Four Wins For Lotto King

North German sensation Lotto King Karl is such a hit with the Hamburg locals that he’s playing four nights during this year’s Stadtpark season.

"At the end of April he sold out the city’s 12,000-capacity Colorline Arena," explained Frehn Hawel from Hamburg’s Karsten Jahnke Konzertdirektion, which is organizing the annual run of summer shows for the 33rd time.

Lotto King Karl, real name: Gerrit Heesemann, is a local phenomenon and plays about 200 local club shows each year, either live with various cohorts or as a DJ and MC.

He also does the Stadium announcements at Hamburg HSV soccer team’s home matches in the national Bundesliga, where he regales the lager-loving fans in the local AOL Arena with hymns to his hometown including "Hamburg, Meine Perle" (Hamburg, My Pearl) and the chant-along "Hamburger Jungs, Hamburger Jungs, Wir Sind Alle Hamburger Jungs" (Hamburg Boys, Hamburg Boys, We’re All Hamburg Boys).

He made the national press and grabbed a moment of wider fame when he claimed to have won 42 million deutschmarks on the national lottery, which was the highest amount anyone had ever collected at the time.

It’s generally accepted the Lotto King made up the whole story, something that puzzled most of Germany but no doubt caused huge amusement among the local Hamburgers.

King Karl opens the 4,000-capacity park’s season May 16th and has further shows on September 15th, 21st and 22nd.

The impressive international lineup for the Stadtpark season includes Pet Shop Boys, James Morrison, Mando Diao, The Who, Peter Gabriel, Arctic Monkeys, Avril Lavigne, Steely Dan, and Norah Jones from mid-May to early August.

Sandpaper-voiced Hamburg soulman Stefan Gwildis, who had several unsuccessful careers with a variety of bands before hitting the big time with an album full of soul classics translated to German, is another local to get a couple of shows (July 7-8).

Apparently realising the futility of taking old Memphis soul lyrics and trying to make a literal translation to German, Gwildis has used his poet’s license to create versions that are phonetically nearer the mark, with "Sittin’ On The Dock of The Bay" becoming "Mitten Am Dock Nummer 10."