Luca Hänni

Early life

Hänni was born in Bern, Switzerland. During his time in kindergarten Hänni received drum lessons. At the age of nine, he taught himself playing the guitar and piano. After finishing school, he began the training as a bricklayer, which he stopped in 2012, in his second training year, in favor of his music career.

Deutschland sucht den Superstar 2012

In 2012, Hänni applied in the ninth season of the singing talent show '‘Deutschland sucht den Superstar'’. On April 28, 2012, he reached the final. There he competed against Daniele Negroni and won the show with 52.85 percent of the audience votes. Among the recent DSDS-winners Hänni is the only minors, moreover the first non-German. As a prize he received 500,000 Euros and a recording contract with Universal Music Group. In addition, the driver education and a car were him, as well as the runner-up, paid.

First musical achievements

His first single is called ‘Don’t Think about Me’, which is composed by Dieter Bohlen. It was published on 2 May 2012. After four days, the single reached gold status in Switzerland and took number one on the charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. So, Hänni was the first Swiss citizen to reach No. 1 on the German Charts after 52 years.

His debut album My Name Is Luca was released on 18 May 2012, and placed at No. 1 in Austria and Switzerland and No. 2 in Germany in the album charts. The album was awarded with gold in Switzerland and Austria. On 4 May 2012 his first music video was released to the song "Don't Think about Me". The video was shot in Denmark on the island of Rømø on 30 April 2012. It was directed by Nikolaj Georgiew. After the publication of the video, it set a new record on the video portal Clipfish with more than 600,000 views on the day of the premiere.

His second single ‘I Will Die for You’ was published on 24 August 2012. The video shot to this song was directed by Oliver Sommer (AVA Studios) in Barcelona one month earlier. On 10 August 2012, the video celebrated its first run on ClipFish. The Maxi-CD included, additionally to the original version of Dieter Bohlen and the new song Oh No No, two remixes of the Swiss DJ and music producer Mike Candys.

For the remix Mike Candys 2012 Edit a video clip was published on ClipFish on 23 August 2012. The single reached number 54 in the German charts, number 46 in the Austrian charts and number 37 in the Swiss charts. His first tour, Luca Hänni & Band - Live on Tour, began in Hoyerswerda on 1 October 2012. It included 32 concerts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and ended in Dresden on 20 November. Due to high demand in Switzerland additional concerts in Zurich, Uetendorf and Amriswil were recognized. Hänni played three concerts in Zurich and two in Uetendorf.

In March 2013, Hänni received the music award ‘Swiss Music Awards’ in the category ‘Best Breaking Act National’. In the same month he was nominated for the German music award ‘Echo’ in the category Newcomer International. Hänni also received a nomination for the Kids' Choice Award in the category favorite star: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. He won this international audience award and got it handed over in the awards ceremony in Los Angeles on 23 March 2013.

Other work

In June 2012, the Swiss trading company ‘Migros’ engaged Luca Hänni for its men's underwear brand Nick Tyler as a testimonial. In this context the company published a series of underwear for man with the name Nick Tyler by Luca, for which Hänni worked as a model. Moreover, there was a women’s collection which was called Luca's Favorite Edition. The cooperation with Migros also involved commitment in the context of support for children, as for example during the Grand Prix Migros-finals on April 4, 2014 in Arosa for Hanni.

On 24 August 2012, Hänni opened the auditions to tenth season of Deutschland sucht den Superstar in his native city Bern, for which he was seen in an advertising campaign since July 2012. In December 2012, Hänni presented the RTL II program BRAVO The Hits 2012 - The Show. At the 11th Wok World Championships 2013 in Oberhof, Hänni was a driver and finished at 6th place with the Swiss four-man wok team. The last project was with the Swiss DJ Christopher S in 2014. The project had several club appearances and toured through Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The album Dance Until We Die, which was released in April, reached No. 6 in the Swiss album charts. A piano version of the song ‘I can’t get no sleep’ (only Luca and the piano), from the current album, was released worldwide in early September 2014. In close cooperation with the DKMS (German Bone Marrow Donor Center), which he supports, Hänni wrote and published the song "Only One You" in November 2014, all proceeds will go to the DKMS. In November 2014, he supported Migros with a Christmas song, together with other Swiss musicians.

The song "Ensemble" is a charity project and supports the needy in Switzerland. On 21 November 2014, the video was released and reached platinum status. In November/December 2014 Luca participated in the new Swiss evening show ‘Battle of the orchestra’. All formations, occurring in ‘Battle of the orchestra’ were supported by a prominent and full-fledged team-member. This person was integrated into the group and sang or played an instrument in the musical shows. He supported the Lucerne formation BML Talents as a prominent member and won the title.

From mid-January to February 2015 Luca was in Los Angeles. In the studio 17 Hertz in the North of Hollywood, they produced his 4th studio album. The Swiss music producer Fabian Egger produced this album in Los Angeles. There is support of some music greats like Andre Merritt (Songwriter artists such as Chris Brown, Rihanna and Justin Bieber) or James Fauntleroy (Co-car of Justin Timberlake single "Pusher Love Girl").