Coordinates: 43°38′47″N 0°35′08″E / 43.6465°N 0.5855°E / 43.6465; 0.5855

Auch (French pronunciation: [ɔʃ]; Gascon: Aush [awʃ]) is a commune in southwestern France. Located in the region of Midi-Pyrénées, it is the capital of the Gers department. Auch is the historical capital of Gascony.

Auch is a very ancient town. The name of Auch comes from the Aquitanian tribe that inhabited the area at the time of the Roman conquest in the 50s BC. The name of this tribe, as recorded by the Romans, was Ausci (pronounced [awski] in Latin), singular Auscus. Aquitanians spoke a language related to the old Basque language, and a striking fact is that the name Ausci seems related to the native name of the modern Basques, who call themselves Euskal (pronounced [euskal] in Basque).^{[citation needed]}

At the time of the Roman conquest, the native name of Auch, as recorded by the Romans, was Elimberris. Elimberris is itself a variant of Iliberri, where Ili- comes from the Iberian word iltir' or iltur (the "t" is mute) meaning town, city, oppidum, a frequent prefix in names of Iberian cities, and which was probably borrowed into Basque and also Aquitanian (cf. modern Basque hiri, meaning "town"). In modern Basque there is also the word berri which means "new", so Iliberri is often interpreted as meaning "new oppidum" (based on the fact that Aquitanian and old Basque are related). However, this interpretation should be taken with caution. In the south of Spain, near Granada, an area far away from the Basque homeland, there was an Iberian city whose name the Romans also recorded as Iliberi, and here it seems the name recorded by the Romans is the phonetic transcription of Iberian Ilbirir, which comes from the Iberian stem ilbi- (meaning unknown), and not at all from an hypothetical il(t)i- (town) and Basque berri.

Helene Fischer (Russian: Елена Петровна Фишер (Jelena Petrowna Fischer); born August 5, 1984 in the Soviet Union) is a German singer and entertainer. Since her debut in 2005 she has won several awards, including four Echo awards and three "Krone der Volksmusik" awards. According to record certifications she sold at least 2,905,000 albums.

Helene Fischer was born in the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, where she spent her early childhood. In 1988 her ethnic German family emigrated to Germany. In Germany, the family settled in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate.

After graduating from school, Helene Fischer attended the Frankfurt Stage & Musical School for three years, where she studied singing and acting. During this time, Helene performed on stage at the State Theatre of Darmstadt, as well as on the stage of National Theatre in Frankfurt.

During her time at the Stage & Musical School, her mother secretly copied a demo CD with six songs of Helene and sent it to different recording studios to gauge the reaction of professionals.

Andrea Berg (born 28 January 1966) is a German singer in the schlager genre. According to record certifications, she has sold at least 7,535,000 records.

Berg was born in Krefeld. As a child she would experiment with performing short sketches at carnivals and other celebrations. She later played with a band, and also worked backstage on stage set-up and drove the band's van. During this time she supported herself working as a nurse in the intensive care and oncology departments of a hospital.

Berg's musical career began in 1992 when the producer Eugen Römer obtained a cassette of her performing. He was enthused by her voice, and within a week the first tracks had been recorded for her debut album Du bist frei ("You Are Free"), which contained the singles "Kilimandscharo" and "Schau mir noch mal ins Gesicht". Römer also produced her second album, Gefühle ("Feelings"), which proved her commercial breakthrough. The singles from the album, "Wenn du mich willst, dann küß mich doch" and "Einmal nur mit dir alleine sein", were hits. The album also featured one of her most popular songs, "Die Gefühle haben Schweigepflicht".