Alexander Klaws

He has an older sister, Melanie (born 1980).

He was an avid football player and still plays soccer on charity teams whenever he finds the time.

Klaws's musical gifts became apparent when he was still in elementary school.

He made his first television appearance at the age of 10, performing Haddaway's "What Is Love" on a national TV show for children.

By the time he was 13, he was taking vocal and piano lessons to strengthen his voice.

Alexander Klaws (born 3 September 1983) is a German singer, songwriter, actor, and television host.

Klaws ventured into acting in the mid-2000s, making his stage debut.

In 2002, Klaws was encouraged by his family and friends to audition for the debut season of the reality television series Deutschland sucht den Superstar.

Although he was considered as one of the more inconspicuous top ten finalists at the very beginning of the show, he was able to boost his popularity constantly with standout performances of Robbie Williams' "Angels" or Michael Sembello's "Maniac".

It eventually went on to become the second best-selling single of 2002 behind "We Have a Dream" and was certified quintuple gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI).

In May he followed up with his debut album Take Your Chance, which saw similar success and spawned a second single "Stay with Me".

At the end of a year he entered the top of the charts again with "Free Like the Wind", the soundtrack to the German TV movie Hero of the Gladiators.

He rose to fame in 2003 after winning the debut season of the television series Deutschland sucht den Superstar, the German Idol series adaptation.

His debut single "Take Me Tonight" topped the German and Swiss Singles Charts and became the third-best-selling single of 2003 in Germany.

Klaws's debut studio album, Take Your Chance (2003), also debuted at number one on German Albums Chart.

Klaws went on to win the competition on 8 March 2003, earning 70.1% of the votes against runner-up Juliette Schoppmann and without being sent into the bottom three throughout the season.

Immediately after winning DSDS, Klaws was signed to a record deal with Sony BMG, while jury member Dieter Bohlen was consulted to produce his debut album on the company.

On 17 March 2003 his debut single, "Take Me Tonight" was released.

The song was performed by Klaws during the season finale of DSDS.

The song subsequently debuted at number 1 in Germany and Switzerland.

On 25 December 2003, Klaws participated in the television special competition World Idol in London along the inaugural winners of the several Idol television series around the world.

He was contractually obligated to participate, and performed Michael Sembello's "Maniac".

The original version of the duet, "Alles" was released to promote the RTL television film Hero of the Gladiators (2003).

He followed it with his second number-one album Here I Am (2004) and has since released four further albums, including his latest effort Auf die Bühne, fertig, los! (2015).

Several songs from these albums became hit singles on the pop charts, including the number-one hit "Free Like the Wind" as well as the top ten entries "Behind the Sun", "Sunshine After the Rain", and "Stay with Me".

On 1 January 2004 he finished ninth in the competition.

Here I Am, Klaws's second album, was released in July 2004.

A musical continuation of his commercially successful debut, he worked with a small number of new collaborators on the album apart from Bohlen, including Yak Bondy, Ingo Politz, and Brix.

Like its predecessor, the album debuted atop the German Albums Chart and reached the top ten in Austria and Switzerland, but it ultimately failed to live up to the overwhelming success of his debut album.

In spite of this, the album managed to snag Klaws another three hit singles, including the top five hits "Behind the Sun" and "Sunshine After the Rain" as well as the top 20 entry "Here I Am".

Also in 2004, Klaws was cast in a supporting role in an episode of the German television series Das Traumhotel, filmed in Bali and broadcast the following year.

In March 2005, he recorded and released the duet "All (I Ever Want)", an English version of the 3 Musketiers theme song featuring vocals from German singer Sabrina Weckerlin.

Immediately after his study at the "Joop van den Ende Academie" debut at the Berlin Theater des Westens in 2006, playing the role of Alfred in the musical remake of the horror-comedy film Dance of the Vampires.

He has since led several productions, having appeared as Tarzan in Tarzan, Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, Tony in Saturday Night Fever, and Sam in Ghost the Musical.

The English version of the song peaked at number 12 on the German Singles Chart was later included on his third album, Attention! (2006).

Recorded after a short-living hiatus from recording in which she had studied song and acting at the Joop van den Ende Academie in Hamburg, it marked a departure from Klaws's previous work with Bohlen, who gained no credit on the record.

Instead, Klaws consulted a wider range of producers to work with him on the album, including Terri Bjerre, Thorsten Brötzmann, and Ivo Moring, who took his work further into the pop rock genre.

In 2008, he originated the role of Lars Hauschke in the Sat.1 telenovela Anna und die Liebe.

In 2013, Klaws hosted the music programme Goldschlager – Die Hits der Stars on Sat.1 Gold; the following year, he won the seventh season of the dance contest Let's Dance.

Klaws was born in Ahlen and raised in nearby Sendenhorst to Richard and Hildegard Klaws.