Ruffling feathers

A perma-tan, deep lines in his face, blond highlights in his cropped hair - those are Dieter Bohlen's trademarks. The 57-year-old musician and composer has always tried to keep up a youthful, well-groomed appearance. And the early 20-something, female companions hooked through his arm - all beautiful and buxom - do nothing to hurt that image.

"I'm just an average Joe among Germans," Bohlen once contradicted.

But he isn't referring to his fleet of expensive cars, his lady friends or his gold watches with that comment. It's about his attitude and self-confident way of giving his opinions to the public. They're marked by straight-forward language often on the level of pub talk.

500 songs on the path to producerhood

Dieter Bohlen has been making music since he was ten years old. He composed songs while still in school and especially once he studied economics in college. He also played "in thousands of bands" back then, he has claimed.

After finishing his studies, he aimed to satisfy his father's wish for him to have a real occupation. But that's when music publishing house Hansa, to which he had sent some 500 different songs over the years, finally expressed some interest in his work.

"I was just about to hunker down and get serious, and then someone comes along and wants to sing one of my songs," Bohlen quipped with a broad grin spreading across his face. "The music publisher then said I could come for an interview."

Hansa gave the then 26-year-old a job as producer, with the young Bohlen composing songs for hardly famous Schlager stars. He also tried his hand at a solo career, but in vain. A project composing songs in German for singer Thomas Anders at the beginning of the 1980s also came to nothing.

Then Bohlen and Anders got an idea that would end up being their saving grace: singing together in English.

Modern Talking: a musical lottery win

It's 1983 - the birth year of Modern Talking. "You're My Heart, You're My Soul," produced by Bohlen, became a hit around the world and hit number one on the German singles charts. Within just a short time thereafter, some 60 recordings by the two young guys went gold or silver.

"Squeaky sounds in the pitch of eunuchs have been my specialty since my college days," Bohlen would later say of himself.

It was the success of German dance pop duo Modern Talking that pushed the tireless Bohlen to his limits for the first time.

"We were always on the road, touring through all sorts of countries," he recalled. "After five number one hits with Modern Talking, I was rather licked. Because, after five hits, I wanted a sixth, too, but I just couldn't do it."

First the money, then the music

Marketing, success, fame - those were the top priorities for Bohlen. Music played second fiddle. The duo Modern Talking broke up after five years, with Bohlen and Anders at odds and the whole story recorded in detail by the yellow media.

Each pursued a career as a solo artist, Bohlen under the name "Blue System." The singer also continued writing songs for other artists - this time, for the BMG record label. He gained fame as a "specialist" for Schlager stars who were losing their shine and whom he managed to get back into the charts, such as Engelbert Humperdinck, Roy Black and Nino de Angelo.

He achieved another milestone in 2010, when Schlager singer Andrea Berg dropped her producer and asked Bohlen to take up the post for her new album. "Schwerelos" ("Weightless") made it to number one on the Album Charts, with Berg garnering an Echo - Germany's most prestigious music award - in 2011.

When pigs can fly

At the moment, though, Bohlen is most famous for role as jury member on "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" - an "American Idol"-style show which reaps him around 1.2 million euros ($1.8 million) per episode. Since 2002, he's been shocking and fascinating Germans with his bawdy critiques of the show's performers.

"All of you go running out of here and are sad that you can't sing," he once said. "Pigs can't fly either, but they don't get all sad about it."

The show's also a gold mine for the composer, who produces songs for the winners or the show's darlings. In 2002, he wrote "We have a dream" for all of the finalists and, surprise, surprise, it hit number one and became the single of the year.

But while Bohlen is strutting his stuff as producer for young talents, and not just aging Schlager stars, the press is more interested in his private life and his long line of ever-younger female companions: Naddel, Verona, Estefania and Carina - all buxom brunettes of the Mediterranean or Latina variety.

Private life in the eye of the press

Bohlen plays with the press, barely trying to hide his private life from the public and repeatedly saving cell phone numbers of yellow press journalists in his telephone contact list. Still, "95 percent of the stuff that people read about me has been made up, the other five percent is addle-brained," he once said.

He's also not concerned about his public outbursts.

"I've always had a big mouth and have sometimes said things that weren't even true and have offended people. That's just the way it is." Sitting in the studio for 18 hours at a stretch has sometimes forced him to need an outlet somewhere, he added.

Writing is one of those outlets. Together with columnist Katja Kessler, Bohlen has written two books - about himself, his life, his women and his music. Both books became best-sellers. And both stirred up the music industry so much that one of Germany's most successful music producers, Frank Farian, was prompted to write a book entitled "Stupid, this Bohlen" to set the record straight with his version about the hit producer.

Dieter Bohlen: he doesn't just stand for music, but more than anything, for a media phenomenon and marketing genius. And he makes no bones about loving the success and the limelight.

Author: Nadine Wojcik / als