Hamburg. The British presenter James Corden is one of the most famous late-night talkers on US television. In Germany he is best known for his “Carpool Karaoke” clips on YouTube, in which he sings with celebrities in the car. A week ago, Corden welcomed a young singer from Hamburg for the first time on his show: 18-year-old Zoe Wees. The musician, who was switched on for the US show from Germany and was sitting in front of a bare wall, also presented her hit “Control”. The powerful pop ballad, which she released in Germany about a year ago, made it into the charts of other European countries – including Italy, France and Belgium – thanks to the Spotify streaming service. So the next destination is America.
“From the start I was aiming for an international career and didn’t want to limit it to Germany,” Wees says confidently. “If you can reach the whole world, why not?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U99GkTgFsKo
But where does the German pop export come from, which not all music fans in this country should be familiar with? Wees grew up in the Hamburg district of Dulsberg and has been writing his own songs at a young age. At 14 she took part in the Sat.1 show “The Voice Kids”, in which she was praised by the guest judge at the time, Ed Sheeran.
“I learned a lot there and met cool people. But for me it wasn’t the right way to build my career through a casting show. I don’t know whether it would have lasted that long, ”the teenager says today.
In childhood, Wees suffered from rolando epilepsy, a form of severe seizures. In “Control” she sings about the loss of control that she experienced in these phases. She dedicated the debut single to her primary school teacher, who she supported during this time.
The successor “Girls Like Us” is also personal. In it, the songwriter sings about society’s pressure on young girls to conform to a certain ideal of beauty. A feeling that she knows.
The international success certainly has to do with the fact that Wees stands out vocally and visually. A German accent cannot be recognized in her singing voice, and she has so far dispensed with shallow love songs, but convinces with more profound messages. Topics such as body love (“Body Positivity”) and self-acceptance are reminiscent of the successful African American singer Lizzo (32, “Juice”). “Right now I would say that I will never write a song about things that I haven’t experienced myself. It can’t be real, ”Wees emphasizes.
The musician used the Corona break to work on her first album. And where should the steep career lead? Gladly to her favorite city London and the US show by Ellen DeGeneres. Then she would rather sit as a guest in the studio in Los Angeles – and not in front of a bare concrete wall in Hamburg.
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