Felix Jaehn turns 30: A name becomes a music project

Music star Felix Jaehn, known as a DJ, celebrated his musical breakthrough in 2015. His public career so far has not only included numerous hits and career successes. Fee, the new name announced by the non-binary Jaehn in April 2024, has also been on a personal journey in recent years.

From small village festivals to big stages

“For me, it started when I was 15 or 16 and started making music at friends’ birthday parties,” Fee said in the talk format “Süß und deftig” in April 2024, looking back on Jaehn’s musical beginnings. “Back then, I simply brought a playlist with me; music streaming didn’t exist yet. I noticed that I enjoyed it and bought my first controller.” Jaehn, who was born in Hamburg, founded a DJ team with three friends and his brother, and they played at graduation parties, village festivals and weddings in northern Germany.

After school, Jaehn went to London for a year and “learned music production, distributed mixtapes and started a Soundcloud channel as well as making bootlegs, i.e. unauthorized remixes.” The first ones included “Fix You” by Coldplay and “Another Love” by Tom Odell. In 2015, the work on Jaehn’s DJ skills paid off. The remix of the song “Cheerleader” (Jaehn’s reached number 1 in 55 countries) and the cover of “Ain’t Nobody (Loves Me Better)” (number 1 in 36 countries) became hits worldwide. In Germany, the latter was chosen as the summer hit of 2015. This was followed by numerous collaborations with well-known artists such as Mark Forster, Herbert Grönemeyer, Vize, Robin Schulz, Ray Dalton, Calum Scott, Katja Krasavice and Leony and appearances at major festivals such as Tomorrowland and Parookaville.

Process of self-discovery

After his musical breakthrough, Jaehn never commented on questions about his own sexuality. “I was still unsure of my identity,” Jaehn said on “Süß und deftig”. “In a cis-heteronormative world, unfortunately, people assume that.”

In an interview with “ZEITmagazin” in 2018, Jaehn spoke publicly for the first time about his personal sexual orientation. An inner “conflict” had repeatedly made Jaehn shy away from a committed relationship in the past. “Sometimes I was more interested in girls, sometimes more in boys.” Fee had always hoped to wake up one morning and be clear about “what I actually want.” However, that had not been the case so far, the star explained at the time about his bisexuality.

In 2019, Jaehn also set a sign of self-acceptance in music. “‘Love on Myself’ is a song that is very close to my heart because it is about self-love and self-acceptance,” . “In the past, as the lyrics say, this was a struggle for me. I’m glad that is no longer the case and I can share my positive energy and my story with the world. Hopefully I can inspire many others to love themselves and look within instead of looking for recognition elsewhere.”

On the album “Breathe” from 2021, Jaehn spoke about the process of self-discovery and the path to mental health. “I got to know myself. I was able to leave my panic attacks and anxiety behind me,” Jaehn said in an interview with spot on news in September 2021. “I took the filter off my head, see the world with clear eyes, with a completely different consciousness. Now I am a fundamentally relaxed and happy person.” In addition to meditation and a stay in a monastery, therapy also helped, including hypnosis. “Because I had such serious problems with my mental health, I was forced to find answers. Even though I experienced a lot of suffering and often didn’t feel well, I am now grateful for the time in retrospect. I am still a young person, but I have reflected so much for myself and have found my center. Now I wake up every day with joy and shape life.”

A name becomes a music project

Especially since 2023, the star, who has won the Bambi and the 1 Live Krone several times as “Best Dance Act”, has been showing off a different look on social media. In September 2023, Jaehn said in an interview with “Faces” magazine: “I have finally discovered a new side to myself. It took 28 years before I dared to dress like that, because the way I was raised and socialized, this style was considered ‘feminine’ and it always sounded like ‘I can’t do that as a man’.” But Jaehn can do it and feels good about it. “Of course, I am also aware that the risk of being attacked or even physically injured is much higher now because people in society can clearly identify me as queer.” Jaehn is therefore committed to raising awareness and issues such as racism, sexism and homophobia. “Unfortunately, many people don’t have the privilege of feeling safe in a club or festival environment right now. I’m really thinking about it and educating myself in the hope that I can help make a change.”

In June 2023, Fee wrote on Instagram: “It’s a great feeling to free myself from societal stereotypes that don’t fit me, and equally encouraging to know that together we can create a society for everyone. Just be whoever you want to be, as long as you let everyone else live a free, safe and happy life.”

In April 2024, Jaehn spoke about his own pansexuality as a sexual orientation, in which people do not pre-select based on gender or gender identity, and explained the aforementioned name development in the talk format “Süß und deftig”: “I currently prefer to use the name Fee because I have gone among the non-binary people and want to have a gender-neutral name.” The music project, however, remains Felix Jaehn, “that would be far too complicated to change everything. But if you address me, you are welcome to say Fee.” In self-reflection, the artist name has become “more and more of an artist project, an artificial character, a public person.” “I can separate that a bit from the private. Everything that goes into Felix Jaehn is also honest and authentic, but not everything has to go in and I have other projects too.” “dey/denen” are Fee’s pronouns or “people can also just use the name to show that they are trying and respecting me.”

And what were the reactions to Jaehn’s new appearance? “I noticed over the last year, when I started doing things that were read as female and making more political statements, that I was losing a few hundred followers with every post,” Fee said in the “Süß und deftig” interview. But that also eliminated most of the haters and their comments. “They’re just not on my page anymore, which I’m grateful for, because they have no place at my shows. So they can go.” There is still a lot of toxic masculinity in the commercial music industry. One of Jaehn’s motivations is therefore to “keep pushing and using the platform, to bring other people along too” and to take queer friends along on the journey, for example by founding a label. “I’m finding my position in the scene and I’m coping quite well with it.” In private, Jaehn sometimes has to drift into the “left-queer-feminist bubble in order to recharge myself and continue to grow.”

Felix Jaehn takes time to heal

On the day before his 30th birthday, Jaehn published a moving statement: For some time now, Jaehn had been “hiding the fact that I was not feeling well inside.” The musician only became aware of the “extent of the pain” after Jaehn sought professional help. The DJ is therefore currently “too vulnerable to perform.” All future planned performances have been canceled until further notice. It is “time to rest. It is time to heal.”