Blessed (band)

Blessed
Blessed at the Jübek Open Air 2013
General information
origin	Hamburg , Germany
Genre (s)	German rock , Hamburg school , indie , grunge
founding	1993, 2008
resolution	1999
Website	www.selig.eu
Founding members
singing	Jan Plewka
bass	Lenard "Leo" Schmidthals
guitar	Christian Neander
Drums	Stephan "Stoppel" Eggert
Keyboard	Malte Neumann (until 2014)
Current occupation
singing	Jan Plewka
bass	Lenard "Leo" Schmidthals
guitar	Christian Neander
Drums	Stephan "Stoppel" Eggert

Selig is a Hamburg rock band that was successful in the mid-1990s and reunited in 2008 after a ten-year separation. She achieved gold status for the first time with the reunion album And Finally Infinite .

history

In 1993 the members founded the band Selig in Hamburg. In 1993 Selig got a record deal with Epic / Sony Music and recorded her debut album Selig with producer Franz Plasa , from which her first single Sie hat geschrien was released in January 1994 . The album itself was released in March and placed 35th on the German album charts, and in Austria it was ranked 12th on the charts. Selig received an echo in February 1995 for the video for Wenn ich wanted , made by director René Eller .

The album Hier was released in May 1995 . The later single Brotherless was a re-recording of the song released in 1994 as the B-side of the single She Has Screamed . The song Brotherless was not included on the first pressing of the album. The five musicians completed an almost sold out tour and various festivals such as Rock am Ring , Strange Noise etc.

In February 1997 the band released the soundtrack for Knockin 'on Heaven's Door . For the instrumental score tracks they used the name Digital Elvis & Zero . In July 1997, the album Blender was released, which the band recorded in New York . They experimented with loops and oriented themselves more towards pop. Shortly after the studio recordings to Blender left Plewka the band, which eventually led to the separation.

In January 1999 the band officially announced their breakup, in December 1999 the best-of- double-album Forever and Blessed was released .

Jan Plewka at Jübek Open Air 2013

Christian Neander soon founded the band Kungfu , while Plewka and Eggert formed Zinoba together with Marco Schmedtje . Jan Plewka later founded a new band called TempEau together with Stephan Eggert and Marek Harloff .

In August 2008 the band announced their comeback and went into the studio. On March 6, 2009, the single Schau Schau was released and on March 20, the album And Endlich Infinite, twelve years after their last studio album, Blender . Together with the release of the album, Selig also performed live again.

The band took part in the Bundesvision Song Contest 2010, which took place in Berlin on October 1st, for the state of Hamburg and came in 8th with 40 points. On the same day the new album From Eternity to Eternity was released ; the first single with the same title was released on September 10, 2010. After the album was released, Selig went on tour again.

At the end of October 2011, at the invitation of Annette Humpe , Selig contributed her version of the ideal classic Blaue Augen for the double CD Zeitgeschichte - the best by and for Annette Humpe . The album was released on the occasion of Annette Humpe's 60th birthday.

On February 1, 2013, the sixth studio album was released with the title Magma. For the recordings, which took place in England in late summer 2012, Selig used the services of a producer for the first time since the reunion. Her choice fell on Steve Power , who has also worked for Blur , among others . Selig already played the entire album live on the club tour In Bed with Selig through six German cities in November 2012. At the same time, the track Love & Peace was released in advance for free download from the band's website.

In October 2014, Die Beste (1994-2014) released an album with newly recorded songs from the band's history. At this point, the group also announced that long-time keyboardist Malte Neumann is leaving the band for personal and artistic reasons.

style

While the debut album Selig was still characterized by rock with grunge influences and hippie flair, the album Hier was much darker. Selig called their style "hippie metal" back then. The music got heavier and less poppy, but a bit more experimental than on the debut. Together with the texts improvised in the studio, the impression was of drug-induced, hard rock. With the last album before the temporary separation called Blender , Selig left these paths. Rock was left out for a long time, instead pop elements found their way into the sound, and there were also experiments with electronics, loops and beats. Critics consider Blender to be the best work of the band, but the commercial success failed to materialize. The comeback album And Endlich Infinite , like the two following albums, was more oriented towards the old style of the band.

Discography

→ Main article : Selig (band) / discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	AT	CH
1994	Blessed Epic Records	DE35 (13 weeks) DE	AT20 (2 weeks) AT	-	First published: February 28, 1994
1995	here: Epic Records	DE15 (18 weeks) DE	AT20 (14 weeks) AT	CH35 (6 weeks) CH	First published: July 27, 1995
1997	Blender Sony Music	DE15 (6 weeks) DE	AT42 (7 weeks) AT	-	First published: July 4, 1997
2009	And finally, endless Vertigo Records	DE5 gold (24 weeks)DE	AT31 (2 weeks) AT	CH91 (1 week) CH	First published: March 20, 2009 Sales: + 100,000
2010	From Eternity to Eternity Universal Music	DE9 (6 weeks) DE	AT51 (1 week) AT	-	First published: October 1, 2010
2013	Magma Vertigo Records	DE4 (6 weeks) DE	AT34 (1 week) AT	-	First published: February 1, 2013
2017	Kashmir Karma Columbia Records	DE19 (2 weeks) DE	AT73 (1 week) AT	-	First published: November 2, 2017

Movies

• 1997/1998: Der Pirat (Director: Bernd Schadewald , Selig als Hippie-Band play songs by The Doors )
• 2009: From Selig to Selig (Director: Maria Knothe)

Awards and nominations

Awards

• Echo pop
  • 1995: in the national video clip category ( if I wanted )

Nominations

• 1Live crown
  • 2009: in the Best Band category
  • 2010: in the Best Band category

Web links

Commons : Selig (band)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Blessed at laut.de
• Blessed fanpage
• Selig at Discogs (English)

swell

1. ↑ Selig Fanpage: https://www.selig.org/newsall.htm . As of August 17, 2008.
2. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/album/und-endet-unendung-mw0001314662
3. ↑ Blessed Reunion after 10 years with a fourth studio album! ( Memento of the original from April 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: motor.de News from September 8, 2008
4. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: musicheadquarter.de of November 12, 2012
5. ↑ Announcement on The Best (1994-2014) at selig.eu ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ↑ Report on Malte Neumann's exit from selig.eu ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/selig-mn0000006163
8. ↑ faz.net January 31, 2013: Deceleration hymns for whipped cream. - The band Selig once stood for eruptive rock. Now she's looking for the middle: on the new album “Magma”, madness and puns give way to the sweet uniformity. (Wolfgang Schneider)
9. ↑ Shot in the summer of 1997, first broadcast on February 6, 1998 on arte ( source ( memento of the original from January 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
10. ↑ Released on the Limited Deluxe Edition of Und Endlich Unendet , also broadcast on ProSieben on March 20, 2009.
11. ↑ http://www.echopop.de/nc/pop-kuenstlersuche/
12. ↑ http://www.einslivekrone.de/2009/die_nominierten/beste_band/selig.jsp
13. ↑ http://www.einslivekrone.de/2010/die_nominierten/beste_band/selig.jsp