Sportfreunde Stiller

Sportfreunde Stiller emerged in 1996 as a Munich-area German rock trio fixated on soccer. Vocalist and guitarist Peter "Balboa" Brugger, bassist Rüdiger Linhof, and drummer Florian "Rakete" Weber took their name from former coach Hans Stiller, prefixing it with "Sportfreunde"—the German term for "sports friends"—after another band asserted rights to the surname Stiller alone. Their opening EP, Macht Doch Was Ihr Wollt, Ich Geh Jetzt, surfaced soon after the group’s inception, while the follow-up release Thonträger arrived in 1998.

The band’s maiden full-length album, So Wie Einst Real Madrid, reached stores in 2000; its title’s nod to the storied football club reinforced the members’ sporting persona. Two years afterward, the song "Independent" from their second album Die Gute Seite appeared on the EA Sports FIFA 2003 soundtrack. Burli, the trio’s third studio LP, arrived in 2004. Shortly after the 2006 issuance of You Have to Win Zweikampf, the World Cup-themed single "'54, '74, '90, 2006" ascended to the summit of the German charts. Once Italy eliminated the German national team, the band revised the track as "'54, '74, '90, 2010" ahead of the tournament scheduled for South Africa. That same year Sportfreunde Stiller earned a nomination for Best German Act at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

La Bum, their fifth album, entered the marketplace in 2007 and became the first Sportfreunde Stiller release to top the German album chart. Two years later the group delivered an MTV Unplugged performance captured in New York. Following a four-year absence, New York, Rio, Rosenheim surfaced in 2013, climbing to number two in Germany, claiming the top slot in Austria, and reaching number six in Switzerland. An extended tour ensued before the band paused briefly, returning in October 2016 with Sturm & Stille—their first German number-one album since La Bum.