Formation Overground were formed in September 2003 in front of millions of viewers on the
ProSieben programme
Popstars – Das Duell ("The Duel"). The concept of the programme was to form a boy group and a girl group who would be rivals and compete for winning the third installment of the reality television program. Following the success of
No Angels and ''
Bro'Sis'', 12,000 applicants attended auditions in five German megacities in hopes of being selected for the show. Judged by rapper
Sabrina Setlur, choreographer
Detlef "D!" Soost and producer
Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, 27 out of 46 contestants made it from the local recall shows to
Orlando, Florida to get trained in singing, dancing and fitness. The judges continued eliminating two or three boys and girls each week, until a small group of finalists remained. In the end the four boys Ahmet "Akay" Kayed, Ken Miyao, Marq Porciuncula and Meiko Reißmann were chosen to form the group
Overground. While the show continued tracking the development and struggles of the new boy group and the final four members of the similarly formed girl group
Preluders, the judges decided to add a fifth member to both groups after failed recording sessions. Selecting from the semi-finalists, they chose Italian Fabrizio to 'complete' Overground. Their promotional debut single was a remake of
Color Me Badd's 1991 hit
I Wanna Sex You Up. After three weeks of touring and promotional appearances across Germany, the season's finale was held on Wednesday, 3 November 2003, where the boys polled enough votes to win "the duel" against the girl group
Preluders.
Career After weeks of recording Overground released their debut single, German-sung ''
Schick mir 'nen Engel on 10 November 2003. Produced by Triple M, the song entered the charts at number one on the German, Austrian and Swiss singles charts and became one of the most successful (German-speaking) songs of 2003. Their debut album It's Done'' saw similar success, eventually receiving two
platinum certifications. In 2004, the group followed-up with
Der letzte Stern and
Aus und vorbei, two further top-10 single releases. They also began recording their second album
2. OG, which spawned a collaboration with
Montell Jordan and a remake of his 1995 hit
This Is How We Do It. Both, the single and the album, failed to continue from the previous chart successes and the group was released from its label Cheyenne Records, which reserved the possibility to release another single. After a longer absence the group returned in autumn of 2005 with their fifth single
Hass mich. After disbanding, Ken Miyao released a single
Talk 2 Me with American rapper
Fatman Scoop. This was regarded as a commercial failure, peaking at only #89 of the
German charts. == Discography ==