Johannes Oerdings’s Plan A is on track! Fortunately, because he had never really had a plan B. So tonight we sing, dance, laugh and cry with him in Zurich’s Hallenstadion. Want to keep this moment forever – forever from now on!
Cool Support Act with Jesse Tellem
“Can it get better”? Jesse Tellem probably asks himself this question every night when he and his band are on stage in the next city. They are currently on their first tour as support act for Johannes Oerding and will be playing here in Switzerland for the first time, in Zurich for the first time tonight. Jesse very much wants us to stay in touch with him in the future and make it something permanent. He is not really the one-night-stand type.
Complete photo gallery: Jesse Tellem at Hallenstadion Zurich
The son of a punk rock drummer from Chicago obviously has a sense of humour. Heard of Jesse Tellem for the first time today and only briefly listened to the 2-3 existing songs on Spotify before the show, I’m totally surprised. What kind of cool guy is Jesse Tellem?
There are various tattoos on Jesse’s arms. The hair is pink. With his energy, Jesse immediately captivates everyone along. But he also knows how to enchant an audience. On the one hand, he does this with “Blood Red Morning”, the saddest song he has ever written. Just a fortnight ago he published it. On the other hand, his debut single “Heart Shaped Hole” and “Out in the Cold” are also part of the programme. And with “All good kids go to hell” Jesse Tellem really rocks the stage again at the end.
For over 20 years according to plan A
During the changeover break, there is a little Carpool Karaoke and Kiss Cam Fun via screen before the countdown starts. 10, 9, 8, 7… at 0 the band starts the intro. There are flashes behind the curtain. Johannes’ silhouette appears. He greets the audience and after a bang the black curtain falls. Visibly in a good mood, Johannes Oerding starts the show with “Kaleidoskop”, followed by the current album and tour title song “Plan A”. His trademark hat is in place.
Johannes Oerding has been focusing on music for over 20 years. There was never really any other plan. Since his debut “Erste Wahl” in 2009, the Hamburg native by choice is now on the road with his seventh studio album. He has already sold over 1 million albums. The musician first became known as a support act for Simply Red and ich+ich before he started his own solo tour. In 2013 Johannes came second in the Bundesvision Song Contest, the German European Song Contest (ESC) preliminary round. In the same year he also went on tour with Joe Cocker.
With his participation in “Sing meinen Song” 2019, Johannes Oerding was able to present his musical talent to an even wider audience. After slowly but steadily working his way up with the previous albums, his sixth album “Konturen” went straight into the German album charts at number 1, well-deserved. He also went platinum with it.
With his additional TV roles as host of “Sing meinen Song” in 2020 and 2022 and as a successful coach of “The Voice Of Germany”, the popular musician has reached the top and is now playing the big arenas.
By the way, the 10th anniversary season of “Sing meinen Song”, in which Johannes will once again be the host, will run from 24 April 2023 on Vox.
At home on stage
Even after more than 20 years, Johannes Oerding feels most at home on stage. He loves to play his songs and offer the audience a varied programme. You can see the sparkle in his eyes during every song and in the broad, sometimes mischievous grin on his lips.
Johannes is quite a chatterbox again today. If he could, he would probably talk and interact with each one separately. A trait his fans love about him. Besides the music, Johannes Oerdings’s stories, tales and interactions make the concert. It doesn’t get boring for a minute, but remains super entertaining beyond the 2.5 hours.
For example, Johannes makes sure that everyone gets to know each other before the evening really gets started. Just quickly shake hands left and right, front and back, and get to know each other by first name. With the third song, it’s also time for the audience to get involved in the show. “So schön” – Johannes Oerding has the whole audience singing along. After all, it’s not difficult with just two words. More efforts will follow in the course of the concert.
Complete photo gallery: Johannes Oerding at Hallenstadion Zurich
Conveniently, this way you can also test the male quota directly. It turns out that many men are not necessarily at the concert voluntarily. Jörg has had a particularly hard time. He stands at the front in the second row with his wife. Whew! It’s when Johannes calls one of the security men over and has Jörg bring free beer and shots as an apology. Jörg likes it and if you look into the audience, so do the rest of the concert visitors – even the men. As down-to-earth and public-spirited as he is, you really have to like him.
