28 Apr 2019

Nick Ferretti: The Kiwi musician who got to the finals of German Idol

From Sunday Morning, 10:37 am on 28 April 2019

Unless you live in Nelson and remember him busking at the local markets, you may not have heard of young Kiwi singer-songwriter Nick Ferretti.

Strangely enough though, a lot of Germans now do.

New Zealander Nick Ferretti has made the 2019 German Idol final. The final takes place in Cologne overnight.

New Zealander Nick Ferretti has made the 2019 German Idol final. The final takes place in Cologne overnight. Photo: Supplied

Nick was spotted by Dieter Bohlen while he was busking in Majorca, where he now lives with his wife and kids.

“I didn’t even know that he’s gone past, I just heard a little bit of commotion and looked over and nothing really happened and then I saw later on my Instagram account that this Dieter Bohlen guy had put a video on there saying, ‘wow this guy could win superstar’.”

Magazines were suddenly interested in talking to him and it was only then he realised Bohlen is quite a big deal – he’s part of the band Modern Talking.

“It’s just insane, he’s got more hits in Germany than The Beatles does, that’s why they call him the pop titan.”

Bohlen invited him onto his show Deutschland sucht den Superstar (German Idol) and he just wrapped up the final in Cologne.

From an early stage in the competition, German judges were impressed. Although there was a bit of a pushback before he sung in English and wasn’t a local.

He didn’t take it out in the end, but he says he gave it his all.

From here, Ferretti wants to get in the studio and record an album.

“Strike while the iron’s hot,” he says.

“I just want to keep writing music, I just want to keep playing, whether it’s weddings, on the street, venues, wherever, I just want to keep doing it.

Before he left New Zealand, Ferretti was travelling the country in a house bus with his wife and young son.

“When he was about one month old we left in this green big old Bedford, called it Bang Bang, and we headed off down south and I just played music in the little towns and survived that way, it was just a fantastic way to, you know, we were in a little bubble there.”

They first headed to Australia and then to Europe, but as the kids got older, they decided to settle down in Majorca.

 “I’ve always had the ambition to sing, that’s my dream – to sing my own music in front of an audience, a big audience.”