Is Helene Fischer going global?

What do Helene Fischer and Elon Musk have in common?

They both have their sights set on Mars. But while Musk's plans need time to come to fruition, Fischer's new single with the Red Planet in its title is already making waves on terra firma for a couple of reasons.

First, "Vamos a Marte" (Let's fly to Mars) is the German pop star's first single after a four-year hiatus. And second, her duet partner is Puerto Rican superstar Luis Fonsi, whose own fame reached stratospheric heights in 2017 with "Despacito"  declared the most-streamed song ever according to Universal Music Latin Entertainment.

Fischer's single with Fonsi also has the German pop star traversing new territory as she sings not only in her native German but also in Spanish. 

Song with 'that certain something'

The two are no strangers to singing together though. In 2018, they sang Fonsi's hit "Echame La Culpa" — that he originally sang with Demi Lovato — at the Echo Music Awards. Later that same year, they performed "Despacito" together on her Christmas special, The Helene Fischer Show, on ZDF. 

"We already noticed back then that we harmonize very well musically," Fischer told the German daily Bild. Adding that often during recording she gets a sense of which songs have that "certain something." She said, "With 'Vamos A Marte' it was clear to me after the first few bars. Luis Fonsi immediately came to mind for the Spanish part. It just developed that way."

Fonsi was just as effusive about their duet: "It's such a great honor for me to be able to record 'Vamos a Marte' with the one and only Helene Fischer. She's an artist who can do anything, she's truly capable of everything. And it was super exciting to sing a song in German and Spanish — that's something I've never done before."

Between Earth and Mars

The song's video also bears the hallmarks of Fischer's performances: glitzy costumes, and acrobatic dance moves in tandem with her backup dancers. While Fonsi is seen on Earth at what looks like a beach bar, Fischer sings and dances in a capsule with space visible through a window.

Even the run-up to the video's premiere won free TV was not without its drama. Fischer had already created suspense by deleting all previous content from her Instagram profile and replaced it with a countdown to the single's release on 6 August — a day after her 37th birthday. Fans were treated to teasers, while Fonsi reacted to each post with flame emojis.

In a press release announcing the "spectacular video world premiere" on August 6, Universal Music Germany said, "For the first time on German television, a single premiere by Europe's most successful artist will take place on no less than seven TV channels" — referring to the free TV stable belonging to the RTL Group.

One of the channels, VOX, was airing its popular dating show, First Dates when it was interrupted by a clip of Helene saying, "I always wanted to interrupt the program." Then the video, which was marked as a "commercial show," was aired.

Some viewers didn't take too kindly to the interruption to regular programming and tweeted comments like "Is this an April Fool's joke, Helene Fischer?" or "I don't want to watch Helene Fischer right now.” The video also premiered on her YouTube channel, where fans were far more glowing in their reviews.

World domination next?

Siberian-born Jelena Petrovna Fischer's Russian-German family emigrated to the former West Germany when she was three and half years old. After completing high school, Fischer attended the Frankfurt Stage & Musical School for three years, where she studied singing and acting.

Her entry into the German pop scene in 2005 has since been a study of superlatives, culminating in her crowning as Germany's "Queen of Schlager." Schlager is a genre of German songs written to catchy beats, with often schmaltzy lyrics  — that sometimes end up being earworms.  

She has won 17 Echo Awards (Germany's Grammy equivalent) and record certifications say that she has sold at least 15 million records. In June 2014, her multi-platinum 2013 album, Farbenspiel, became the most downloaded album ever by a German artist and is currently the sixth-bestselling album of all time in Germany.

Her signature song "Atemlos durch die Nacht" (Breathless through the night) was the bestselling song in Germany in 2014 and is, is amongst others, a wedding reception party staple.

She has had the best-selling album of the year in Germany five times, and she caught international attention when Forbes ranked her No. 8 in its Top 10 list of "The World's Highest-Paid Women in Music 2018" edging out Celine Dion and Britney Spears. She was the only non-English singer on the list.

So are there language crossover plans with a little help of Fonsi's commercial clout in the U.S. and Latin America? "Above all, I wanted to record a great song with Luis — without any ulterior motives. I deliberately sing my part mostly in German," she told Bild, while dismissing chatter about her plans to move to the U.S. to possibly boost an international career.

"I have my audience in Germany and in our neighboring countries. That question doesn't even arise for me at the moment."

Picture gallery by Katharina Abel