Max Raabe & Palast Orchester – Welcome to The Roaring Twenties

A summer evening in Berlin. Just a few meters away there are probably traffic jams and tourist buses queuing in second row – but that does not bother Max Raabe. He is riding his bike past Brandenburg Gate whilst masterfully tying his bow-tie.

Dashing, dapper and debonair, million-selling German crooner Max Raabe believes the timeless melodies and songs of the 20s and 30s have an inherent magic. He combines nostalgic flair with pop-star appeal, as well as a good dose of self-irony and dry comedy. Impeccably dressed in white tie and tails, he is joined by the Palast Orchester.

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester come from Berlin and are worldwide the leading band of music from the era of the Weimar Republic. Hilarious songs like ‘Rosa, Reizende Rosa’ (Rosa, Ravishing Rosa), romances like ‘Tonight Or Never’ and classics like Kurt Weill’s ‘Mack The Knife’ are brought to the stage along with standards like ‘I Won’t Dance’, ‘Night and Day’ or ‘Sweet Sue’.
 

Max Raabe, born 1962 in Lünen, has always sung – in the youth choir and on his bicycle.

He moved to Berlin in his early twenties to study opera. He financed his studies with small performances and in 1986 he founded the Palast Orchester with some fellow students.
 
In 1992 Max Raabe wrote his first hit “Kein Schwein ruft mich an” (Why Does No One Call) and appeared on stage in Heinrich Mann´s “Der blaue Engel” (Blue Angel) under the direction of Peter Zadek .
 
Parallel to the increasing success and international career with the Palast Orchester, Max Raabe gives concerts with pianist Christoph Israel. Their duo-CD Über´s Meer” (Over The Sea) was released 2010 by Universal / Decca.
 
Max Raabe´s commitment to the remembrance of 20s/30s music has received various awards. In particular he was presented with the ECHO Classic in 2000 for his interpretation of “Mack the Knife”, the Paul-Lincke-Ring of the City of Goslar in 2005, the cultural prize of his hometown Lünen in 2007, and in 2012 the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin.
 
Since 2007 Max Raabe has succeeded the German comedy-legend Loriot as honorary MC for the annual Berlin opera gala of the German AIDS foundation. He has also performed for many charity events amongst which are the Opera Village project in Africa founded by Christoph Schlingensief, Yehudi Menuhin´s Live Music Now and the Berlin City Mission. Max Raabe also supports the project Schools Against Racism and the initiative Children´s Home Romania.
 
In the summer of 2010 Max Raabe collaborated with producer, singer and composer Annette Humpe to compose, sing and produce music for the album “Küssen kann man nicht alleine” (One Cannot Kiss Alone), which was awarded Platinum in 2012. The successful duo´s second album “Für Frauen ist das kein Problem” (For Women It´s No Problem) was released in 2012 and won Gold a year later.
 
In summer 2017 Max Raabe teamed up with \”pop specialists\” Annette Humpe, Christoph Israel, Peter Plate, Ulf Leo Sommer, Daniel Faust and Achim Hagemann. Together they wrote the album \”Der perfekte Moment .. wird heut verpennt\” (literally \”sleeping through the perfect moment\”). The album was released late 2017. Since then Max Raabe is on tour with a programme of the same title, made up of a mixture of songs from the album and original 20s arrangements. In addition, two singles have been extracted and turned into successful music videos. In August 2018 “Der perfekte Moment .. wird heut verpennt” reached Goldstatus.