up!
Menderes is a young man with a big dream. He’s been auditioning
for the last 13 years at the German Talent show “Germany is looking for the next
Superstar” an adaptation to the American Talent show “The Idol” on RTL.
Ever since this show came on air Menderes
was participating without success. But despite the negative comments of the
judges he kept coming to audition year by year mostly performing songs from his
Idol Michael Jackson. Why?
Because regardless of what others think or say about
him he believes in his dream and no negative, nasty and insulting comment of
the judges kept him from trying again and again. He believes in himself and his
goal and actually managed to get into RECALL four times. He even made it once
to the RE-Recall, but unfortunately never made it to the Live Shows as one of the ten Finalists!
However he ironically actually made it twice to the Live Show as Special guest performing Michael Jackson! Which in my opinion was very entertaining.
So Menderes has become a Symbol of the show. Because The Winners of this talent shows keep
coming and going. The same with the judges. They keep coming and going. Only
one person has been consistent next to the Head Judge of the Show Mister Dieter Bohlen (The German
version of Simon Cowell).
FYI: Bohlen is Germany’s most successful producer and
was also known in the 80s for his music in the band “Modern Talking”. He
celebrated international Hits such as “Brother Louie” and “Shary
Shary Lady”.
Dieter Bohlen & Menderes
Anyway as I said beside the Head judge Mr. Bohlen
Menderes has become the Icon of this successful Talent show despite or actually
because of his lack of success and luck.
As Menderes said recently people always make fun of
him and laugh at him, because nobody takes him serious. But now something
unexpected happened. The German TV Channel RTL chose him as one of twelve candidates to take part at this
year’s reality Show “I’m a celebrity get me out of here”
which aired in January 2016 – an adaptation of the Original show from ITVUK -for the tenth time in Germany.
To make a long story short you can guess now who made
it to the final and left the show as the King
of the Jungle 2016?
Yes, unbelievable but true. Menderes who was being
laughed at for the last 13 years has won the audience heart with more than 81% telephone rating of the Viewers in just two weeks on Live
Television.
What makes his success more interesting is the fact
that he was a candidate next to German celebrities such as a former Bundesliga Football player, German
Actress, FormerTV Host and even Brigitte Nielsen, a former Hollywood
star (Ex-Wife of Sylvester Stallone)
Menderes who had never ever won anything before in his
life (as he said himself) and who has not done anything in Show business
professionaly so far (except auditioning 13 times and a few live shows in Mallorca where he was
booed out verbally and physically attacked by annoyed audience) is now the most
wanted celebrity in Germany.
German Marketing specialists are predicting that he
will now be booked for events for a ten times more salary than he used to ask before
he went to the Australian Jungle (which was 2000 Euro).
Menderes didn’t win the reality show because
of his voice, but because of his loveable, super honest, authentic, selfless, pure and sincere
personality.He’s a hardworking, reliable, polite, extremely kind, respectful
and thankful Team player.
He never argued or was rude to anyone in this entire
time. Even when he was nominated to do the most disgusting and emotionally challenging
trials he came back with dignity. Most importantly during the entire time he
was himself. He didn’t act and pretended to be someone that he isn’t as
opposite to some other want-to-be- celebrities. What I love and appreciate the
most about his wonderful character is that he didn’t once gossip behind other people’s
back. Not once!
Menderes has a heart of Gold and if anyone saw my
tweets to him before he went to the Jungle they know that I believed in him and
I knew that he would make it. Why?
Because I always knew how he felt. Being rejected is
the story of my life. The only difference is I haven’t been rejected on
National TV and I haven’t been exposed and humiliated by judges on TV. But I have
been rejected my entire Life and I know how it feels like when people don’t
give you a chance. I know how it feels like to feel worthless and lonely. I
wrote about this topic openly and honest as I am in the second partof my trilogy in my
memoir “Definition of Freedom”.
In all these years when people made fun of Menderes, I
always believed that one day he would achieve his goal because of his persistent
try and strong belief in himself.
I recognized his vulnerable
and loving Soul from the beginning. NowI’m so happy for him and he’s an inspiration for everyone to NOT GIVE UP regardless
of how hopeless and loveless some days in Life are. Regardless of how cruel,
unfair, and rude people behave. I think the most important gift for him now is
not the money that he will be making in the future, but the love, attention, and
respect that people are now giving him.
When he returned this week back home to Germany he
said sadly “Nobody is waiting for me and nobody is missing me”. But now
he’s receiving so much Love and attention. I hope and pray for his sake that the Love he
receives now and in the future will heal his soul!
He deserves to be loved like
all of us. Humans need Love to survive Life. A life without Love is worthless.
Menderes gives me hope that regardless of how rejected, unloved and lonely we feel,
someday we all will experience success and love!
Thank you @RTL for giving this wonderful human being @Menderes THE priceless chance to finally experience LOVE! Germany has finally a NEW KING! :-) My best wishes for your new song "Music is my life"!