Oli.P

Oli.P – real name Oliver Alexander Reinhard Petszokat – was born on 10 August 1978 in West Berlin and grew up in Berlin-Spandau. He started competitive ballroom dancing at the age of ten and won the Youth Team Cup of the North Rhine-Westphalia Dance Sport Association in 1995. His recording career launched in 1997 with the debut single "Liebe machen", a cover of hip-hop duo Vereinigte Arroganz. Simultaneously, he gained national TV fame from 1998 to 1999 playing Ricky Marquart in the RTL soap opera "Gute Zeiten, schlechte Zeiten". His defining hit came in 1998 with "Flugzeuge im Bauch", a rapped cover of Herbert Grönemeyer's 1984 original recorded with co-singer Tina Frank. The single hit number one in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, went triple platinum in Germany (over 1.5 million units sold) and remained the best-selling German-language single since 1975 until 2017. He received the Echo Pop Award in 1999 for the most successful national rock/pop single. His debut album "Mein Tag" was also released in 1998. Notable collaborations include a version of Donna Summer's classic "We Love to Love" with Thomas Anders (2008). Live, Oli.P is a familiar face at German nostalgia and party events such as the MORE AND MORE 90's Festival and the Weißwurstparty (2024, alongside Mia Julia).