What do Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez, Travel, travel of Desireless and Femme Like U by K. Maro? Difficult to cite other musical successes from the performers of these hits… This one-hit wonders, in the original version, are as triumphant as they are cruel for the artists, who unfortunately did not succeed in making a chart success the start of a flourishing career. Condemned to playlists “nostalgia”they are quickly accused of being out of date and experience a brutal fall. This is the fate that Eric Greff, better known as Helmut Fritz, experienced at the end of the 2010s. Fifteen years after his meteoric rise, the singer – who is now part of the tour I Got A Feeling – however, did not give up his passion. What happened to him? Tele-Leisure asked him the question.
How many singles did Helmut Fritz sell thanks to his hit It annoys me ?
“It annoys me / Everyone who wears bangs Kate Moss / It annoys me / The lipstick is over now it’s the gloss / It annoys me…” Of all the parties in 2009, this heady chorus made Helmut Fritz a true musical celebrity. A trajectory as unexpected as it is enjoyable for the man who gave up his sales position at BMW to make a living from his songs. “It wasn’t premeditated at all,” assures Éric Greff, his real name, Tele-Leisure. A song written in a handful of minutes, a caricature of Karl Lagerfeld as a character, and there he is, selling 500,000 copies of the song It annoys me ! Years of success followed, made “concerts in nightclubs, NRJ Music Awards, Victoire de la Musique nomination, promo and clubs in Canada, radio in Russia”.
Empty clubs, shadow work… The years after success
After a particularly intense period, the fall is harder. “Those are the memories of the good years, but then I also have much less pleasant memories with empty clubs, with the famous too many dates”, remembers the artist for Tele-Leisure. However, he continues to work, in the shadows: “I did a lot of other things. I did my pop projects on the side, which didn’t explode as much but which worked a little, notably Geronimo. I did artistic direction for record companies because I have a sensitivity to writing and image. I have written songs for very different artists. I reinvented myself all the time.” A true perseverance on the part of the one who does not give up on his dream, even if he decides to “kill” his character so exuberant: “At a certain point in what I was doing, Helmut was no longer important to me.”. To better revive it…
Why did Éric Greff choose to reprise the character of Helmut Fritz?
Because the singer is back. During confinement, he resumed his stage name and his hit, Covid version. And it works: “Without remaking a record, [le succès] incredibly come back on stage since I’m loaded with dates, clubs, festivals and then now there’s this tour coming up.” But he assures us: “I will never make another record with this character. So it has now become a stage playground, my livelihood too, because I prefer a thousand times to perform festivals, stages or Zeniths in front of 5,000-10,000- 15,000 people transformed into Helmut, a bit of a rock star and no longer a dandy of the time to really take it on, than putting on a suit again and reselling cars, never!” And Éric Greff also invites himself… in bookstores: in 2022, he publishes his autobiography, baptized Rockstar or nothing, in which he recounts his strange trajectory. Finally, he seems to have found his way. What can we wish for him now? “Stay ‘undisturbed’ because that’s what takes me forward and to always keep the desire. It shouldn’t go too badly!”
