Helmut Lotti is a wanderer between worlds. For over 25 years he has successfully overcome all genre and cultural boundaries as an innovative music ambassador. In 2016, after a musical hiatus, the international superstar celebrates his long-awaited return with "The Comeback Album". And in 2017 he goes on tour again.
Helmut Lotti's career is a round dance of superlatives: With "Helmut Lotti Goes Classic" his international breakthrough started in 1995 and he conquered the world with it. The album achieved gold status straight away and since then he has sold over 13 million records, for which lavish TV specials were produced in South Africa, Siberia and Mexico and which achieved a total of fifteen gold, six platinum and three triple gold awards. The coveted Belgian has won a Golden Camera and two ECHO Awards, among others, and has sung duets with Andrea Bocelli, Montserrat Caballé, Eros Ramazzotti, Placido Domingo, Sarah Brightman and Cliff Richard, selling out the ranks at Brussels' Vorst Nationaal, Cologne's Lanxess Arena, Vienna's Konzerthaus, the famous L'Olympia in Paris, New York's Avery Fisher Hall and Sydney's Lyric Theatre. So one can confidently speak of a flawless world career.
Lotti's personal highlights, however, are of a different nature: "At the World Music Awards in Monaco in 1996, Céline Dion looked at me from the auditorium during my rehearsal as if I were an alien. Later she came up to me and said 'Boy, I don't know who you are, but you're magnificent. Take care of yourself'. What a compliment! A year later Placido Domingo was sitting backstage at the piano at an event, called me over and asked 'Helmut, do you know this?' When I nodded, he just said: 'Come on, sing!' - and accompanied me on the wonderful song 'Parlami d'amore Mariù'. My professional career went fantastically; I especially have great memories of the television specials. I got to know many countries and people and today I am perhaps most proud of the album 'Out Of Africa' because the music on it was so special and really new. It's a crossover between stripped down tribal compositions and symphonic arrangements." "Out Of Africa" stayed in the German charts for almost a year and is Helmut Lotti's most successful album in Germany to date.
During his tour in Australia in 2011, the singer had surprisingly decided to take a creative break. "Things were going very well, I was feeling good physically - but I wondered, 'Was that it now?' It wasn't burnout, it was more a need for some kind of balance. I needed time to think and answer the question of whether I really still wanted to be Helmut Lotti." In the following years, Lotti produced only one album for the Dutch market and did not tour. He concentrated his activities in Belgium, did only selected gigs and got involved as a "Goodwill Ambassador" for UNICEF. "It took a long time, I was busy after all - but at some point it started to tingle again. I missed the stage and realized that my career was a gift.
At the same time, it occurred to me that I wanted to give back to a world that seems to be on fire. I wanted to make an album that spreads hope and gives comfort." Out of the clear decision: "Yes, I want to be Helmut Lotti" grew the consequence to arrange "The Comeback Album" deliberately big. "More orchestra, more brass - I wanted to put even more Lotti in it, so to speak. About 100 people contributed to the album. The collaboration with British musician, composer and arranger Andrew Powell (John Miles and Kate Bush, among others) was also crucial. He played with The Alan Parsons Project for a long time and did harmony work on many of their tracks. My producer is a big fan of his and so we asked him to collaborate on the album."
Helmut Lotti chose the album's cover versions carefully and along a common thread: "They all have to do with different forms of faith, love and hope. With the music, I want to give people the opportunity to put themselves in a world where they can draw strength." The insightful introduction to the theme is the first single "Faith, Hope And Love" - with Lotti's own lyrics. "My lyrics are about faith in positive energy. About love and inner strength. And about what a powerful life engine hope can be." The translation of the lyrics to "Insha' Allah" also comes from the artist himself: "I've thought a lot about religion: faith is something beautiful, but also very personal. So this is not about a political statement, but a simple question: can't the misery finally stop?" But the cover versions by artists as diverse as Leonard Cohen, Adamo, Simon & Garfunkel and, of course, his idol Elvis Presley also fit Helmut Lotti's musical ideas perfectly. With his 3½ octave voice and an extraordinary talent for embracing genres and moods, crossover maestro Lotti manages to create uptempo tracks with down-to-earth soul and gospel, and playfully add jazz and swing to challenging tracks. "I always try to create the most beautiful of versions. Of course, I prefer to sing the song that gets me the most applause - but it has to be interesting. Whether it's cover versions or my own songs: I only want to sing things that I like to sing. The fact that I get to do that - on RCA, the label home of Elvis, to boot - is very fortunate."
The musician, who is one of the fifteen best-selling artists ever in Belgium, is equally happy about his long-standing success in Germany: "I am very happy that
I have such a loyal fan base in Germany. During my time out I also got a lot of requests from German fans when I would be back. I can't
wait to finally be back in the spotlight with 'The Comeback Album' and to be back on the road live in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in 2017."
"The Comeback Album" will be released on October 21, 2016 as CD and download - already in September the first single "Faith, Hope And Love" will be released and among others on 21. May 2017
comes Helmut Lotti in the Rosengarten in Mannheim.
Text source and more information about this event: http://www.jahrhunderthalle.de/programm/kalender/helmut-lotti/16-12-2017-20-00.aspx
