The Bundesvision Song Contest is an annual competition created by German TV entertainer Stefan Raab in 2005. For each of the 16 states of Germany a song is chosen by regional radio stations. The songs are performed on live television in order to find the most popular song in the competition. The TV format makes use of premium-priced viewer interactivity, with viewers voting for their favourite songs by phone or SMS. The show is loosely based on the Eurovision Song Contest and its rules aim at promoting German-language music by requiring that at least 50 percent of the lyrics have to be performed in German.

Stefan Raab wrote the music for the German entry in the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, Guildo Horn's Guildo Hat Euch Lieb!, and represented Germany in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest with Wadde Hadde Dudde Da?. Raab cast the German entry for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on his show in a competition he called SSDSGPS (Stefan sucht den Super-Grand-Prix-Star, Stefan seeks the super Grand-Prix star, mocking Deutschland sucht den Superstar – DSDS, the German version of Pop Idol). The winner of this casting, Maximilian Mutzke, came in 8th place at the ESC.

Nathaniel Dwayne Hale (August 19, 1969 – March 15, 2011), better known by his stage name Nate Dogg, was an American musician. He is noted for his membership of rap trio 213 and his solo career in which he collaborated with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Warren G, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg on many hit releases. Nate Dogg released three solo albums, G-Funk Classics, Vol. 1 & 2 in 1998, Music and Me in 2001 and Nate Dogg in 2008.

Nate Dogg died in 2011 in Long Beach, California of complications from multiple strokes.

Nate Dogg was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. He moved to Long Beach, California when he was 14 following his parents' divorce. He was the friend and partner in the rap game with rappers Snoop Dogg, Warren G, RBX, Daz Dillinger and was the cousin of Butch Cassidy and Lil' ½ Dead. He began singing as a child in the New Hope Baptist Church in Long Beach and Life Line Baptist Church in Clarksdale, Mississippi where his father Daniel Lee Hale was pastor. At the age of 16 he dropped out of high school in Long Beach and left home to join the United States Marine Corps, serving for three years.

Maximilian Herre (born April 22, 1973 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg) is a German musician who rose to fame as a member of the group Freundeskreis.

He married singer Joy Denalane. They have two sons, Isaiah Naledi (01) and Jamil (03). They separated in October 2007. In March 2011 they showed up at different events together and stated that they are back together again.

He is the frontman and a founding member of the hip hop group Freundeskreis and the Kolchose, a federation of artists from Stuttgart.

After the birth of his two sons, Herre decided to have a time-out after almost five years of success with the band.

Herre collaborated with the German rapper Curse for his album Innere Sicherheit. He produced his wife Joy Denalane's album Mamani. His own debut solo album Max Herre was released in 2004.