A celebrity crowd in the Media City of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in Leipzig: While it used to be mainly East German stars and starlets who attended the TV gala for the Golden Henne award ceremony, the show has long been an all-German affair.
After the latest issue on Friday at the latest, no one can claim that the “Henne” is primarily an Ossi number. Originally created to honor artists from East Germany, this time the audience did not honor a single celebrity from the East.
After all, East Germans then got a chance at the honorary prizes awarded by a jury. For example, the band City, which was founded in East Berlin in 1972 and is currently on a farewell tour, also played two of their hits (“Casablanca”, “Am Fenster”) in Leipzig. The bobsledders Francesco Friedrich and Anna-Lena Forster (honorary prize in the Olympics category) were among the honorees, as were the Leipzig “Alliance against Depression” (Charity category) and the fire brigade and the Friends of the National Parks of Saxon Switzerland (heroes of everyday life). In August, the comrades had been fighting forest fires in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains under difficult conditions for weeks.
The jury honored Nana Mouskouri for her life’s work. The singer, born in Greece in 1934, is known for songs such as “White Roses from Athens” or “Good Morning Sunshine”. Mouskouri, who sings in Greek, French, Spanish, English and German, among others, has been awarded hundreds of gold records in the past.
The prizes chosen by the audience in various categories went to the singer Sophia, her colleague Roland Kaiser and the musician Michael Patrick Kelly, among others. 600 invited guests followed the show, which was moderated by Florian Silbereisen. He had already gotten the “hen” three times himself.
In addition to Kelly and Kaiser, the audience also paid tribute to actress Svenja Jung. Born in Rhineland-Palatinate, she appeared in the film “The Peacock” together with the actors Jürgen Vogel and Tom Schilling this year. She was previously awarded the Bavarian Film Prize, among others.
Roland Kaiser is happy about his second hen
Roland Kaiser was delighted to receive the award in the Entertainment category for his Kaisermania concert series. Every year, tens of thousands of fans flock to the banks of the Elbe in Dresden for the shows. The singer, who was born in West Berlin, was the only winner of the evening who had already won the sculpture in the form of a chicken in the past. In 2014, the 70-year-old was awarded the Golden Hen for his life’s work.
In the sports category, the women’s track foursome was well-liked by the audience ahead of Eisbären Berlin, the soccer players from RB Leipzig, the handball team from SC Magdeburg and ahead of dressage rider Jessica von Bredow-Werndl.
The prize is awarded jointly by the magazine “Super Illu” and MDR television. The award commemorates the GDR entertainer Helga “Henne” Hahnemann, who died in 1991. As in the previous year, the award ceremony was held in front of an audience again this year. In addition to acceptance speeches, the gala program also included performances by many musicians – including the German band Alphaville, founded in 1983, and singer Kelvin Jones.
Stefan Kobus, “Super Illu” editor-in-chief and host of the Goldenen Henne, then summed up the situation by awarding Germany’s largest audience award in the past Corona years, despite all the challenges of the pandemic. “This year, the pandemic has been joined by other serious crises. Nevertheless, we want to send a positive signal with the Golden Henne, especially in these turbulent and unsettling times.”
