As of: October 25, 2024 2:20 p.m
It was more by chance that the Hamburg singer with the deep voice and dark, melancholic lyrics released a few songs – and suddenly he was a star. His debut album is now being released.
Nobody in German-speaking pop currently delivers more emotional rush: Berq is a musician of contrasts: loud and quiet. Piano versus strings. The voice is sometimes very high, then very deep. Maybe because he himself travels in two worlds, as he says: “One is the world of being an adult, and the other is the world of not being quite an adult yet.”
Berq – written at the back with Q – is derived from Felix Dautzenberg, his real name. He got the phrasing from hip-hop, the darkness from Billie Eilish, and the breathless ups and downs in his songs – that’s what made him a star of Generation Z.
Pressed instrument and computer keys in the basement
If you want to know where it all comes from, you have to at least take a mental trip. To his parents in Hamburg. “I sat in the basement with not so nice light. And I sat there for hours and pressed something.” On instrument and computer keys.
Dautzenberg wants to become a music producer after school. He has to have something to show for his studies. Stand on stage yourself? Unthinkable back then. “That was mainly because I wasn’t a singer. I only recorded this EP when no one was in the house and suddenly I had to sing my songs in front of people. That was something that was beyond my comfort zone “, he says.
Application project becomes successful EP
Suddenly a musician – and, by necessity, a singer. Because the “Red Flag” EP, the original university application project with a handful of songs, is well received: the first time in love, the first time separated – Berq talks about being young, but packages it as a fast-paced horror story. And that in turn resonates with a crisis-ridden generation. Berq’s fear of the stage – that is also the topic of his debut.
Berq is 20 years old. The album, he says, “feels a bit like a diary of this time, which was also very turbulent for me. Because in the last two years this whole music thing has washed over me.”
More information
4 Min
With his debut single, the Hamburg newcomer Berq immediately won many fans – including Ina Müller. 4 mins
And when does your own life feel as dramatic as it does now? You don’t have to be a hyped newcomer to understand this. Not even the age of Berq’s young fans. But to make this phase so tangible and re-experienceable, you have to be a good musician.
Moved from Hamburg to Berlin
In the song “Forget-Me-Not” Berq sings about the nightly “I’m back” cell phone messages to his mother after going out. “It was also nice to give my mother a feeling so easily: Okay, now I can go to sleep peacefully. Everything is fine now.” he remembers. Today he no longer sends these messages. Berq now lives in Berlin.
But even if Felix Dautzenberg has left his hometown. The chamber music moments in his songs in particular call for a very special concert hall for the 20-year-old: “Of course there is a place in Hamburg where I would definitely like to play at some point: the Elbphilharmonie.”
But first there are concerts to stand on. However, the tour is already sold out. That leaves the album that has now been released by Universal Music – “Berq” by Berq, written with a Q at the back in both cases.
More information
3 Min
Herbert Grönemeyer has already come out as a fan of the young Hamburger. The artist is at the Reeperbahn Festival. 3 mins
A two-part documentary about the history of Hamburg’s influential music scene provides fascinating insights. From today on in the ARD media library. more
The successful band wants to go back to their roots with “R/H/1” – and convince the fans in Hamburg of the new sound. more
This topic in the program:
NDR Culture | Journal | 25.10.2024 | 4:20 p.m
