Unheilig

Unheilig was founded in 1999 by Bernd Heinrich Graf, known as Der Graf, together with Grant Stevens and José Alvarez-Brill, who left the band before their breakthrough. The band combined the aesthetics and sound of gothic rock, dark wave and the black scene with radio-friendly pop elements. The first three albums Phosphor (2001), Das 2. Gebot (2003) and Zelluloid (2004) failed to enter the charts. It was not until the album Moderne Zeiten (Modern Times), released in 2006, that they were able to place in the German charts. The band's fan base continued to grow, so that two years later the longplayer Puppenspiel made it into the top 20 of the charts and was even awarded a gold record. Unheilig finally arrived in the mainstream in 2010 with the release of their big hit "Geboren um zu leben" from the album Große Freiheit, which took them to the top of the charts for the first time. The singles "Für immer" and "Winter / Winterland" made it into the top 10 of the German singles charts. As a result, Unheilig won their first of a total of five Echos in 2011 and were awarded the German Music Authors' Prize in the "Most Successful Work" category. With the follow-up Lichter der Stadt (2012), they even managed to reach number 1 in the album charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The two singles "So wie du warst" and "Wie wir waren" (feat. Andreas Bourani) also received a lot of attention. They were able to build on their incredible success with their eighth album Gipfelstürmer (2014), but announced their break-up at the same time. This was followed by their MTV Unplugged: Unter Dampf - Ohne Strom (2015) and the final album Von Mensch zu Mensch (2016), which also enjoyed great success in the charts. In 2021, the band released their third best-of album Lichterland, including a previously unreleased Christmas album called Weihnachtslichter and a live album of their farewell concert in Cologne on 10.09.2016. In February 2025, the Count announced the Unheilig comeback with a new album and a major tour.