(English)
Mehrzad Marashi; (born 20 September 1980 in Iran)is an Iranian-German singer and winner of Deutschland sucht den Superstar season 7.

Beginnings

Born in Tehran where his father was in the military profession during the Shah’s regime. The family family immigrated to Germany for political reasons when Mehrzad was just six residing in Hamburg. At 13 he joined a gospel choir and eventually took classes at the Sängerakademie studying voice and piano. Taking the stage name Marasco, he released self-produced recordings finding some limited success. He recorded “She’s Gone”, a cover of “She’s Like the Wind” from Patrick Swayze. He opened a karaoke bar, but the business went bankrupt and he had to live on welfare for a while.

Deutschland sucht den Superstar

Marashi auditioned to the seventh season of the show Deutschland sucht den Superstar initially under his stage name Marasco. Very notably during a live show on DSDS on April 10, 2010, during the Top 3 stage, Marashi proposed to marry his girlfriend. The two married on 7 July 2010 in Hamburg. He eventually won against other finalist Menowin Fröhlich with 56.4% of the public vote.

After DSDS

After his win in April 2010, he released “Don’t Believe” written and produced by Dieter Bohlen. It topped the German, Austrian and Swiss charts. It was also a hit in the Netherland. The follow-up was “Sweat” a cover of Inner Circle’s “Sweat (A La La La La Long)” also featuring season 4 winner Mark Medlock. Both were from his debut album New Life that was released on 11 June 2010. A planned tour was cancelled due to low demand. In February 2011, Marashi opened a dance school and established a recording studio both in Hamburg.

On 24 June 2011, he released a second album Change Up with “Beautiful World” as a single, both with no success. He later released “Eine Nacht”, his own composition. In 2012 he also founded his own label M8. In 2013, at age 32, he was also involved in Promi-Boxen (celebrity boxing) with an initial fight against Daniel Aminati.

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(Deutsch)
Mehrzad Marashi wurde am 2