Xavier Naidoo

Xavier Naidoo stands as the leading German R&B vocalist of his era. Born during 1971 in Mannheim, he devoted much of his teenage years to appearances in school glee clubs, church choirs, and amateur stage productions before launching his professional path by recording advertising jingles. His first album, Seeing Is Believing, arrived in 1993 yet drew minimal notice, after which he remained absent from public view for the following three years. The 1997 single “Freisein,” a duet with singer Sabrina Setlur, delivered his initial German Top 40 placement, while the later successes of “20,000 Meilen” and “Führ Mich ans Licht” drove his 3P label debut Nicht von Dieser Welt to the summit of the album charts. That release remained inside the Top 20 for more than twelve months and ultimately surpassed one million copies sold. A live concert recording titled Live appeared soon afterward, and in 2000 Naidoo set his solo work aside to create the album Zion with the fourteen-member collective Söhne Mannheims. Their track “Geh' Davon Aus” entered the German pop chart, intensifying expectations for his next solo project. The double album Zwischenspiel/Alles für den Herm met those expectations by entering at number one and spawning three Top Five singles—“Wo Willst Du Hin?,” “Bevor Du Gehst,” and “Abschied Nehmen.”

During 2003 Naidoo joined the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA for the number-one single “Ich Kenne Nichts (Das So Schön Ist Wie Du)”; the 2005 album Telegramm für X returned him to the top of the charts, propelled by the hit “Dieser Weg.” In 2006 he achieved his first solo chart-topping single with “Danke,” written as a tribute to Germany’s World Cup team. Alles Kann Besser Werden, a three-disc concept album released in 2009, earned platinum certification in Germany. The year 2012 saw a partnership with Aachen-born rapper Kool Savas that produced the number-one single Gespaltene Persönlichkeit (“Split Personality”) in both Germany and Switzerland under the name Xavas. That same year Naidoo issued his first career retrospective, Danke fürs Zuhören, and served once more as a coach on the television program The Voice of Germany.

Two contrasting albums appeared in 2013: the fifth studio effort Bei Meiner Seele, which debuted at number one on the German and Austrian charts, and Mordsmusik, a dubstep- and hardcore hip-hop-influenced project issued under the pseudonym Der Xer. Motivated by his television work, Naidoo created the series Sing Meinen Song in 2014, inviting established German artists including Sasha and Roger Cicero to reinterpret one another’s material. The resulting cover singles climbed high on the German charts, after which Naidoo undertook a nationwide solo tour throughout the summer. The companion release Sing Meinen Song: Das Tauschkonzert reached number one in Germany during June and July. His sixth studio album, Nicht von Dieser Welt 2, surfaced in early 2016. The next year he reunited with Söhne Mannheims for their sixth studio album, Mannheim, and also completed his tenth solo project, Für Dich.