He’s one of Germany’s best-known hip-hop artists, and his concerts are always prime party time. Jan Delay – chart-topping performer, Reeperbahn festival regular and tie-wearer extraordinaire – will be whipping up a storm on stage at the d!campus and the new CEBIT 2018.
“Jan Delay will be our main act for the Wednesday of the show. With him on stage, it will most definitely be party time on the d!campus at the new CEBIT,” commented Oliver Frese, the Deutsche Messe Managing Board member in charge of CEBIT.
Jan Delay is the first musician to be confirmed for one of the new CEBIT show’s three evening slots. The organizers are looking to book further live international music acts for the Tuesday and Thursday evening sessions at the d!campus, the CEBIT show’s central outdoor interaction zone. By day, the d!campus will function as a platform for numerous digital showcases, an innovative and engaging street food festival and informal business networking in a relaxed yet creatively charged atmosphere. The program for the d!campus is being developed by Deutsche Messe’s CEBIT team in partnership with a 20-person curatorial board made up of representatives of large enterprises, musicians, artists, marketing and event management experts, architects, communication specialists and delegates from the Hannover City Council. Their common goal is to put together a high-energy, powerfully engaging program that runs from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and mixes digital business with festival fun, technical innovation with artistic ambiance, and new business development with sheer emotional power.
Jan Delay’s music brings together a range of different styles and genres, including hip-hop, reggae, dub and funk. His stellar musical career began back in 1991 when, at the age of 15, he and a group of friends formed Absolute Beginner. The band, a collective of talented young men with disparate styles, succeeded in forging their own unique hip-hop sound. The late nineties are generally regarded as the golden age of German hip-hop, and Jan Delay sees himself as one of the genre’s “guiding spirits of style”.
In 2001, Delay reinvented his identity as an artist with the release his first solo album, “Searching for The Jan Soul Rebels”. His second solo album, “Mercedes Dance” (2006) shot to the top of the German charts. His studio album “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Soul” (2009) and his most recent album, “Hammer and Michel” (2014), likewise both quickly climbed to number one. While Jan Delay’s music is far from being pop, it follows a long tradition of German popular music in that it takes its Anglo-American roots seriously, but has internalized them so completely that it can transcend them effortlessly. The result is something truly distinctive and new.
Alongside his solo career, Delay frequently collaborates with other big-name German artists and continues to release albums with his original band, Beginner – “Absolute” having been dropped from the name in 2003. His most recent album with Beginner came out in 2016.
Jan Delay has received numerous awards, including the Echo, the Comet and the 1LIVE Krone (1LIVE Crown). His live performances are legendary and always attract elated fans in their thousands.
Admission to Jan Delay’s live concert is free of charge to holders of CEBIT tickets. €50 reduced-price “Pioneer” tickets to CEBIT are available at www.cebit.de/#tickets until 31 October. After that, the price will go up to €100 per ticket.