Marie Reim: She got this advice from her parents

Pop singer Marie Reim (24) starts the new year on January 3rd with her new album “Sternzeichen Liebe”. On her third record she can be heard off stage for the first time with her father Matthias Reim (67). As she reveals in an interview with the news agency spot on news, it almost didn’t happen. She also describes what her first appearance as a father-daughter duo triggered in her, what her mother Michelle (52) gave her on her career path and whether she will make a second attempt at the ESC.

Marie Reim: I think we’ve known each other for six or seven years. We met when I sang my very first single “SOS” with him. That’s how we got to know each other musically, but that was it for now. Then I came into contact with Daniel Sommer because he wanted to hold songwriting sessions with me. I was skeptical at first, but I accepted it and wrote my first successful songs with him. He also actively involved me in the clique of friends and we have all been friends for at least four years now, so much so that we even spend Christmas with parts of our families.

Reim: When it comes to songwriting, it’s actually like this: Tim as a producer is fantastic to work with. I have specific ideas about what the drums should sound like. I know exactly what the guitarist should play and conveying that to him instead of giving him creative freedom is difficult. With Tim Peters I just have to say: “I think there’s something missing…” and he knows exactly what I want to say. We finish each other’s sentences and he reads from my lips what I want. Still, it’s not like he produces and I write. We always work together.

Reim: Live it was one of the most difficult songs we both have ever had to sing. Especially when we sang it for the first time at the Palladium three years ago in December. We didn’t have a sound check beforehand, it was very spontaneous. When I came on stage after so many years of wanting to perform together, I was so scared that I was going to cry. I realized I could hardly hold it back. And then I looked at my dad and saw that the corners of his mouth were trembling because he was so emotionally affected himself. It was a great feat not to cry on stage at the same time.

It was only after “Sing meine Schlager” that we realized that many fans associated something special with the song and wanted it on CD. At that point my album was already finished. My dad didn’t want to sing it again either, but said: “Come on, let’s take the old tracks and you sing on them again.” But I didn’t want that because it had to be the way we felt since we sang it together. Then he heard the tracks I had sung and said: “You’re right, Marie. That’s our thing, it’s so emotional. I want to sing it from the beginning too.” You can hear a five-minute version on the CD – the way we played it live for the first time. This is something so special to me.

Reim: I like to get tips, but more from outsiders. It would be difficult for me if my dad said: “Marie, you have to change that in your song because then it sounds like a Matthias Reim song and not a Marie Reim song.” I have to stay true to myself and do what I feel. My dad said: “Marie, tell your stories. You already have a lot to tell at your young age. Sing exactly that.” That was the phase in which I rejected all songs from outside sources. I’ve been through so much crap that I can share a lot of things that come from the bottom of my heart.

My mom taught me that I should stay true to myself, no matter what people say and think. In addition to big fans of my parents who are happy about my music, there are also people who say: “You’ll never be able to match it, you’ll never be able to hold a candle to it” and “It’s a shame that you want to imitate it”. Then I think to myself: I do a lot in my life, but I don’t need to imitate anyone. I’m glad that I have so much from my mom because she has a wonderful voice and still looks like a bomb in her mid-50s. I have such good genes, I would never complain.

Reim: It’s not my plan to follow in her footsteps. I learned a lot from them and I sometimes include one or two songs from them in my program because I am very proud of my parents. I’m a real fangirl of my dad, I even listen to his music in private. If I tell him that, I think he’ll be ashamed (laughs). No, but he always said, “I hope she finishes school and then learns something and doesn’t go on stage.” Of course it is always a risk. And my mom would have supported me even when I was twelve if I had jumped on stage. But there was never any pressure, especially not in the direction of “You have to”.

Rhyme: Not at all. I would rather say: How proud am I of myself for making it this far? Yes, it’s a sixth place, but to be honest I’m the only one out of all the participants who ended up in the charts and whose song lived on for a long time. With the exception of Isaak, who went to the ESC and did a really great job. Unfortunately, especially in the German-speaking area, we haven’t heard from many of them anymore and for me it opened a few doors. I have been involved in many TV shows that will air in 2025. The preliminary round gave me a boost and I would definitely try it again. I would just be more likely to try it again if other people were making decisions. I like him very much and I could be wrong, but Schlager probably wouldn’t have that much of a chance with Stefan Raab, who is currently deciding.

Reim: I will always make hits, but I may expand it. Doing things that are more out of the ordinary but real are much more important to me than doing things that are considered normal. At the beginning of my career, many people said: “It’s so fake, it’s so over the top, is it real?” But at some point people understood: “Oh, it’s not an act at all, she’s a little bit over it and she loves doing it with all her heart.”