Deutschland sucht den Superstar (season 7)

Auditions

The 7 Audition episodes were showen every Wednesday and Saturday from 6 January 2010 until 27 January 2010. After open auditions in the 5 cities Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg and an auditions truck, which stopped from September until October 2009 in 15 cities in Freiburg, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Würzburg, Regensburg, Dortmund, Münster, Kassel, Erfurt, Dresden, Halle, Hannover, Bremen, Kiel and Rostock.

Recall

The recall had 3 phases. The first phase was shot in a theater in Cologne. The 120 singers were split into 2 groups: Boys and Girls. Then every singer sang his favorite song. After that 55 singers were eliminated and the remaining singers sang in groups to get one of the 35 tickets for the next phase.

The second phase was shot in the Caribbean. The 35 singers sang three times: unaccompanied, in groups and in duos. The Top 25 came into the third phase.

The third and last phase was shot in the Schlosstheater Schwetzingen. The singers sang one song on their own. Then the jury decided which 15 singers came into the Top 15 live-show.

In this season, some of the contestants that had made it to the Top 15 had featured in previous seasons. Helmut Orosz made it to the Top 50 in season two but missing out on the Top 10 during the public vote. Menowin Fröhlich made it to the Top 20 shows in season 3 but was disqualified after being arrested and serving a two-year jail sentence. Kim Debkowski made it to the recall of the previous season but was eliminated after the group performance.

Songs in Recall 3 by Top 10

Mehrzad Marashi – "She's Like the Wind"

Menowin Fröhlich – "I Just Called to Say I Love You"

Manuel Hoffmann – "Get Here"

Kim Debkowski – "If I Ain't Got You"

Thomas Karaoglan – "Stand by Me"

Helmut Orosz – "Back to You"

Ines Redjeb – "Release Me"

Nelson Sangare – "U Got It Bad"

Marcel Pluschke – "Blowin' in the Wind"

Steffi Landerer – "Because the Night"

"Die Top 15 – Jetzt oder nie" (The Top 15 - Now or Never)

Original Airdate: February 13, 2010

Advancing to Top 10 (Public votes): Thomas, Nelson, Menowin, Kim, Mehrzad, Helmut, Manuel

Advancing to Top 10 (Jury selection): Marcel, Ines, Steffi

In this season the Top 10 was supposed to be formed by the Top 7 of the viewers vote plus 3 candidates picked by the jury (from the remaining 8 contestants). As a tribute to the viewers' support and the great success of the season the jury denied to choose advancing candidates. Instead they sent the 8th, 9th and 10th of the public vote. That also explains the gender ratio of the Top 10.

"Top 10 – Die Megahits von heute" (Today's Megahits)

Original Airdate: February 20, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Steffi Landerer or Marcel Pluschke

Bottom 4: Ines Redjeb, Steffi Landerer, Helmut Orosz and Nelson Sangare

Eliminated: Steffi Landerer

"Top 9 – Die größten Pop-Hymnen aller Zeiten" (All Time's Greatest Pop-Hymns)

Original Airdate: February 27, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Marcel Pluschke or Ines Redjeb (Nina), Ines Redjeb (Volker), Ines Redjeb, Marcel Pluschke or Kim Debkowski (Dieter)

Bottom 4: Kim Debkowski, Ines Redjeb, Marcel Pluschke and Nelson Sangare

Eliminated: Marcel Pluschke

"Top 8 – Happy Holiday Hits"

Original Airdate: March 6, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Manuel Hoffmann (Nina, Volker), Kim Debkowski or Manuel Hoffmann (Dieter)

Bottom 4: Ines Redjeb, Nelson Sangare, Manuel Hoffmann and Kim Debkowski

Eliminated: Nelson Sangare

"Top 7 – 80s"

Original Airdate: March 13, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Manuel Hoffmann or Ines Redjeb

Bottom 4: Helmut Orosz, Ines Redjeb, Manuel Hoffmann and Kim Debkowski

Eliminated: Ines Redjeb

"Top 6 – Deutsch vs. Englisch" (German vs. English)

Original Airdate: March 20, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Helmut Orosz

Bottom 3: Helmut Orosz, Manuel Hoffmann and Thomas Karaoglan

Eliminated: Manuel Hoffmann

On the following day, Helmut Orosz was disqualified from the competition after admitting to taking drugs during the competition. Just as done in season 4, the person who was eliminated the past week would be brought back into the competition; in which Manuel Hoffmann advanced to the top 5.

"Top 5 – Balladen & Ballermann" (Ballads & Ballermann)

Original Airdate: March 27, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Manuel Hoffmann, Kim Debkowski or Thomas Karaoglan

Bottom 3: Manuel Hoffmann, Kim Debkowski and Thomas Karaoglan

Eliminated: Thomas Karaoglan

"Top 4 – Neue Hits & Alte Hits " (New Hits & Old Hits)

Original Airdate: April 3, 2010

Jury Elimination Forecast: Menowin Fröhlich or Kim Debkowski (Nina & Volker), Kim Debkowski (Dieter)

Bottom 2: Kim Debkowski and Manuel Hoffmann

Eliminated: Kim Debkowski

Top 3 - Semi Final (Boygroups, Music Hero & Number 1 Hits)

Original Airdate: April 10, 2010

Live-Act: "Real Love" by Mark Medlock

Jury Elimination Forecast: Manuel Hoffmann (Nina), No Forecast (Dieter & Volker)

Bottom 2: Manuel Hoffmann and Mehrzad Marashi

Eliminated: Manuel Hoffmann

Top 2 - Final (Contestant's Choice, Highlight Song & Winner's Single)

Original Airdate: April 17, 2010

Judges' forecasts of who would win: Menowin Fröhlich

Winner: Mehrzad Marashi

Runner - Up: Menowin Fröhlich

Group song

Top 10: "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas

Top 9: "The Final Countdown" by Europe

Top 8: "Ritmo de la noche" by Chocolate

Top 7: "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham!

Top 6: "Let Me Entertain You" by Robbie Williams

Top 5: "Hey! Baby" by DJ Ötzi

Top 4: "Crying at the Discoteque" by Alcazar

Top 3: "Love Is Gone" by David Guetta

Top 2: "I Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas – performed by all Top 10 contestants (with the exception of Helmut Orosz) and "I Came for You" (performed by the two finalists) by The Disco Boys

On February 13 it was supposed that the viewers would choose 7 and the judges 3 finalists. The judges, or better said Dieter Bohlen, however chose to not decide and therefore the next three highest vote getters made it through to the finals automatically. They were Ines Redjeb, Marcel Pluschke and Steffi Landerer.

Helmut Orosz was expelled from the competition due to his drug abuse shown in a video. Therefore, Manuel Hoffmann, who was voted off the last in the competition, was brought back as the replacement.