AnnenMayKantereit are a four piece band from Cologne, Germany, seen in the video below playing an awesome version of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”. You can’t not love these guys, their vocals, arrangement and delivery is spectacular.
The band is named after the founding three members – using all three of their surnames. They formed the band whilst at school together in 2011. The students of Schiller-Gymnasium school in Sülz didn’t know how successful their musical venture would eventually become.
Annen, May and Kantereit started out performing on the streets of Cologne, Germany. There are videos recorded of the band performing without microphones which did really well on social media. During one of their practice sessions, they were joined by Lars Lötgering – a double bass player. The video below is a very unique version of Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”.
Their first album was released in 2013. The album was self recorded and their launch party took place in Gebäude 9 in Cologne. Part of the album was actually recorded on the streets, but these recordings were later removed. They now publish content on YouTube and other social media platforms. Malte Huck has been the bassist of the band since August 2014 but has since left the group in 2020.
The band toured Germany after releasing their song “Wohin du gehst” along with a music video. They went on to perform at some large festivals including the Appletree Garden Festival, the Reeperbahn Festival and the Open Flair in 2014. They also supported some big names during their tour accompanying Clueso and being the support act for the Beatsteaks. They were also finalists in the “New Music Award” of the ARD-Jugendprogramme.
The festival booking kept rolling in as the band performed at the Haldern Pop Festival and Rock am Ring in the summer of 2015. Toward the end of 2015, the band signed with Universal Records and recorded an EP called “Wird schon irgendwie gehen” at Hansa-Studios in Berlin. They went on the play sell out tours. If you want to see more from this brilliant band follow them on Facebook or subscribe to their YouTube channel