For the third ABOUT YOU Awards ceremony, the organizers not only incorporated the successes of past years, but also reinvented some of the show concept: the prominent jurors – Jérôme Boateng, Cro, Doutzen Kroes, Lena Gercke, Paul Ripke, Bonnie Strange, Stefanie Giesinger, and Riccardo Simonetti – accompanied the enthusiastic audience through the evening this time as presenters. Each of the jurors acted as an expert for one of the seven categories – Style, Comedy, Music, Empowerment, Newcomer, Health, and Idol of the Year – and, on behalf of the ABOUT YOU Awards Academy, presented this year’s winners with awards. These were secretly selected in advance by the jurors and the newly founded ABOUT YOU Awards Academy, which as a committee consists of all top 10 nominees, winners, and laudators of previous years.

The lucky winners of this year’s awards are Sandra Lambeck (Style), Sarah Harrison (Health), Natasha Kimberly (Comedy), and Eunique (Music). Brian Havarie was also acknowledged as the most successful newcomer in the social media world. The organizers managed to surprise everyone when presenting in the Idol of the Year category: with emotions flowing, none other than Riccardo Simonetti received the well-established honorary award from his cojuror Stefanie Giesinger. The second honorary award in the category of Empowerment was presented to two recipients: climate activist Greta Thunberg was honored for her dedication as the initiator of the “Fridays for Future” movement and Viva con Agua CEO Michael Fritz and Nikeata Thompson accepted the award on behalf of the nonprofit organization Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V. based in Hamburg, which with its creative campaigns and prominent supporters raises awareness of clean drinking water among people beyond the borders of social media.

But it was Lena Gercke who was behind the surprise of the evening. With an emotional laudatory speech, she presented the first-ever Special Award to her role model and the person who discovered her: model icon Heidi Klum was acknowledged for her “Business Achievement” referring to her impressive and unparalleled career success. For 20 years, the German supermodel has been an important figure in the international media landscape and throughout her career has not only achieved an impressive social media reach of over 7 million followers, but has also built a successful business empire.

The award ceremony also featured a variety of spectacular performances, including one by show DJ ESKEI83 and a surprise act by rapper Badchieff. The top 3 nominees in the Music category also performed live on stage: Mike Singer and Euniqe won over the audience with a duet, while Lea raised the bar with an impressive solo. The aftershow party kept the fun going in a relaxed atmosphere, presenting guests with another highlight of the evening: up-and-coming hip- hop artist Kelvyn Colt and singer Mogli performed their song Pangea for the first time. The song, which was created together with producer and DJ Thor Rixon. The captivating hit is the official single of the ABOUT YOU PANGEA Festival, where it celebrated its world premiere – the official release of the song is on 3 May 2019.

“With the ABOUT YOU Awards 2019, we’ve demonstrated once again that we can reach our target group across multiple media, provide inspiration, and generate real emotions – whether it’s with authentic stories, unique personalities, or extraordinary live acts,” says Tarek Müller, co-founder and co-CEO of ABOUT YOU.

In recent years, the ABOUT YOU Awards have evolved into the most important awards for influencers and social media personalities throughout Europe. That’s due in part to the unprecedented fusion of digital and TV, with which ABOUT YOU has reached more than 8 million viewers and over a billion media contacts over the years.

High-resolution images of the ABOUT YOU Awards 2019 can be downloaded here or access by getty: https://www.image.net/About_You_Award_2019