Jay Khan with a new album and autobiography: So today he thinks about the jungle camp

Jay Khan (43) has exciting weeks ahead of him: The former US5 singer celebrates his 20th anniversary on the stage and brings his solo debut album “Damn it!” (from July 11) and his autobiography “Tariq and I – Love and Lies of my life” (July 17) onto the market. On September 20, Jay Khan also invites you to the “Damn!” Concert in the Schlager Cafe Düsseldorf, in which his colleague Anna-Carina Woitschack (32) will also appear. The two of them recorded the duet “You, you and I” together.

In an interview with the news agency Spot on News, Jay Khan talks about his professional heights and depths of the past 20 years, future plans and the great wish to soon become a father.

Jay Khan: It has always been my big dream since I can think. I always wanted to dedicate my life to music. So there was a clear way and over the years I have learned how much you appreciate it. Most young people don’t even have the touch of an idea what they want to do. And I didn’t have this dilemma.

Khan: As with so many ambitious singers from my generation, it was Michael Jackson. So everything started with him. When “bathroom” came out, it was the revelation for me. He was and is still the over -artist, the alien among the musicians, so to speak. But of course I quickly knew that there could only be Michael Jackson once. Then I looked for other role models and at some point I met the boy band’s phenomenon. Then I noticed: You don’t have to be Michael Jackson to sing and dance on stage. For me, the boy band segment was almost the earthly variant of Michael Jackson. I really wanted to do that and sucked this complete phenomenon, in the truest sense of the word.

Khan: There were many special experiences. I would say the first highlight, my first groundbreaking success was a songwriter. When my number “send me an angel” for the “pop stars” band overground in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland went to one, that was really the utopia for a 21-year-old boy from Kurfürstenstrasse in Berlin. A big moment was also when US5 won the Golden Camera. We did not win this important price in the national category, but pop international! And we, you don’t want to believe it, enforced against bands like Take That and the Pussycat Dolls. Third, I would name the collaboration with Robin Gibb, with which we recorded a remake of “Too Much Heaven” in the studio. I mean, who can claim to have worked with one of the Bee Gees?

Khan: Setbacks are included. After the one from the band at the end of 2009, I fell into a hole for the time being. Of course I wanted to continue making music, but it wasn’t that all the record companies in the world made me the farm and wanted to make me the new Robbie Williams. It is really a serious change if you drive for five years in such a through-tacted Express-D train like with US5 and then everything feels very quiet overnight. This is a change that very few get along with. And then I also had to find that I not only had to start again at zero, but actually felt at minus zero, because there were these biased attitudes towards me. I was labeled as a boy band type and ex from Lena Gercke and somehow I was not interested in my successes that have been achieved so far. I was fine financially, but somehow I was absolutely not fulfilled.

Khan: Yes. My first experience with reality TV took place on the really blatant, volume level. I certainly don’t want to boast or boast of it when I say that: But after almost 15 years it is still called the “season of all seasons”. And of course that has less to do with the format, but rather with the events and the dynamics that were created in this fifth season and somehow took the entire nation. Due to a pure brain clash and pure malworthy from a certain person whose name I do not want to name now, I was defamed and denounced after the show. What was petted for me was already violent.

Khan: This is a very ambivalent story. My career might have taken a different course without the format. But now I am very, very, very, a lot of patience, endurance, and fighting spirit at a point where I am satisfied with my life and with myself. I feel comfortable in my skin and think that this experience might be necessary at any level – even if the extent was already huge. But it has happened and I put myself in a lot of effort, sometimes even need, arranged and somehow made it out of it.

Khan: Above all with an overwhelming will and fighting spirit. But you also need a base, i.e. on a private, social level. And in that case these were my parents and close friends. They really kept me alive there. I really don’t know what would have happened to me without these people.

Khan: I am very proud of my native name. All of my friends who know me before my time at US5, of course, call me Tariq. So nobody would come up with the idea of ​​calling me Jay. There was actually a consideration of whether I also return to the name. But I have been known for 20 years under Jay Khan and that is also a brand in a way. It is so solid in the heads, which you can also see from the fact that nobody just calls me “Jay”, but all always use both names.

Khan: Of course, the four US5 remacking titles have a particularly strong meaning for me. It was also nice to sing in English after all the years. A circle closes somewhere and it is also a kind of homecoming, after 20 years. Otherwise “my star”, of course, which I devoted to my grandmother. And the single “Damn” was in the number one hit radio charts, which is not so easy to reach in today’s world. So that was also a small milestone for me. With “You, you and me” there is also a great duet.

Khan: We have known each other from various appearances for a long time. It was always a very nice and friendly relationship, which is not always self -explanatory in our industry. In the meantime we also have the same manager, and the two asked me. The song quickly felt and that is always a good indicator for me. When it flows, I know that I am usually on the right track. I am really looking forward to publishing the single and, above all, to perform them with Anna. We have already shot the video and that, I think, will also be a feast for the eyes.

Khan: Roland Kaiser would be a huge dream and absolute premier class. It also comes from a focal point in Berlin. I have love his music since childhood. I think he is lyrical and musically one of the best that the hit has had to offer for decades. But I also find Eloy de Jong exciting because he is the only one in this hit cosmos with which I have this boy band past.

Khan: No, we don’t. But that is not negative in any form. I mean when were we together? I think from 2007 to the end of 2010. That is half an eternity and of course you are not in contact.

Khan: Absolutely, I strive for that. My partner has also waited long enough. I think Jessie has no greater wish than founding my own family. As I always say, she is almost born to become a mother because it would be the greatest fulfillment for her. And I also love children.

Khan: I think I would certainly be a strict father, but not dictatorial or tyrannical. Strict, but incredibly loving.

Khan: If my child wanted to choose my way and the same passion – who am I to prohibit it? I always don’t understand that with others if you say that your child should never be in the music industry. Of course, I have also experienced incredible setbacks and know the hedges, danger zones and fall in business. But I think to prohibit my child’s dream for nonsense.