Lars von Trier (Danish pronunciation: [ˈlɑːs fʌn ˈtʁiːˀɐ]; born Lars Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective – an avant-garde filmmaking movement – although his own films have taken a variety of approaches. His work has frequently divided the critics.

Von Trier began making films at the age of eleven. Raised by a communist mother and a socialist father in an austere environment, he converted at the age of 30 to the Catholic Church. Von Trier suffers periodically from depression, as well as various fears and phobias, including an intense fear of flying. As he himself said in an interview, "Basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except filmmaking".. His first publicly released film was an experimental short called The Orchid Gardener (1977) and his first feature film came seven years later with The Element of Crime (1984). Among many other prizes, awards and nominations, he is the recipient of the Palme d'Or, the Grand Prix, and the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

Max Raabe (born Matthias Otto, December 12, 1962, Lünen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a German singer. He is particularly noted as the founder and leader of the Palast Orchester.

Raabe developed an interest in the sound of German dance and film music of the 1920s and 1930s, such as the songs of the Comedian Harmonists, from seeing old films on television and from his parents' record collection. He formally studied music at the Berlin University of the Arts, intending originally to become a baritone opera singer. He and 11 other students formed the Palast Orchester in 1985. The ensemble initially used music arrangements that Raabe found whilst shopping at various flea markets. The orchestra worked for one year on learning these arrangements without any public engagements or performances. The orchestra gave its first public performance at the 1987 Berlin Theaterball, in the lobby as a secondary act, but with such success that the audience left the ballroom to hear the orchestra's performance in the lobby. Raabe and the Palast Orchester had a hit with his 1992 original, Schlager-styled song "Kein Schwein ruft mich an" ("No One Ever Calls, No One Has a Care for Me"; literal translation "No pig calls me"), a pop song in 1920s' style.

Annette Humpe (born October 28, 1950 in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a famous German songwriter, pop singer and record producer. Her band Ideal was one of the most important and seminal representatives of the Neue Deutsche Welle. In 2004 she returned as a singer with the project Ich + Ich after a longer break.

Annette Humpe spent her childhood in Herdecke and Bad Pyrmont, where she graduated from high school in 1971. After she had studied six semesters of composition and piano in Cologne, she moved to Berlin in 1974, where she started performing in various band. Her younger sister Inga Humpe is a musician as well and they have worked on various joint projects.

Annette Humpe gave birth to a son in 1992.

Humpe achieved first commercial successes in 1979 with the band Neonbabies, which was founded by her and her sister Inga. They disbanded in 1983. Already in 1980, Humpe founded Ideal along with Ernst Ulrich Deuker and Frank Jürgen Krüger (called "EffJott"). Among others, they also recorded songs originally performed by Neonbabies including the highly popular "Blaue Augen", written by Annette Humpe. The song remains Ideal's highest charting song and it was also covered by various artists like Die Prinzen,Blümchen,Yvonne Catterfeld and Gunter Gabriel. In the band, Humpe served as a songwriter and she performed lead vocals and keyboards. Ideal succeeded as part of the Neue Deutsche Welle being among the best-known representatives of the movement. The Ideal members were also close friends of the band Trio, for whom Annette Humpe occasionally performed as a backing vocalist, most notably on the number one single "Da Da Da".

Jürgen Drews (born April 2, 1945 in Nauen near Berlin) is a German singer.

In his childhood Drews lived in Schleswig. After school Drews studied medicine in Kiel at the University of Kiel, but dropped out of medical school to work as a singer.

Drews married first Corinna Drews, with whom he has one son. Since 1995 Drews has been married to Ramona Drews, with whom he has one daughter. He lives in Dülmen-Rorup in Germany and spends a lot of his time working on the Spanish island Mallorca.

He is most know for being a member of the 70's pop group The Les Humphries Singers.