Unholy fortune

Short introduction

“The Count” is a singer, songwriter and composer of “Unheilig”.

Early life

The artist deliberately does not disclose his real name, date of birth and other information about his private life to the public. His real name is, according to the Bild newspaper Bernd Heinrich Graf. There are also other speculations. He was probably born in Aachen in 1970. Other sources mention Würselen as the place of birth. He made his first musical experiences in a children’s choir in his hometown. “The Count” started his professional life with an apprenticeship as a dental technician. However, he did not finish this, but instead committed himself to the Bundeswehr as a time soldier for four years. This was followed by training as a hearing care professional, who apparently graduated.

Career

The band “Unheilig” was launched in 1999 by the “count” together with two colleagues, the Australian singer, lyricist and composer Grant Steven and the producer José Alvarez-Brill. The roots of the typical sound of “Unheilig” lie in the “black Gothic scene” and are characterized by electronic music and dark rock. The first single release entitled “Ja” became a hit in the alternative rock hit parade in the year of release 2000. The debut album entitled “Phosphor” followed in 2001. Here “the count” still sang partly in English, while in the following years he only wrote in German. Another album called “The Second Commandment” was released two years after “Phosphor”. “Der Graf” separated from his bandmates in 2002 after profound differences and from then on performed as a solo artist while keeping the name “Unheilig”. He released the albums “Celluloid” and “Modern Times” in 2004 and 2006. The latter reached number 76 on the German charts. “Puppenspiel” appeared two years later.

With the release of the album “Große Freiheit” and the hit single “Born to Live” in 2010 he succeeded in stepping out of the “black scene” into greater public awareness. The same commercial success was also given to the follow-up work “City Lights”. The single releases “As You Were” and “Lights of the City” achieved good charts. The success of the album was repeated with the publication of the so-called “winter edition”. “Der Graf” competed with two songs in the preliminary decision for the German contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, but only took 2nd place. This was followed by a concert tour under the motto “Best of”.

October 5, 2014 was a black day for the fans, because “the count” announced in an open letter that he intended to end the “Unheilig” project after a last album publication and a tour. The farewell then took place in installments: “Summiters” – the supposedly last studio work came onto the market on December 14, 2014, followed a few months later by a live album of the farewell tour, which had the programmatic title “Time to go”. Around a year later, a recording of an MTV unplugged concert “Unter Dampf – Unter Strom” was released, followed by another tour with open-air performances in 2016 (“One Last Time”). “Summiteer” had already been announced as a farewell work, but “the count” released a final album with “From person to person”. After the official end of “Unheilig” another best-of-work came onto the market in 2017, which was called “Pures Gold – Best of Vol. 2”, followed by another hit compilation with the title “Alles hat his time – Best of Unheilig 1999-2014 ”. “The Count” went on concert tour with the “Dark Tenor” in 2017.

Career highlights

The album “Große Freiheit” stayed at number 1 on the German charts for 23 weeks and went over the counter two million times. In 2010, “the Count” won the Bundesvision Song Contest with the song “Under Your Flag” and received the “Bambi” in the “Pop National” category. In total, “Unheilig” has won the “Echo” music award five times, the DIVA Award twice and the “Comet” one time. In 2013, “Unheilig” was awarded the “Golden Camera” for “Best National Music”. The laudatory speech was given by pop singer Helene Fischer, who had previously sung a duet with the “count”. In the RTL program “The Ultimate Chart Show”, the title “Born to Live” was voted number 2 among the 100 most popular German hits by the audience.

Famous quotes

“The Count” commented on the “Stern” on the criticism from the “black scene” regarding its commercial success as follows: “It is strange, for years people have taught me how important my music is to them, and then I change little my exterior, leave out the black nail polish and these white vampire contact lenses, and suddenly my music doesn’t count anymore. Suddenly one says: He sings commercial ballads now. He’s not one of us anymore. I still don’t understand that. If you don’t have the acceptance of the people you’ve known for so long, it hurts. ”