More personal than ever
Johannes Oerdings’s best-known hits include “Alles brennt”, “Kreise” and “An guten Tagen”, which of course cannot be missed in Zurich today. However, the audience has to be patient for these until shortly before the end of the concert. In the 20 years of his musical existence, countless other songs have naturally come together. It is therefore not always easy for Johannes to manage the balancing act between positive and melancholic songs. But he is also doing his best for it today. Johannes Oerding is supported by his 4-piece band: Moritz Stahl on guitar, Kai Lindner on keyboards, Simon Gattringer on drums and Robin Engelhardt on bass. Johannes shows us how important the band is to him by repeatedly taking a step back throughout the concert to let the four musicians shine with their solos.
Johannes Oerdings’s albums were always personal. Plan A, however, is the most personal. With Plan A, Johannes has become even more concerned with what is happening around him. So he recommends the Zurich audience to close their eyes during “Diese Stadt ist einsam ohne dich”, for example, and find the feeling of missing, which the song refers to, within themselves. With “100 Leben” or “Schnee von gestern”, Johannes takes us into his past. He also gives a deep insight with “Ecke Schiminsky” and “Eins-zu-Eins-Gespräch”. Tells about fateful encounters and long overdue conversations.
Schlager, metall or perhaps a samba?
To bring even more variety into the evening, the audience is finally allowed to wish for new versions of “Traurig aber wahr”. A song about various low blows in Johannes’ life, which should definitely be seen with a wink. An opera version is requested first. At first, the whole band fights vehemently against the Schlager version, but then admits defeat. Which is followed by some rock’n’roll and the metal version for contrast. Now, at the latest, I’m in tears from laughing so hard. Tears, however, also run later from emotion.
In the meantime, Johannes increasingly gets up close and personal with the audience. Every now and then he makes a detour into the frontrow before he even goes into the middle of it. For “Blinde Passagiere”, a song about loneliness, Johannes Oerding suddenly sits at the piano on a small B-stage in the back. To bring us even a bit more closer to him, he gives us a short insight into his songwriting process. He first plays the new “Santa Fu” in the original ballad version. A version that his mum found too sad, Johannes laughs. Finally, a version for dancing made it onto the album. Because Johannes is known to be not shy of people and incredibly close to the audience, he dances right in the middle of and with the audience: How about “Macarena”, “Tanze Samb mit mir” and Take That’s “Relight My Fire”? He puts his arm around the shoulders of woman and sings Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” with her before returning to the main stage.
We don’t want to go home yet
It is already after 22:30, but no one lets the Münster native go without an extensive encore. “… wenn sich alles in Kreisen bewegt, dann gehst du links, dann geh ich rechts und irgendwann kreuzt sich der Weg, wenn wir uns wieder sehn…” We are already looking forward to the next reunion. But while one musician after the other detaches himself from his instrument and says goodbye, I think we all agree: Johannes, we all didn’t want to go home yet!
Luckily, Johannes Oerding will soon be back in Switzerland: on Sunday, 16 July 2023, he will be playing in beautiful Locarno at the “Moon & Stars” Festival together with Max Giesinger & Silbermond. What a great lineup! Tickets gibt es bei Ticketcorner
You can find more information about the musicians here:
www.jessetellem.com
www.johannesoerding.de
Promoter: www.actnews.ch
Setlist (ohne Gewähr)
- Kaleidoskop
- Plan A
- So schön
- ?
- Porzellan
- Diese Stadt ist einsam ohne dich
- Traurig aber wahr
- Hundert Leben
- Eins-zu-eins-Gespräch
- Blinde Passagiere (B-Stage)
- Santa Fu
Macarena / Tanze Samba mit mir / Relight my fire / I wanna dance with somebody - Anfassen
- Schnee von gestern
- Ecke Schmilinsky
- Heimat
- Alles brennt
- An guten Tagen
ENCORE - Kreise
- Ich will noch nicht nach Hause
- Für immer ab jetzt
