the long and winding road to success…

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it all began in 1972 at bellaphone records in frankfurt am main. here a young and excited karin wirthmann set out on a life long journey in the field of special promotion, which, next to music itself, was to become her divine passion in life. her first experience as a promoter was with artists such as john kincade, daniel boone, ccr, nectar, which later lead her to global records in munich, where she found herself promoting an amazing repertoire of big celebrities and hits like donna summer (love to love you baby), joy flemming, hoffmann & hoffmann (himbeereis zum frühstück).

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4 years later karin decided to become an independent business woman and accepted the promotion comeback for gitte henning (freu dich bloss nicht zu früh). more offes for radio promotion followed shortly thereafter: number 1 hits: sandra (maria magdalena), falco (rock me amadeus), shakespeare’s sister (stay), david bowie and tin machine, as well as alphaville.

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after that she worked successfully with jack white and his internationally known artists for 4 years: laura brannigan (gloria), audrey landers from “dallas”, pia zadora & jermaine jackson (when the rain begins to fall), as well as his german speaking artists: andrea jürgens, tony marshall, severine and lena valaitis.

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in 1985 karin founded her own publishing company 'blue box publishing & promotion' (publishing, management and promotion), which was later changed to bluebox music & media. her first hit was ‘blue night shadow’ by the duo ‘two of us’, who had a hit in all of europe, and she managed the band for the next years. 

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in 1987 she discovered the band ‚camouflage‘ and the first songs ‚the great commandment‘ was a true hit in europe. so was ‘love is a shield’, which hit number 1 on the us billboard and dance charts. karin was their manager for 8 more years and worldwide pr- and concert tours followed. 

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then came the artist development of the german band ‚pur‘ (‚hab mich wieder mal an dir betrunken‘). more strong songs were released and karin worked with the band over a longer period. 

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between 1993 and 1994 karin magically sparked off an amazing comeback for the legendary bands ‘sparks’ (‘when do i get to sing my way’), which lead to a gold album award; followed by the cult groups ‘america’ (‘horse with no name’, ‘hourglass’), ‘air supply’ (‘news from nowhere’, ‘always’) and the famous film composer ‘mike batt’ (‘bright eyes’) from london.

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from 1994 to 1998 she worked with the legendary band ‘america’ in germany and helped them succeed with an amazing comeback, which came with the new studio album ‘hourglass’ and later ‘human nature’. the big german news platform ‘tagesthemen’ broadcasted a special report about their comeback in germany and they even received the highly coveted ‘rsh gold award’. 

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later coop with international clients: late film composer ‘maurice jarre’ (‘dr. zhivago’, ‘laurence of arabia’, ‘passage to india’) and ‘chip davis’ (‘mannheimer steamroller’) – most selling christmas album in the usa (14 million copies). karin accompanied maurice, when he received his star on the walk of fame in hollywood, where she also met famous actors tony curtis and james coburn.

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working closely with ‘peter maffay’ (tabaluga, maffay ’96) was number 1, awarding karin her first platinum album. shortly after promoting ‘jule neigel’ on peter’s own record red rooster records label.

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karin had successfully established herself in the deep waters of the music industry, because she always had a nose for a big hit. often, she proved her counterparts wrong with a hit, that they never ever thought would be one. she made it happen anyway. she never really wanted to be on stage herself, although she used to sing in a band, when she was a teenager. she did, however, end up singing a famous commercial for milka (lila pause - holladio).

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she later promoted the albums of famous german tv stars ‘uwe ochsenknecht’ and ‘heiner lauterbach’, and later ‘hubert kah’.

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towards the late 90s, in the middle of the boy group wave in germany, she developed and broke the formation ‘construction’ via sony music and entered the charts to a number 7 position and received the ‘rsh gold award’ again for one of her artists. she managed and promoted the group.

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at that time, her dream was still to have her own label with fine pop music, which she finally fulfilled in 2000 by teaming up again with her old friend with jack white production ag. she successfully signed famous british artist ‘howard jones’ and the german band ‘fools garden’ and achieved high chart entries.

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in 2002 she helped break german neue deutsche welle star ‘nena’ again with her comeback (20 years nena) radio and tv promotion and received a gold album award. she even sold platinum and the success just wouldn’t end there.

a while later karin was offered a very promising young talent from the uk, which had been produced and discovered by mike batt. the young female singer ‘katie melua’ took over Europe in a storm. again, karin raked in gold and platinum album awards.

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in 2006 she worked with famous dutchman ‘robert long’ (stark sein, feste jungs, schülerliebe, thorbeckeplatz), who she admired since the 80s. sadly, he passed on at the end of that same year.

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in 2006 karin kicked off promotion for famous german producer ‘frank farian’s’ musical ‘daddy cool’ and ‘30 years boney m’. the premieres were in london and berlin (tv and radio-promotion).  

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from 2004 to 2006 karin closelyworked with mike batt’s company ‘dramatico’ buiding up ‘katie melua’ in germany and worldwide, getting her radio powerplay, several of the best tv shows like ‘wetten dass?’ (zdf), ‘melodien für millionen’, and winning the ‘echo award’ in germany as ‘newcomer of the year’. accompanying her to china for the tv show ‘wanna challenge the chin’, ‘wetten dass?’ and to the olympic games in athens with zdf. 

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in 2006 karin promoted the famous band ‘toto’s new single “bottom of your soul” and the album “falling in between”. they were featured in the big march 2006 tv shows ‘wetten dass?’ and ‘hit-giganten’.   

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then, in 2008 karin started a long-lasting business relationship by working with the legendary band ‘foreigner’ and helped them with their comeback (2018 marked the 10th anniversary!) in germany. consequently, big tv shows followed ‘wetten dass?’, ‘hit giganten’, ‘verstehen sie spass?’(ard) and supporting new lead singer ‘kelly hansen’ in the band, together with ‘mick jones’. meanwile they fill big concert halls again and are celebrating 4 decades on stage in 2018. today karin enjoys a deep and wonderful friendship with the band since 10 years. 

  

between 2009 and 2018 karin has been promoting some of the world’s most renowned artists and celebrities such as kevin costner & modern west, tina dico, lost boy (jim kerr from simple minds), chi coltrane, paul carrack, joe jackson, tanita tikaram, jem cooke, malika, george mccrae, christopher cross, alan parsons, al di meola, blondie, chris de burgh, europe  kim wilde, alice cooper, status quo, deep purple and has achieved many golden awards. 

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…and the voyage never ends…