Ikke Hüftgold

German singer and music producer Matthias Distel, better known by his stage name Ikke Hüftgold, was born on September 17, 1976, in Limburg an der Lahn. Between 1993 and 2006, he performed as the frontman of various rock bands. Starting in 2007, Matthias Distel primarily wrote and produced children’s radio plays. After losing a bet, the artist turned his attention to party pop songs. With his very first single “Drinking Sucks, But We Do It Anyway”, he made the leap to Mallorca. On Germany’s party island, Ikke Hüftgold began performing regularly at the Bierkönig starting in 2009. He achieved his breakthrough in 2014 with the Ballermann hit “Big Tits, Potato Salad”. That same year, he entered the German charts for the first time alongside Willi Herren with the song “That’s How the Gauchos Go (That’s How the Germans Go)”. Beyond his solo project, Matthias Distel also works as a songwriter and producer for Schlager singers such as Willi Herren and Lorenz Büffel. For the latter, he produced the track “Johnny Däpp.” It went platinum. Icke Hüftgold’s debut album *Ballerpunk* was released in 2016. In the following years, he released additional party hits such as “Urensohn” (2017), “Reiss den Hahn auf (Kein Problem)” (2019), and “Tief im Ozean” (2020). His second album Dicke Hits und Kartoffelsalat aus dem Märchenland was released in 2020. In February 2021, Matthias Distel announced that he would no longer perform as Ikke Hüftgold until further notice in order to focus on a career as a rock musician. On November 26, 2021, Distel, together with Felix Lobrecht and Tommi Schmitt as the fictional Ballermann trio Die Sacknähte, released the song “Unten kommt die Gurke rein”, which reached No. 48 on the German charts. The song is based on audio clips from the podcast Gemischtes Hack by Felix Lobrecht and Tommi Schmitt. All proceeds from sales go to maritime rescue efforts in the Mediterranean. In 2023, Ikke Hüftgold participates in the German preliminary round for the Eurovision Song Contest with the track “Lied mit gutem Text”. Finishing in second place, he narrowly misses out on victory. Over the course of the year, Ikke Hüftgold announces his retirement as a party-hit singer. He declares that his album Nummer Eins, released at the end of the year, will be his last. With this, the artist achieves his first number-one hit in Germany. In June 2024, another album is released to coincide with the European Soccer Championship. “Mach ihn rein” reaches No. 8 in Germany.